Dr. Carole Srole

Emeritus Professor of History, College of Natural and Social Sciences California State University, Los Angeles

 

Dr. Carole Srole is an Emerita Professor who became the first and only full-time woman in the History department at Cal State LA in 1984. Her passion for history began in 6th grade and blossomed over time, ultimately leading her to obtain a Ph.D. in History from UCLA. Dr. Srole focuses on women’s history, emphasizing working-class women, which was overlooked during her time of study. 

Out of the many achievements, she considers her students who became teachers as one of the many important accomplishments in her life. Although she retired in 2020, her drive for history does not stop here; she is currently writing a book on working women who married millionaires. Her other project focuses on spousal murderers, in which she uses newspapers as the base of her research. Through her dedication to education and passion for historical inquiry, she has left an indelible mark on our Cal State LA History community.


Why History?

Dr. Srole: “I liked sociology as well but I was sort of political… History explaining why we were where we were and sociology wasn’t. That is why I wanted to stay in history."

Dr. Srole at the 2017 CSULA graduation.

On her Academic Interests…

Dr. Srole: "The majority of women’s history scholars studied politics, which meant middle-class women’s politics. I was much more interested in the working class and in work...that was the much smaller group of historians."

Dr. Srole: “When I was hired at Cal State LA, they wanted somebody who taught women’s history and labor history and that is me… I loved teaching labor history or working peoples histories as we called it…it was one of the last classes I taught before I retired and it was always a fun class to teach. People really enjoyed it.”

What was it like being the first and only woman in the History department in 1984?

Dr. Srole: "That was common for schools to employe one or two female faculty. I participated during those years (and still today) with a group of female faculty teaching in the Western states. We meet once a year and read articles and book chapters on women’s history… The group provided a community, which we mostly did not have as the only women in our departments.”

Dr. Srole attending the doctoral defense for Julia Haager while on Zoom.

On her impact in the department...

Dr. Srole: "When we hired faculty, the focus was always on research. The older generation [of faculty] thought that if you cared about teaching, you didn’t care about research and that wasn’t true. I used to push all of these teaching questions and I would insist on a teaching time. People used to joke that if I wasn’t there…who would ask those questions. However, by the time I retired when we would hire, everybody was asking the teaching questions…"


Book: Transcribing Class and Gender: Masculinity and Femininity in Nineteenth-Century Courts and Offices 

In her 2009 book, ⁤Dr. Carole Srole explores the shift from male to female dominance in nineteenth-century American clerical work. A shift that reshaped class and gender identities. ⁤⁤Using diverse sources, Srole challenges the distinct work cultures for men and women, revealing how both navigated professionalism and middle-class ideals. ⁤⁤Her study merges cultural and social history to deepen the understanding of professional roles in clerical work. ⁤

Dissertation

Srole, Carole. “A position that God has not particularly assigned to men”: The feminization of clerical work, Boston, 1860-1915 (Massachusetts). 1984.

Journal Articles

Book Reviews

  1. Reviewed work:  Legacies: An Audiocourse on the History of Women and the Family in America , 1687 - 1870 by Public Media Foundation and Wellesley College Center for Research on Women . The History Teacher, Vol. 21, No. 1 (November, 1987)
  2. Reviewed work:  Ladies and Getlemen of the Civil Service: Middle-Class Workers in Victorian America . Reviews in American History, Vol. 16, No. 1 (March, 1988).
  3. Reviewed work:  Company Men: White-Collar Life and Corporate Cultures in Los Angeles, 1892-1941 . The Journal of American History, Vol. 88, No. 2 (September, 2001).
  4. Reviewed work:  Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Politics of Medicine in Nineteenth-Century America . The American Historical Review, Vol. 116, No. 2 (April, 2011).
  5. Reviewed work:  Demanding Child Care: Women's Activism and the Politics of Welfare, 1940-1971 . California History, Vol. 89, No. 4 (2012).


Dr. Srole received the Outstanding Professor Award (OPA) in 1994-1995.

"Carole Srole began teaching at CSLA in 1984. Her success in the classroom has inspired her to share her teaching approaches with colleagues; she interrupted work on a manuscript to devote much of the last four years to writing and speaking about teaching." -  The Emeritimes, Volume XVII, Number 2, Winter 1996 .

Photo: The Emeritimes: Official Publication of The Emeriti Association, California State University, Los Angeles, Volume XVII, Number 2, Winter 1996.

Dr. Srole Accepting the Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching Award from Linda Kerber. Photo by Chris Hale.

She also received the Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching Award in 2006. 

"The honoree for 2006 is Carole Srole (California State Univ. at Los Angeles). A distinguished historian of gender and labor history, Srole is also an accomplished, thoughtful, and innovative teacher, with dozens of pedagogical presentations and publications to her credit. Her commitment to building students' writing and analytical skills is clear in her challenging and original assignments and on every page of her syllabi. Her students and colleagues have already recognized Carole Srole's excellence in teaching, and the Teaching Prize Committee is pleased to honor her as well."

In 2020 she was honored for being one of the founding members of Women’s History Month at Cal State LA in 1999. 


Hester graduated CalStateLA in 1999, and earned her doctorate from the University of Oregon in 2008. 

