Rorher explains how despite having earned her master's degree in history at Wake Forest University in 1969, she was unable to get a job teaching college. At Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, Rorher was told explicitly by the history department that they were unlikely to hire her because she was a woman and that they rarely hired women faculty. Rorher found a similar gender disparity at Wake Forest University and decided not to seek employment there.