History Commons^™

"Strike Me If You Dare": Intimate-Partner Violence, Gender, And Reform, 1865-1920, Ashley Baggett

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Between 1865 and 1920, new gender expectations in the postbellum period, as well as the willingness to use the state to intervene in marriages led to social and legal reform that provided a mechanism to empower women and enforce their right to be free from violence. Women emerged from the Civil War more aware about the drawbacks of dependency. The postbellum period also witnessed massive changes with industrialization, which enabled women to participate in what were previously considered male pursuits. With their new awareness and the changes of industrialization, women negotiated a new definition of womanhood, which included the right …