Department of Sociology

Barbara J. Bank
Professor Emerita

Barbara Bank received her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa and has been in our department since 1969. Her areas of specialization include social psychology, gender, and education.

Research Interests

I recently published a book that employs two levels of analysis to produce a portrait of an institution that I have named Central Women's College (CWC) in its final years as a women's college (1991-1997). One level of analysis is a social psychological approach focused on the undergraduate experiences of the students themselves and the student cultures that shape and are shaped by those experiences. The other is a more socio-cultural, institutional level of theorizing that draws attention to the college as a whole, especially to its organizational structure and official culture. An extensive data set has been compiled consisting of multiple surveys and interviews of students and faculty as well as an examination of official college records, histories, policy statements and other documents. Using that data set and a careful review of the literature, the monograph engages major issues in the sociology of education, particularly those surrounding the conceptual themes of gender traditionalism, careerism, and community, questions some of the revered wisdom about higher education and women's colleges, and suggests new directions for research concerned with higher education for women.

Courses Taught

Advanced Social Psychology
Seminar in the Sociology of Gender
Social Inequalities
Sociology of Sex Roles
Social Psychology

Recent Publications

Bank, Barbara J. (with Harriet M. Yelon). 2003. Contradictions in Women's
      Education: Traditionalism, Careerism, and Community at a Single-Sex
      College. New York: Teachers College Press.

Bank, Barbara J. and Suzanne Hansford. 2000. "Gender and Friendship: Why
      Are Men's Best Same-Sex Friendships Less Intimate and Supportive?"
      Personal Relationships 7:63-78.

Bank, Barbara J. 1999. "Some Dangers of Binary Thinking: Comment on Why
      Smart People Believe that Schools Shortchange Girls." Gender Issues
      17(2):83-86.

Bank, Barbara J., and Bruce J. Biddle. 1997. "Social Psychological Theories in
      Education" In The International Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Education,
      edited by L. J. Saha. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 32-42.

Bank, Barbara J. 1997. "Peer Cultures and Their Challenge for Teaching."
      In The International Handbook of Teachers & Teaching, edited by B. J.
      Biddle, T. L. Good, and I. F. Goodson. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer
      Academic Publishers, 879-937.

Bank, Barbara J. and Peter M. Hall (Eds.). 1997. Gender. Equity, and
      Schooling: Policy and Practice. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.

Bank, Barbara J. 1997. "Introduction: Some Paradoxes of Gender Equity in
      Schooling." Pp. 3-29 in Gender, Equity, and Schooling: Policy and Practice,
      edited by B. J. Bank and P. M. Hall. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.

312 Middlebush Hall
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211-6100
(573) 882-8331
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