Eleanor Bernert Sheldon

Eleanor Harriet Bernert Sheldon (March 19, 1920 – May 8, 2021)[1][2] was an American sociologist who was president of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) from 1972 to 1979,[3] and was one of the key pioneers in the use of social indicators in sociology.[4] In the 1970s, as multinational corporations recognized the need to appoint women to their boards of directors, Sheldon became the first woman to serve on the boards of several major companies, including Citibank, Mobil, Heinz, and Equitable Holdings.[5]

Education and career

Sheldon was an alumna of Colby-Sawyer College, graduating in 1940,[6] and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,[7] graduating in 1942. After working in Washington DC in the Office of Population Research, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, and Department of Agriculture,[8] she completed her Ph.D. in 1949 as a William Rainey Harper Fellow at the University of Chicago.[8][9] She taught sociology at Columbia University from 1951 to 1952,[8] and in the late 1950s and early 1960s, worked in the school of nursing at the University of California, Los Angeles.[8][10] Prior to joining the SSRC as president, she worked at the Russell Sage Foundation.[8]

Books

Sheldon wrote or edited multiple books, including:

  • Local Community Fact Book of Chicago (edited as Eleanor H. Bernert with Louis Wirth, University of Chicago Press, 1949)[11]
  • America's Children (as Eleanor H. Bernert, John Wiley & Sons, 1958)[12]
  • Pupils and Schools in New York City: a Fact Book (with Raymond A. Glazier, Russell Sage Foundation, 1965)
  • Indicators of Social Change: Concepts and Measurements (with Wilbert E. Moore, Russell Sage Foundation, 1968)[13]
  • Family Economic Behavior: Problems and Perspectives (J. P. Lippincott, 1973)[14]

Recognition

In 1971, she was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.[15] She was also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[16] In 1991 she won the distinguished alumnus award of the University of North Carolina.[7]

Family Life

Sheldon was born as Eleanor Harriet Bernert on March 19, 1920 in Hartford, Connecticut[17] to M.G. and Fannie (Myers) Bernert. She had 2 children named John Anthony Sheldon and James Sheldon Jr to James Sheldon Sr.

References
  1. Full name and birth year from Worldcat
  2. Hagerty, James R. (2021-05-20). "Eleanor Sheldon Broke Boardroom Gender Barriers". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-05-25.
  3. Executive Officers, Social Science Research Council, retrieved 2017-11-11
  4. Land, Kenneth C.; Ferriss, Abbott L. (2007), "The Sociology of Social Indicators", in Bryant, Clifton D.; Peck, Dennis L. (eds.), 21st Century Sociology: A Reference Handbook, Sage Publications, p. 1174 (electronic edition), ISBN 9781506320212, Albert D. Biderman, Otis Dudley Duncan, Albert Reiss, Jr., and Eleanor Bernert Sheldon, who played major roles in the emergence and development of the field of social indicators in the 1960s and 1970s
  5. Hagerty, James R. (2021-05-20). "Eleanor Sheldon Broke Boardroom Gender Barriers". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-05-25.
  6. "Eleanor Harriet Bernert Sheldon papers finding aid". Smith College Libraries. Retrieved 2022-06-24.
  7. Distinguished Alumnus and Alumna Award, Office of Faculty Governance, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, retrieved 2017-11-11
  8. "Eleanor Bernert Sheldon elected president of the council", Items, Social Science Research Council, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 13–14, June 1972
  9. University of Chicago Magazine, vol. 69, Summer 1977, ELEANOR BERNERT SHELDON, PhD'49, was among those honored at a banquet held in honor of women directors of corporations.
  10. Cavan, Sherri (1994), "Becoming an ethnographer", in Meadow-Orlans, Kathryn P.; Wallace, Ruth A. (eds.), Gender and the Academic Experience: Berkeley Women Sociologists, University of Nebraska Press, pp. 57–70, ISBN 9780803286061. See in particular p. 67.
  11. Review of Local Community Fact Book of Chicago:
    • Raymond F. Sletto (June 1951), Journal of the American Statistical Association 46 (254): 275–276, doi:10.2307/2279939
  12. Reviews of America's Children:
    • Rudolph E. Morris (June 1958), The American Catholic Sociological Review 19 (2): 156–157, doi:10.2307/3709390
    • Clyde V. Kiser (July 1958), Asia and Future World Leadership, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 318: 199–200, JSTOR 1032272
    • P. P. (July–September 1958), Population 13 (3): 529–530, doi:10.2307/1525447
    • Bernice Goodsitt (September 1958), Social Service Review 32 (3): 329–331, JSTOR 30016311, doi:10.1086/640541
    • Harry V. Ball (October 1958), American Sociological Review 23 (5): 605, JSTOR 2088935
    • William M. Kephart (November 1958), Marriage and Family Living 20 (4): 405, doi:10.2307/348270
    • Howard E. Jensen (December 1958), Social Forces 37 (2): 177, doi:10.2307/2572808
    • Ralph W. Tyler (December 1958), Journal of the American Statistical Association 53 (284): 1039–1040, doi:10.2307/2281980
    • Irving Ratchick (March 1959), The Journal of Educational Sociology 32 (7): 362–364, doi:10.2307/2264628
    • B. Benjamin (March 1959), Population Studies 12 (3): 286–287, doi:10.2307/2171974
    • Elizabeth Cosstick (April 1959), International Affairs 35 (2): 271, doi:10.2307/2605431
    • L. J. L. (May 1959), The Journal of Educational Research 52 (9): 358, JSTOR 27530248
  13. Reviews of Indicators of Social Change:
    • Ray H. Elling (January 1970), The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly 48 (1): 109–113, doi:10.2307/3349292
    • John C. Maloney (February 1970), Journal of Marketing Research 7 (1): 123–126, doi:10.2307/3149527
    • Paul Schreiber (July 1970), Social Work 15 (3): 118–119, JSTOR 23710829
    • E. Scott Maynes (Winter 1970), The Journal of Consumer Affairs 4 (2): 150–154, JSTOR 23860206
    • Robert W. Hodge (April 1972), Economic Development and Cultural Change 20 (3): 581–590, JSTOR 1152748
  14. Reviews of Family Economic Behavior:
    • Gary K. Stone (September 1974), The Journal of Risk and Insurance 41 (3): 550–552, doi:10.2307/252061
    • Warren J. Bilkey (March 1975), Journal of Economic Literature 13 (1): 110–111, JSTOR 2722254
    • Gordon E. Bivens (Summer 1975), The Journal of Consumer Affairs 9 (1): 123–125, JSTOR 23858733
  15. ASA Fellows list, American Statistical Association, archived from the original on 2017-12-01, retrieved 2017-11-11
  16. Alphabetical index of active members, American Academy Arts and Sciences
  17. "Eleanor Bernert Sheldon, 1920-2021: Pioneer in Social Indicators Movement". Social Science Space. May 15, 2021. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
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