| Jenijoy La Belle | |
| Alma Mater: | University of Washington, University of California, San Diego |
| Occupation: | Professor of English, Emeritus |
Jenijoy La Belle (born 1943) is an American professor emeritus of English literature at California Institute of Technology. Hired in 1969, she became the first female untenured professor in Caltech history.[1] She is known for her fight to attain tenure in the early '70s, also at Caltech. She was granted tenure in 1979.[2] She retired in 2007.
La Belle was born to Carlye (née Vieth[3]) and Joy La Belle,[4] a meter reader for Puget Sound Power and Light[5] and raised in Olympia, Washington.
La Belle attended Olympia High School. La Belle attended the University of Washington in Seattle, and received a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1965. In 1969, she received her Ph.D. in English from the University of California, San Diego, with a dissertation on the poetry of Theodore Roethke.
In 1969, she was hired as assistant[6] professor at Caltech.
"There was one woman faculty member -- in Humanities -- named Jenijoy La Belle who came up for tenure and didn't get tenure, although she had a lot more professional achievements than her (male) contemporary assistant professor, who they did tenure." — Glennys Farrar[7]
Olga Taussky-Todd, thefirst tenured female at Caltech, was a research associate at Caltech from 1957 to 1971, receiving tenure in 1963; later, becoming a full professor in 1971,[8] retiring from teaching in 1977.[9]
In 1969, La Belle began teaching at Caltech, making her the first female professor in Caltech history. In 1974, the English department recommended her for tenure. The decision was overturned by the division chair, economic historian Robert Huttenback. After filing a complaint with the EEOC and with the support of several notable academics, including Richard Feynman and Robert F. Christy, she was finally awarded tenure in 1979.[2]
In 1975, La Belle co-authored Night Thoughts or the Complaint and the Consolation Illustrated by William Blake with Robert N. Essick.[2]
In 1976, she published The Echoing Wood of Theodore Roethke.[2]
In 1977, she again joined with Robert N. Essick to publish Flaxman's Illustrations to Homer.[2]
In 1988, she published Herself Beheld: The Literature of the Looking Glass.[2]
(partial list)
Jenijoy La Belle siblings include brother Jan Joy LaBell, and sister, Jinx LaBelle Brown.[10]
By 2007, La Belle had lived in one of Dr. A. Schutt's 1927 Pasadena art colony bungalows for a decade.[11]
"All men have faces, but many women are their faces" — Jenijoy La Belle[12]