I hesitate to bring up gender politics, because I feel like that's all I do these days...but I am having the germ of an idea here. How many unqueer men were involved in those six families? The gift economies I know about (knitting and ficcing) are pretty strongly gendered female from where I sit. You don't hear about robber baronesses and their trophy husbands. The women CEOs out there tend to be called failures much sooner than male ones, and they don't get golden-parachuted into their next job, either.

I don't know, am I just making stuff up? I think I should read that book sooner rather than later.