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New Women In The Old Dominion: Race And Gender In Progressive-Era Virginia, Rachel Scott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis traces the development of Black and white Southern women’s pursuit of political power between the end of the Civil War and the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. Emancipation and the downfall of the antebellum planter aristocracy upset traditional Southern gender norms and opened new doors for women of both races in the political upheaval of Reconstruction. Though both Black and white women participated in the women’s club movement and joined women’s advocacy and charity groups following the Civil War, their work was distinctive both from each other and from other regional Progressive movements. The context of …