I just learned that my paper about columnist Eleanor Hart has been accepted for presentation at the Florida Communication Association conference. She worked in the women’s pages of the Miami Herald in the 1950s and 1960s. I went through her papers at the South Florida Historical Society last year. My paper focuses on how her column reflected the community’s negotiation of change in terms of race and gender. The integration of neighborhoods and working mothers led to heated letters from readers. Advice columns, like the women’s pages, are often overlooked by media critics and historians.

This week, I received a copy of the 1966 book by Lois Benjamin, So You Want to Be Working Mother. The book took on a topic that controversial at the time and the book was widely reviewed. The book begins: “Like the weather, working mothers are now a fact of life that almost anyone can talk about, and often does. Also like the weather, we are something nobody knows quite what to do about, beyond recognizing, a little uncomfortably, that we seem to be here to stay.” An article about the book led to a debate about the issue in the “Column with a Heart” which ran in the women’s…

This week, I received a copy of the 1966 book by Lois Benjamin, So You Want to Be Working Mother. The book took on a topic that controversial at the time and the book was widely reviewed. The book begins: “Like the weather, working mothers are now a fact of life that almost anyone can talk about, and often does. Also like the weather, we are something nobody knows quite what to do about, beyond recognizing, a little uncomfortably, that we seem to be here to stay.” An article about the book led to a debate about the issue in the “Column with a Heart” which ran in the women’s…

I have begun the analysis of a collection of entries from “A Column With Heart.” The advice column, written by Eleanor Hart, ran in the women’s section of the Miami Herald in the 1950s and 1960s. One of her most direct address to gender roles was in relation to an October 5, 1966 from reader, C.M.R. He identified himself as the husband of a stay-at-home wife with six children. He wrote: I read the series by Lois Benjamin about the so-called ‘working mother’ I say that because the mother who really works is the one who stays at home and cares for the needs of her children and her husband.…