Overpowering Sexist Stereotypes

About 3,500 years ago, Hatshepsut became the only woman ever to reign as an Egyptian pharaoh.

Last year, Norma Kershaw became the only woman ever to be named an honorary trustee--trustee emerita--of the Archaeological Institute of America.

Hatshepsut did not allow others to dampen her ambitions.

Neither did Kershaw.

After raising two daughters and taking part in all the requisite volunteer opportunities of school and community, Kershaw earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees and forged a career as a widely respected lecturer on the archeology and art history of the Middle East. When Kershaw lectures to women’s groups, she likes to tell them about Hatshepsut.

“She was a powerful woman who ruled as a man. She had herself pictured in a man’s garments, but people still knew she was a woman. In Egypt, they believed in magic, so they were able to believe two things at the same time that seemed to be contradictory,” said Kershaw, 72, a Mission Viejo resident and founding president of the Orange County Society of the Archaeological Institute of America.

“Hatshepsut tried to be her own person. Still, she had power only because of her relationship to a man. That’s how our culture has been until very recently. You were either the daughter of some man, the wife of a man, the mother of a man, the sister of a man--now you can be your own person.”

*

Kershaw was looking for the power of knowledge when she entered Queens College as a 43-year-old housewife from Great Neck, N.Y.

“My husband said, ‘Why do you want to go to school? You’re doing fine.’ And it was true. I had a lot of friends; I was on the New York state higher education committee; I was active in the League of Women Voters; I was legislative chair for the school district.

“Things were OK, but I told him, ‘I just have to do this. I feel very incomplete.’ I wanted to go when I was younger, but we didn’t have the money.”

She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Queens College and went on to earn a master’s degree in archeology and art history from Columbia University, graduating at age 49.

She has taught and lectured ever since, a career punctuated by periodic archeological excursions to Israel and Cyprus. She’s helped found several archeological organizations, including the Long Island chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America in 1968.

“I was the vice president because women, in those days, were not presidents. It wasn’t until later that it was proper for a woman to be president. We did all the work, but we never questioned it. Finally, things changed.”

Kershaw became a sought-after speaker, lecturing for many years on newly arrived exhibitions to the Cultural Affairs Committee of the United Nations, speaking to schools and community groups, curating exhibits of her own and contributing to archeology magazines.

During the King Tut craze in the late 1970s, she gave lectures on the traveling exhibit throughout the United States. She also taught courses on archeology and art history at local colleges for 18 years before moving to Mission Viejo in 1990.

*

In Orange County, Kershaw and members of the 6-year-old Archaeological Institute of America chapter are keeping the past alive by sponsoring seminars and conferences. A seminar on the 50th anniversary of the Dead Sea Scrolls organized by Kershaw in October attracted an overflow crowd of more than 400 to the Jewish Community Center of Orange County in Costa Mesa.

She expects a similar turnout on Jan. 10 for an all-day symposium on “The Ancient and Modern Maya” at UCI’s Crystal Cove Auditorium in the Student Center.

People are passionate about the past, Kershaw says. “People want to know more about their own cultural background. Western culture comes out of the Near East. That’s the big thing these days in archeology, to remind people that Greece owes a big debt to the Middle East. It used to be that Western culture was thought to begin with democracy in Athens, then spreading to Rome. But now we see that it owes a great debt to Mesopotamia.”

From a historical perspective, Kershaw believes society has only just recently entered an age where women are relatively free to pursue careers and positions of power.

“I used to think when I was younger, ‘Who cares about the past? It’s finished. What can it do for me? It’s gone.’ But now I realize how much you can learn from the past. We’re part of a continuum, and in my own small way, I try to leave something of value for the people who will come after me, because I know they will come, and they will be looking.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Profile: Norma Kershaw

Age: 72

Hometown: Great Neck, N.Y.

Residence: Mission Viejo

Family: Husband, Reuben; two daughters; four grandchildren

Education: Bachelor’s degree (Phi Beta Kappa) in anthropology and art history, Queens College, City University of New York; master’s degree in art history and archeology, Columbia University

Background: Worked in advertising for seven years before marriage; earned both university degrees after raising two daughters; taught art history and archeology courses in New York at the Great Neck Adult Program (1971-89), Hofstra University Division of Continuing Education (1973-89) and C.W. Post campus of Long Island University (1982-89); currently on the board and executive committee of the Jewish Community Center of Orange County

Archeology: Founding officer of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA), Long Island Society of New York, 1968, president, 1977-81; guest lecturer on art history and archeology for the United Nations Cultural Affairs Committee, 1976-89; founding president, Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute, 1980; travel editor, Archaeology magazine, 1980-85; curator, “Ancient Art From Cyprus” exhibit, 1983, Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Fla.; trustee, American Research Center in Egypt, since 1987; archeological fieldwork in Israel and Cyprus, since 1970; editorial board, Biblical Archaeology Review, since 1974; founding president, Orange County Society of AIA, 1991; AIA lecturer and conference organizer for numerous academic and community groups

Honors: Hofstra University’s Conger-Patterson Award for Distinguished Teaching; honorary trustee: American Schools of Oriental Research, Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute, Albright Institute of Archaeological Research; Richard T. Scheuer Medal from the American Schools of Oriental Research; AIA Distinguished Service Award; AIA trustee emerita--only woman so honored

Source: Norma Kershaw; Researched by RUSS LOAR / For The Times