Date of Award
12-16-2024
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
History
First Advisor
Jeffrey Trask
Second Advisor
Kathryn Wilson
Third Advisor
Marni Davis
Abstract
During the Progressive Era, women banded together to form organizations and venture into the public sphere where they engaged in civic activism. This dissertation examines how different groups of women working in Atlanta or "the New South city” during the Progressive Era constructed identities that gave them the authority to transgress gendered boundaries and conduct civic reform. Comparing the following women’s organizations that operated in Atlanta—the Atlanta Woman’s Club (AWC), Atlanta Council of Jewish Women (ACJW), Atlanta Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), and Neighborhood Union (NU), this dissertation demonstrates how race, ethnicity, and religion shaped the way women approached progressive reform, understood modern problems, and implemented their visions for the New South city. As Atlanta was transforming into an urban landscape with an industrial economy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, women in the AWC, ACJW, UDC’s Atlanta Chapter, and NU harnessed ideals of middle-class womanhood, stressing morality, maternity, and piety, to expand their influence over civic affairs at a time when women were expected to fulfill domestic duties as mothers and daughters. By refashioning traditional gender roles in the domestic sphere, they created a new womanhood that gave them license to expand their influence over the public sphere and demand government intervention to address modern problems. Invoking their domestic experience to justify public roles as progressive reformers, they formed civic programs and political campaigns that strove to organize the New South city, ensure the welfare of their communities, and safeguard vulnerable residents of their race. Positioning themselves as stewards of the New South city, the new women of the AWC, ACJW, UDC’s Atlanta Chapter, and NU shaped modern institutions, civic infrastructure, and the built environment of Atlanta with their visions of social and economic progress. Illuminating the experiences of women in the Progressive Era and their different approaches to civic activism demonstrates the way they shaped modern American society. The following analysis uncovers the contributions of southern female reformers by examining their organizations.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/38019159
Recommended Citation
McAlpin, Kailey, "New Women of the New South City: Women’s Organizations in Atlanta during the Progressive Era, 1895-1930." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2024.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/38019159
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