Women's History Commons^™

Myths, Museums, Mothers, And The Power Of Letitia Carson, Hailey Brink

University Honors Theses

Letitia Carson was a trailblazing Black Oregon pioneer woman whose life offered remarkable and unprecedented departures from the white pioneer status quo. Letitia's story presents numerous points at which she could be heralded for her successes; her pregnant journey across the Overland Trail, giving birth in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, cultivating and maintaining two separate homesteads, challenging and conquering two lawsuits against administrator Greenberry Smith, her midwifery and community involvement, and lastly, becoming the first Black woman to own land in Oregon in 1862. And yet, her story fell to obscurity, only to be revived nearly a century …

"I Just Had To Do Most Everything": Gender, Settlement And American Empire In The Far West, Hannah Alexandra Reynolds

Dissertations and Theses

The field of settler colonial studies has made huge strides in recent years toward problematizing the establishment of the United States on stolen land and the nation's steady, violent expansion across the continent. Settler colonial framework provides a rich opportunity for historians of the American West to reframe white settlement on the frontier, especially that which was made possible through land grant legislation such as the Homestead Act of 1862. As the families who took up land grant property sought new opportunities for themselves, they also acted as drivers of U.S. territorial acquisition. This process was inherently gendered, in terms …

The Many Wives Of General August V. Kautz: Colonization In The Pacific Northwest, 1853-1895, Nicole Ann Kindle

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is about the colonization of the West, with an emphasis on the Pacific Northwest from 1853 to 1895. It analyzes the historical processes occurring as America expanded westward through the lens of the Kautz family. August Kautz and his wives tell the story of colonization through unique and vastly different ways. This thesis argues that a microanalysis of the Kautz family history tells a greater story of colonization, one rife with complicated layers influenced by race, class, and societal expectations that shaped individual roles within colonization.

August Kautz was a lieutenant when he first arrived in the Pacific …

Stellar Works: Searching For The Lives Of Women In Science, Jennifer Elizabeth Woodman

Dissertations and Theses

While women have had a profound impact in the world of science, they struggle to gain an equal foothold in many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields today. This has led to considerable public and private sector efforts to recruit women into these arenas. In order to understand how schools and nonprofits engage today's young women in STEM studies, this account includes time spent both in high school science classrooms and with ChickTech -- a Portland-based organization that works to provide a pathway into tech careers for high school-aged girls.

A historical perspective reveals that modern women aren't treading …

Ordinary Women/Extraordinary Lives: Oregon Women And Their Stories Of Persistence, Grit And Grace, Shannon Moon Leonetti

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis tells the stories of five Oregon women who transcended the customary roles of their era. Active during the waning years of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, each woman made a difference in the world around them. Their stories have either not been told or just given a passing glance. These tales are important because they inform us about our society on the cusp of the twentieth century.

Hattie Crawford Redmond was the daughter of a freed slave who devoted herself to the fight for women's suffrage. Minnie Mossman Hill was the first woman …

Who Owns This Body? Enslaved Women's Claim On Themselves, Loucynda Elayne Sandeen

Dissertations and Theses

During the antebellum period of U.S. slavery (1830-1861), many people claimed ownership of the enslaved woman's body, both legally and figuratively. The assumption that they were merely property, however, belies the unstable, shifting truths about bodily ownership. This thesis inquires into the gendered specifics and ambiguities of the law, the body, and women under slavery. By examining the particular bodily regulation and exploitation of enslaved women, especially around their reproductive labor, I suggest that new operations of oppression and also of resistance come into focus.

The legal structure recognized enslaved women in the interest of owners, and this limitation was …

Rural Revolution: Documenting The Lesbian Land Communities Of Southern Oregon, Heather Jo Burmeister

Dissertations and Theses

Out of the politically charged atmosphere of the 1960s and 1970s emerged a migration to "the land" and communes, which popularly became known as the back-to-the-land movement. This migration occurred throughout the United States, as well as many other countries, and included clusters of land based communities in southern Oregon. Within these clusters, lesbian feminist women created lesbian separatist lands and communes. These women were well educated, and politically active in movements such as the New Left, Civil Rights, Women's Liberation, and Gay Liberation. These lands or communes functioned together as a community network that developed and commodified lesbian art, …

"Heaven's Last, Worst Gift To White Men": The Quadroons Of Antebellum New Orleans, Erin Elizabeth Mccullugh

Dissertations and Theses

Visitors to Antebellum New Orleans rarely failed to comment on the highly visible population of free persons of color, particularly the women. Light, but not white, the women who collectively became known as Quadroons enjoyed a degree of affluence and liberty largely unknown outside of Southeastern Louisiana. The Quadroons of New Orleans, however, suffered from neglect and misrepresentation in nineteenth and twentieth-century accounts.

