Setting the Agenda: Jean Royce and the Shaping of Queen's University

Alexander D. Gregor is director of the Centre for Higher Education
Research and Development at the University of Manitoba and coeditor of
Postsecondary Education in Canada: The Cultural Agenda.

Written by a sociologist at Queen’s University, this well-researched
biography will be welcomed by scholars of higher education and students
of Canadian social and intellectual history. It encompasses issues and
topics ranging from working-class family life before the Great
Depression to a disturbing example of a dedicated professional who fell
victim to sexual bias in a male-dominated institution.

The major focus of Jean Royce’s life, and this biography, is
Queen’s University. She spent her career there, primarily in the
capacity of Registrar, an office that occupied a central role in the
life and governance of Queen’s. From 1933 until her forced retirement
in 1968, Royce was seen as virtually personifying the institution; she
provides a lens for understanding its development. More broadly, her
career exemplifies the place of, and attitudes toward, women in Canadian
universities. Setting the Agenda provides an engaging and well-written
case study of an emerging female middle class that was experiencing a
new form of social mobility through education.