Mad Aunts, Illegitimate Children and Royal Bloodlines! Family, Women and History in 2008

Australian Nation Museum of Education

Monograph Series: Historical Perspectives on Education

Noeline Kyle
Honorary Professor
Nursing History Research Unit
University of Sydney

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Abstract

In an opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald in March this year Zoe Pollock wrote how the discipline of history is sidelined in the tertiary sector.  She cites her alma mater, the University of New South Wales, where recently the School of History amalgamated with the School of Philosophy.  I too have great memories of that same School of History and the work of Patrick O'Farrell in community history and his unwavering support for those of us working in the field.  Zoe Pollock argued that history is pushed aside because it does not appear to fit with the vocational push so dominant now in the tertiary sector. But, as she argues, it should. She notes that the skills of research and analysis history teaches are fundamental to our understanding of the society we have created. I agree with Pollock about the disappearance of history from our universities...we've been talking about it in the history of education for a long time.

The quote 'mad aunts, illegitimate children and royal bloodline' Pollock made at the beginning of her article in the context of family history, or as it was once called, genealogy.  She commented that family historians discover the family's darkest secrets - a mad aunt, the scandal of illegitimate children or royal bloodlines ' - and her comment encapsulates some of what I have to say later in this paper about a woman who worked in the professions, the public service and whose life, education, emigration to Australia and specific life circumstances - and the way they are portrayed - tell me something about the continuity of past mythology and stereotyping of women in history and how it  has both changed and not changed in 2008.