"Carole Srole is the most important teacher and mentor in my life.  I met her my first term in the MA program, thankfully! Her course content was innovative, but what I really noticed was her exceptional teaching. She encouraged collaboration between students, advanced our academic skills, all the while helping us find joy in our hard work. Half way through the program, Carole helped me, a first-generation college student, apply to Ph.D programs. A few years later, in the middle of my Ph.D., my advisor fell ill and Carole spent hours mentoring me on teaching and the job market. She provided reference after reference. I haven’t seen those letters, of course, but my chair at Roanoke College said that Carole Srole should give masterclasses on how to write letters of recommendation. At Saint Louis University, Carole’s impact on my career remains as strong as ever. I won a teaching award in 2021 and my pedagogy rests on the foundation Carole so generously provided. I am grateful to count her as a teacher, mentor, and now a friend. She’s the kind of person that not only makes your life better, but the lives of those around you better as well. Congratulations, Carole, on your exceptional career!"

- Torrie Hester, Ph.D, Associate Professor Department of History St. Louis University


Bernier earned his Ph.D. at UC Irvine in 2002.

"Studying under Carole did more than simply help me earn an MA. She catapulted me into a PhD program with confidence and skills to succeed. My success as a PhD student would otherwise have been in serious doubt. And although she guided my own preparation for PhD study, I know many others she helped succeed in their own respective aspirations...Carole’s commitment to education was a success not only for me but for the hundreds of students passing through her classes over the decades. Those of us in that number were truly lucky to have encountered her as a professor, a mentor, a colleague, and a friend."

- Anthony Bernier, Ph.D, Associate Professor San José State University School of Information


Vong graduated from Cal State LA in 2005, and earned his Ph.D. in History at Yale University.

"Professor Srole has been a pivotal force in my career trajectory, shaping my path as a historian, educator, and museum curator. At CSULA, where I encountered many exceptional professors during my master's studies, it was Professor Srole's U.S. Working Class History course in 2001 that catalyzed my passion for history. She didn't just teach me about labor history and the nuances of social versus cultural history; she equipped me with the historian's craft. Under her guidance, I refined my analytical skills, delved into primary sources, engaged critically with secondary literature, and learned to weave historical narratives with precision. More importantly, Professor Srole honed my academic rigor, steering me away from the postmodern jargon of my undergrad years towards clear, disciplined thinking."

- Sam Vong, Ph.D., Curator of Asian Pacific American History Smithsonian Libraries and Archives


Paula graduated from Cal State LA in 2012, and earned her doctorate from Indiana University in 2019. 

"Carole is a true mentor. Her influence is an invisible force in the world promoting excellence in the scholarship, teaching, and presentation of the U.S. past. Through her student-centered teaching methods, Carole gave students like me the confidence and ability to search for meaning in United States history. Her courses allowed me to forge a personal understanding of how our inheritances from the past shape a whole host of contemporary debates. The insight I gained sparked an ethical commitment to the importance of sharing the knowledge I gained in my studies. I never worked harder for any instructor than I did for Carole. Carole made success in her course seem not only possible but also probable. She gifted me not only confidence in my ability but proof of my abilities through her rigorous standards and methods—and all of those T-charts! I will never get rid of the notecards that I created in her courses because they have come to represent how Carole helped me to see myself: as a capable scholar who already has what I need to be a force for good in the world. Twelve years after graduating with my M.A., Carole is still my mentor."

- Paula Taraknow, Ph.D., founder and principal consultant of History She Wrote, LLC


Haager graduated with her Ph.D. from the State University of New York, Binghamton, in 2022.

"Dr. Srole’s impact on my life has gone far beyond scholarship. Early on, Dr. Srole encouraged me to attend the Berkshire Conference on Women’s History and Western Association of Women’s History (WAWH), which meant that I quickly became engaged in a larger scholarly community (and as a bonus we saw each other from time to time during the years before she retired). When I finished my dissertation, I remember thinking about how far I had come from that moment in King Hall when I got the news about my PhD program—I had grown into a different person and was living a career I could have only dreamed about in an abstract way back at CSULA. No longer afraid of trudging through the snow or taking academic risks, I had become a confident scholar who had something valuable to contribute to my field."

- Julia Haager, Ph.D., Assistant Professor Department of History Western Carolina University


"Dr. Srole did not only guide me via independent study classes and capstone history research paper, but gave me the opportunity to practice and perfect my academic writing and research skills. I have carried the lessons she has taught me into my career as a librarian. I, literary, teach and break down the skills learned in her class room to high school and college students. The skills that Doctor Srole taught me in the classroom were not only transformative to me but to my students as well as when I head a one-shot a student can expect more than how to find scholarly resources but to also know how to read, write, and therefore engage with the material in a more meaningful way. For these reasons and more, I would be forever grateful to Dr. Srole."

- Collette Salvatierra, Academic Librarian College of the Canyons

Volume 51 Special Feature II Editors

Haley Castello, Perla Landeros, George Claude Macias, Penelope Neder-Muro, Lachlan Streeter, Eric Tolentino, Vicente Jesus Vasquez, and Peter Wassell

 

Dr. Srole at the 2017 CSULA graduation.

Dr. Srole attending the doctoral defense for Julia Haager while on Zoom.

Photo: The Emeritimes: Official Publication of The Emeriti Association, California State University, Los Angeles, Volume XVII, Number 2, Winter 1996.

Dr. Srole Accepting the Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching Award from Linda Kerber. Photo by Chris Hale.