The Queen of "Woman's Kingdom" : the journalism of Kathleen Blake Coleman ("Kit") 1889-1915

Kathleen Blake Coleman a.k.a Catherine Ferguson Willis (1856-1915) arrived in Canada a destitute Irish immigrant in 1884. To earn her living and support her two Canadian-born children, she juggled the androgynous and womanly aspects of her new identity to become "Kit", of the Toronto Daily Mail/Mail and Empire. "Kit", the pioneer woman journalist, was an adventurous traveller as well as a fashion expert, a war correspondent as well as a motherly advice-giver. She was also a mother-journalist trying to balance her domestic duties and her own literary ambition. Her experiences of life made her quick to sympathize with others, but her liberalism had its limits. She believed in the intellectual and economic equality of the sexes and helped other women succeed in journalism. But for professional and personal reasons, she remained aloof from the women's movement and did not advocate suffrage until it became a respectable cause.