Scanning the last twenty-five years in the profession and in society, I wonder: what historian could deal with that time in any comprehensive way? But I wish to speak of those years—in which we witnessed such profound social change—not with the detachment of a historian but rather as a participant who, as a woman, welcomes much that has changed and regrets much that has not. Looking back, I find that the profession has changed less than society has. Academics are a conservative lot—old professors have a tenure more durable than society's institutions, whether for the control of money, or women, or sexuality.