Date of Award
Spring 3-20-2009
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Honors Thesis
Department
History
First Advisor
Vivian Deno
Abstract
The women of the Queen Isabella Association were the embodiment of what has been termed the ‘New Woman.’While the New Woman was an amalgamation of many different trends, historians agree that she “represents one of the most significant cultural shifts of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.”5 These women chose to “move beyond domesticity” and fought to become equal members of American sociopolitical life.6 Joanne Meyerowitz argues that their greater significance was the tendency of the New Woman to “challenge the dominant Victorian sexual ethos.” 7 She inserted herself into the public sphere on her own terms, without the protection of the patriarchal family structure. The New Woman was educated and sophisticated; she also frequently held a professional job, a practice that was still rather revolutionary at the opening of the Exposition in 1893.
Recommended Citation
Maxwell, Lauren Alexander, "Constructions of Femininity: Women and the World's Columbian Exposition" (2009). Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection. 40.
https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/ugtheses/40