Historians of slavery and southern black women, for example, have written at length on the sexual experiences of black women and white men. Most of the research, however, centers on the institutionalized rape, victimization, and exploitation of …

Fur Trade Daughters Of The Oregon Country: Students Of The Sisters Of Notre Dame De Namur, 1850, Shawna Lea Gandy

Dissertations and Theses

Ethnicity, religion, class, and gender are important elements in determining the cultural texture of society. This study examines these components at an important junction in the history of the Pacific Northwest through the lives of students enrolled in two girls’ schools established by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur (SNDN) in the Willamette Valley in the 1840s. These girls, predominantly métis daughters of fur-trade settlers and their Indian wives, along with their Irish and Anglo-American classmates, represent the socioeconomic and cultural transformation of the region as the mixing that gave rise to the unique intermediary culture referred to as …

High Desert Homesteader: Alice Day Pratt, A Single Woman In Post, Oregon, Cathleen Croghan Alzner

Dissertations and Theses

It is important to recognize the role of women in the development of the Trans-Mississippi West. Of the thousands of homesteaders, a significant percentage were single women. While a few historians have documented women homesteaders on the Great Plains, there is little information about those in the Pacific Northwest, particularly Oregon. The efforts of homesteaders who came to Central Oregon at the beginning of the twentieth century provide valuable information about the development of the region.

The purpose of this study is to document the homesteading efforts of Alice Day Pratt, a single woman and teacher. It attempts to put …

The Emergence Of An Icon: The Frida Kahlo Cult, Teresa Neva Tate

Dissertations and Theses

At her death in 1954, Frida Kahlo was known as little more than the wife of muralist Diego Rivera. Since then her art and personae have taken on a cult-like following and she has become an icon of popular culture. Thus far Frida's repute has stretched across three decades, from the 1970s, 1980s, and into the 1990s. Frida's popularity is viewed as primarily emerging from the Women's Movement of the 1970s. However, interest from many other groups have carried her image into the 1980s and 1990s. Aside from the Women’s Movement, Frida's popularity reflects a growing interest in Mexico, specifically …

English Housewives In Theory And Practice, 1500-1640, Lynn Ann Botelho

Dissertations and Theses

Women in early modem England were expected to marry, and then to become housewives. Despite the fact that nearly fifty percent of the population was in this position, little is known of the expectations and realities of these English housewives. This thesis examines both the expectations and actual lives of middling sort and gentry women in England between 1500 and 1640.

Burns'eko Etxekoandreak: Basque Women Boarding House Keepers Of Burns, Oregon, Paquita Lucia Garatea

Dissertations and Theses

The migration of the Basques to the Pacific Northwest at the turn of the century was due to a number of factors including economic, cultural and political. The Basques constitute a distinct ethnic group from northern Spain and southern France, whose origins have not yet been determined by historical, linguistic, or archaeological studies. From ancient times, the Basques have fought to maintain their cultural identity and political freedom against invaders, developing in this struggle a strong sense of racial group solidarity. The lack of opportunity for advancement and the obligation to serve in the military were added reasons for the …

The Founding And Early Years Of The National Association Of Colored Women, Therese C. Tepedino

Dissertations and Theses

The National Association of Colored Women was formed in 1896, during a period when the Negro was encountering a great amount of difficulty in maintaining the legal and political rights granted to him during the period of reconstruction. As a result of this erosion· of power, some historians have contended that the Negro male was unable to effectively deal with the problems that arose within the Negro community. It was during this same period of time that the Negro woman began to assert herself in the affairs of her community. In the beginning, her work was done in conjunction with …

Partisans, Godmothers, Bicyclists, And Other Terrorists: Women In The French Resistance And Under Vichy, Rayna Kline

Dissertations and Theses

During the years 1940-1944, the period of the German Occupation, French women played an active role in the political sphere as part of the organized Resistance movements. The women who participated were not isolated examples, but an extremely diverse group that cut across social milieux, political alignments and religious persuasions. The range of their activity in the spectrum of roles and the differences in their style challenge the stereotypes and persistent attitudes in French culture about women’s nature.

Women were leaders in the principal Resistance movements, participated in the organization and dissemination of the underground press and in the organization …

Diaries And Reminiscences Of Women On The Oregon Trail: A Study In Consciousness, Amy Kesselman

Dissertations and Theses

This study is an attempt to discover how women participating in the mid-nineteenth century migration to Oregon viewed the westward journey and themselves in relationship to it. It is not a survey of the responses of all women in the westward movement, but, rather, an exploration of the perspective of those women who left a written record of their perceptions or recollections. The thesis focuses on the diaries and reminiscences of women travelling, primarily but not exclusively, in the years 1851-1853.

The introductory material consists of a review of the existing historical literature on women and the West, and a …

The World Of Women: Portland, Oregon, 1860-1880, Mary C. Wright

Dissertations and Theses

The primary objective of this study is to find, statistically, how the women of Portland lived out their lives. By exploring the role of ethnicity, work and family, and the inter-relationships of these variables, upon their life choices, it is hoped a picture of women will result that can be used as a base for further interpretations on the community of women and the role they play in society.

The study is based on data gathered from the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Federal Manuscript Census Schedules for the city of Portland and East Portland and utilizes a sample of 8,012 …