Abstract

This article examines the juncture point between British-(Anglo)-American elite women in the first half of the twentieth century, their female networks and newspapers. It considers the maternal background, reconstructing biological and fictive kinships, to illustrate generational patterns leading to both female barrier-breaking in elite western institutions and clustering in the political and charitable work environments. The paper covers a century of adult female life using a central stem matrikin whose activities can be recovered through press-cuttings which chart change and continuity of values, confidence, identity and self-awareness through the range of kin based networks. It reconsiders the background to the 1970s breakthrough of women in leadership within elite political and charitable western institutions which has previously been considered as a result of effective equal opportunities combatting barriers rooted in male networking patterns. Finally, it reflects on the nature of the press as encountered by, used by and marginalising of elite women during the period.

Highlights

  • The study of historical kinship and family patterns is a relative new tool to understand past and current societies

  • Within the United Kingdom context the traditional antiquarian focus upon elite family genealogy and elite historical endeavours of individuals resulted in attentiveness to the doings of the State and its Great Men but did not provide a fertile environment in which to explore the kinship and family networks of elite women

  • For example Richardson’s recent research on Harriet Lewin Grote, as part of a joint study on George Grote, MP., showed the importance of Harriet as an individual and the impact of her networking behaviours to her husband’s contribution to significant political changes across the early nineteenth- century (Richardson, ed.Demetriou, 2014: 134-160). Such re-discovery of female impact on politics was undertaken by Chalus in the 1990s through a study of the socio-political endeavours of late eighteenth century elite women acting in spousal support roles (Chalus, 2000)

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Summary

Introduction

The study of historical kinship and family patterns is a relative new tool to understand past and current societies. The evidence for the study is drawn from worldwide newspaper clippings over the period 1880-1978 and substantial journalistic pieces taken from the local Milwaukee papers, that city being the cradle of the Ethelinda-HildaCarolinda kinship which could be regarded as constituting an elite regional network To this end the article explores an understanding of elite, the meaning of kinship and grasps the importance of evidence extracted from Newspapers before 8 applying these conceptual tools against illustrative cuttings related to the EthelindaHilda-Carolinda network and its impact on the public sphere. The kinship offers an insight into how a society without an established elite glass ceiling functions over the long-term

Kinship over family
Newspapers as evidence
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