-
Great food writing blog
I recently found this great blog on food writing: Gherkins and Tomatoes. The author makes interesting points about culinary writing and food history In this August 10 post, she points out that the lack of respect for food writing may be tied to its origin in the women’s pages. There is a lot of truth to this concept. Too often, the things that interest women – food, fashion, furnishings – do not get the same respect as sports journalism. It’s similar to quilts in the art world. Only in recent decades has quilts – typically created by women – been considered significant art. I hope that food, fashion, furnishings writing…
You May Also Like
Food Studies Presentation: Ohio Food Editor History
-
Celebrating Roxcy Bolton
I am so pleased that Miami feminist Roxcy Bolton will be honored at the end of the month by HistoryMiami. She marched and advocated for women – often working with Miami Herald women’s page editor Marie Anderson to draw attention for social causes. Roxcy helped establish a rape crisis center and change the policy on naming hurricanes only after women. (I am still working on telling the hurricane story.) I wish I could attend the event but it is during the week. I also just learned that Roxcy is included in the book, True Grit. I just ordered a copy. The Miami Herald ran a short piece on Roxcy’s inclusion.…
-
Washington Post Thinks It’s the 1950s
A week or so ago, the Washington Post ran this story that sounded like the studies that came out following World War II. The research – often government sponsored – was meant to counter the Rosie-the-Riveter propaganda and return women to the home. This lead could have run decades ago: “A new study finds that babies raised by working mothers don’t necessarily suffer cognitive setbacks, an encouraging finding that follows a raft of previous reports suggesting that women with infants were wiser to stay home.” It was the women’s page editors (some who were mothers themselves) who provided a more nuanced message about working mothers. They were able to counter…
-
Organizing Clarenbach papers
I have spent the afternoon going over what we found in Kathryn “Kay” Clarenbach papers at the University of Wisconsin. She saved everything – including many cartoons. The above (uncited) cartoon was one of my favorites. Much of Clarenbach’s advocacy was about women’s employment issues. We made hundreds of copies – so valuable that we had to carry them on the plane. I am beginning to divide the papers into possible articles. The first I am working on will trace the 15-years of the Wisconsin Commission on the Status of Women – Clarenbach was the long-term head of the group. The organization is important because it was used as a…
-
Two Years in Orlando
Today, Lance and I have been in Orlando for two years. In that time, we have gone through the papers of several Florida women’s page journalists, including Helen Muir at the University of Miami and Eleanor Hart at the South Florida History Museum. We also went through some of the Poynter papers at the University of South Florida. I have presented papers at the Florida Conference of Historians about Florida women’s page editors Anne Rowe Goldman and Edee Greene. The next Florida women I plan to investigate are Gloria Biggs and Janet Chusmir. There is such a rich history of Florida women journalists and so much has not been researched.
-
Journal of American History book review
I just received an invitation from the Journal of American History to review the book, Freedom for Women: Forging the Women’s Liberation Movement, 1953-1970 by Carol Giardina. I am curious to see how Giardina addresses media coverage of the Women’s Liberation Movement. Many Liberation leaders refused to speak to male journalists so it is likely that the leaders worked with women’s page journalists. (On the other hand, at one point, Gloria Steinem refused to be interviewed by women’s page journalists. She preferred to speak with reporters from the news side.)
A website devoted to the history of newspaper women's pages
