In 1911, a Department of Home Science at the University of New Zealand (1870–1961) opened. It was the first such department in either New Zealand or Australia for the training of women. Offering courses in science, food, and nutrition and practical courses in home and institutional management, the department aimed to provide women with the necessary skills and knowledge for their intended roles as wives, mothers, and homemakers (Beaumont, 2013; Fitzgerald, 2009). Although deemed a “woman’s domain” by university administrators, the newly established department presented opportunities for women to establish their own scholarly traditions (Antler, 1987), undertake work that was intellectually respectable, professionalize the field of Home Science, create an academic community and develop transnational networks and connections. It was these social and intellectual networks and transnational connections that promoted friendships and solidarity between/among academic women, and reinforced women’s capabilities as scholars, scientists, and leaders in the field (Fitzgerald and Smyth, 2014). This paper focuses on exchange programs such as the Fulbright and Carnegie to illustrate the importance of transnational connections in forging alliances between women. Both programs offered educational exchanges that created space and motivation for talented women to travel, cultivate international networks, extend their career choices and trajectories, and develop leadership in their professional fields. As will be outlined, there is much to learn from examining points of crossover between women’s careers and educational exchange (Whitehead, 2005).

There are relatively fewer historical studies, however, that offer a nuanced understanding of how women themselves understood and exercised leadership as they took new opportunities to transform their lives and those of other women (Fitzgerald and Collins, 2011; Harford and Rush, 2010; Morris Matthews, 2003). Furthermore, this paper examines the role of US educational exchange programs as a key to understanding how women collaborated with one another at local and international levels and the extent to which participation in the Fulbright and Carnegie programs contributed to the shaping of their professional identities and their development as leaders in their field (Carter, 2002).

Feminist historians have long recognised the importance of education and travel in women’s social and political transformation (Fitzgerald and Smyth, 2014; Mackinnon, 1997; Robinson-Tomsett, 2013; Woollacott, 1998, 2010). Women such as Helen Rawson (1886–1964) and Ann Strong (dates), two of the first women professors at the University of New Zealand (1875–1957) were part of the diaspora of educated women who journeyed to new lands for the career opportunities presented. In both cases, Rawson and Strong maintained bilateral connections with women from “home” (Morris Matthews, 2003) and instigated multilateral flows of connection with other women home scientists resident in New Zealand, England, the US and Canada. 

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