The 'Civilizing Process' and the Politics of Conservative Womanhood in America, 1890-1930

This dissertation examines the race, gender and sexual politics of conservative white women in the U.S. at the turn of the twentieth century, and explores how these women utilized the concept of the civilizing process to advocate for a more conservative society. Harking back to Victorian constructs, conservative women of this era sought to establish hierarchies of race, gender and morality, deeming these hierarchies central to the preservation of white women’s power in a changing society. Simultaneously, however, they agitated against patriarchal norms and sought to capitalize on the new opportunities available to women. By using the analytical framework of the ‘civilizing process,’ this thesis argues that conservative white women used the protean meanings of ‘civilization’ to coalesce these seemingly contradictory goals into one coherent social-political vision. It demonstrates that three conservative women of different geo-cultural regions with distinct minority populations each centered their political activism around four elements they regarded as central to civilized life: racial hierarchy, sexual restraint, traditional marriage, and suffrage for women. The three women at the heart of this thesis, Rebecca Felton, Alma White and Estelle Reel, each invoked the concept of the ‘civilizing process’ to affirm different claims to power. In doing so, this thesis argues, they constructed and disseminated a vision of civilization that conserved and enforced traditional hierarchies, yet called for white women’s involvement in the sociopolitical realm.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Quené, Laura

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Gerstle, Gary

• American history
• Civilization
• Conservatism
• Gender
• Women's history

Licence

• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.95107

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/347692