There’s no doubt that family history has become a hugely popular American hobby. People are anxious to rediscover who their ancestors were and what kinds of lives they led. Ancestrycommercials and multiple TV shows are being seen all over America, and even internationally. People want to know more about their ancestry. All of their ancestry. Not just the men but the women, too. Generally speaking, in the not so distant past women were largely represented by the males in their family (husband, father, brother, etc.), which can make them tricky to identify. The difficulty in tracking female ancestors has led to a plethora of books, articles and columns tackling the subject and now that part of the population once considered “hidden” can be brought to light.
But it’s not just the female ancestors that are being brought into the center stage. Megan Smolenyak reports that between 63 and 72% of all genealogists are women and that the CEOs and founders of several family-history-related big businesses are women.[1]Genealogy is clearly doing more than allowing people to reconnect with long-gone ancestors. It’s also opening doors for women in corporate America.
It sounds as if the glass ceiling is being shattered. But is it?
When it Comes to Genetic Genealogy, Women Need Not Apply
[1]Megan Smolenyak, “When it Comes to Genetic Genealogy, Women Need Not Apply,” Huffington Post, 4 May 2016 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com : accessed 1 September 2018).