BETTY ANN TITTLE TATTLE REPRODUCES THE UPPER CLASS: GENDER AND BOUNDARY WORK IN KANSAS CITY, 1924-1934

Abstract

This paper examines the role that elite women played in class reproduction in Kansas City between 1924-1934 through an examination of 40 issues of the elite women's magazine, The Independent. It expands on Bourdieu's theory of class reproduction by addressing the differing value placed on men's and women's contributions to their families' class status and by following the way that women's social life, consumption, and childrearing adjusted to the changing political climate of the 1930s. Shifts in boundary work did occur before the great depression: Kansas City elites became slightly more accepting of the noveaux riche, increased the role of arts-based volunteer organizations in their social lives, and re-framed their consumption in response to a critical public.