The way Lillian Rubin became an Academic

The destiny of Lillian Rubin was not to become an academic. Her mother believed that she would work until she found a husband that would take her, while she bore children and maintained the family. Her mother, along with the rest of societal constraints believed that post high school education was for men. Rubin worked for wages that would go toward her brothers education and not her own. From her first marriage, her father in law, a self-taught man who was involved with politics and sociology became her first influence. She often listened to what he had to say, and became particularly interested.

During the 50’s she was inspired by lawyers who, despite their loss in handsome salaries and dignity from their profession, defended victims from “the witch hunt of the McCarthy era” (Hoschild 1975, p. 232). She viewed these lawyers as heroes who defended those who society had excluded. These dreams lead her to applying to UC Berkeley, and at the age of 39 she became a college freshman in hopes of becoming a lawyer someday.

Here at Berkeley she met Kenneth Bock who was her first professor who encouraged Rubin to look into taking graduate classes while she was an undergraduate student. She notes this encounter as an experience that “would soon change the direction of my life” (Hochschild 1975, p. 234).

Her first graduate course was in Phil Selznick’s sociology of law. She often felt discouraged in the course. Her final exam for the course was a blue book essay. Impressed with her exam, he suggested the notion of having it published. Rubin never thought of her work to be this high of a caliber. Months later, her paper was published in a University of Michigan Journal titled Poverty and Human Resources Abstracts.

She worked as Hal Wilensky’s research assistant for a total of two years. She learned a great deal of insight from this position mainly on social structure and institutions.

Sheldon Wolin and Jack Schaar who were professors of political science at Berkeley helped her understanding of American political theory, from what went beyond her learning outside of the classroom.

By 1977, Rubin was a research sociologist for UC Berkely in the Institute for the Study of Social Change. Rubin has taught at many institutions across the country applying her academia. Rubin has overcome the barriers placed on her by her mother, and achieved her own personal academic goals. Rubin believes that the timing of her work has influence upon her success. She believes she was at the brink of the break through of feminism, and that her work was becoming published at during a time that allowed such things to be possible. She believes that the second wave of feminism allowed her work to shine, and they helped to break down the social barriers for women. She believes that there were many intelligent women before her, but social constrains did not allow the success of their work.

Sources:
1. Hochschild, Arlie R. Women and the Power to Change. University of Nevada P, 1994.
229-247

2. Rubin, Lillian. E-Mail interview. 29 Feb. 2007