This project traces the history of that at once vaunted and contested aspirational image, “the woman who has it all,” from the late nineteenth century through the early twenty-first, attending throughout to the complex intersections of race, gender, class, and sexuality. It establishes both notable consistency and critical change over the twentieth century by linking and contextualizing multiple iterations of this perfect working mother ideal in the United States. It adds to scholarship on the mutual construction of race and gender by showing the eugenic origins of the white ideal, which emerged concurrently with the complementary ideal of the “New Negro Woman,” as it ultimately tracks as well both the practical and conceptual innovations Black women pioneered and the ideological policing of racialized notions of proper motherhood that ensued. Along the way, it offers new insights into the role of feminine advice culture in neutralizing economic discontent and stoking racial animus while pretending not to. Significantly, this dissertation connects this cultural ideal, in its multiple variants, with the ongoing lack of structural support for caregiving as it details how the ideal paradoxically continued to tie women to work in the home while opening possibilities beyond it.
","abstract_html":"<p>This project traces the history of that at once vaunted and contested aspirational image, “the woman who has it all,” from the late nineteenth century through the early twenty-first, attending throughout to the complex intersections of race, gender, class, and sexuality. It establishes both notable consistency and critical change over the twentieth century by linking and contextualizing multiple iterations of this perfect working mother ideal in the United States. It adds to scholarship on the mutual construction of race and gender by showing the eugenic origins of the white ideal, which emerged concurrently with the complementary ideal of the “New Negro Woman,” as it ultimately tracks as well both the practical and conceptual innovations Black women pioneered and the ideological policing of racialized notions of proper motherhood that ensued. Along the way, it offers new insights into the role of feminine advice culture in neutralizing economic discontent and stoking racial animus while pretending not to. Significantly, this dissertation connects this cultural ideal, in its multiple variants, with the ongoing lack of structural support for caregiving as it details how the ideal paradoxically continued to tie women to work in the home while opening possibilities beyond it.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Brennan, Amanda W"],"institution":"The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York","degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy","degree_level":"Doctoral","degree_discipline":"History","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Dagmar Herzog","Gerald Markowitz"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":["David Waldstreicher","Michele Mitchell"],"year":2024,"date_issued":"2024-09-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2024-09-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:59:38Z","subjects":["African American Studies","American Popular Culture","Cultural History","History of Gender","United States History","Women's History","Women's Studies","Women","Gender","Race"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6036","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Dagmar Herzog","Gerald Markowitz"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.committeemember","label":"Committee Member","values":["David Waldstreicher","Michele Mitchell"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Brennan, Amanda W"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2026-09-30T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["History"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Doctoral"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["African American Studies","American Popular Culture","Cultural History","History of Gender","United States History","Women's History","Women's Studies","Women","Gender","Race"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6036"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This project traces the history of that at once vaunted and contested aspirational image, “the woman who has it all,” from the late nineteenth century through the early twenty-first, attending throughout to the complex intersections of race, gender, class, and sexuality. It establishes both notable consistency and critical change over the twentieth century by linking and contextualizing multiple iterations of this perfect working mother ideal in the United States. It adds to scholarship on the mutual construction of race and gender by showing the eugenic origins of the white ideal, which emerged concurrently with the complementary ideal of the “New Negro Woman,” as it ultimately tracks as well both the practical and conceptual innovations Black women pioneered and the ideological policing of racialized notions of proper motherhood that ensued. Along the way, it offers new insights into the role of feminine advice culture in neutralizing economic discontent and stoking racial animus while pretending not to. Significantly, this dissertation connects this cultural ideal, in its multiple variants, with the ongoing lack of structural support for caregiving as it details how the ideal paradoxically continued to tie women to work in the home while opening possibilities beyond it.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The History of “Having It All”: Black and White Women and Work-Life Balance, 1890s-2010s"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Dagmar Herzog","Gerald Markowitz"],"dc:contributor.committeemember":["David Waldstreicher","Michele Mitchell"],"dc:creator":["Brennan, Amanda W"],"dc:date.available":["2026-09-30T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["This project traces the history of that at once vaunted and contested aspirational image, “the woman who has it all,” from the late nineteenth century through the early twenty-first, attending throughout to the complex intersections of race, gender, class, and sexuality. It establishes both notable consistency and critical change over the twentieth century by linking and contextualizing multiple iterations of this perfect working mother ideal in the United States. It adds to scholarship on the mutual construction of race and gender by showing the eugenic origins of the white ideal, which emerged concurrently with the complementary ideal of the “New Negro Woman,” as it ultimately tracks as well both the practical and conceptual innovations Black women pioneered and the ideological policing of racialized notions of proper motherhood that ensued. Along the way, it offers new insights into the role of feminine advice culture in neutralizing economic discontent and stoking racial animus while pretending not to. Significantly, this dissertation connects this cultural ideal, in its multiple variants, with the ongoing lack of structural support for caregiving as it details how the ideal paradoxically continued to tie women to work in the home while opening possibilities beyond it.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6036"],"dc:subject":["African American Studies","American Popular Culture","Cultural History","History of Gender","United States History","Women's History","Women's Studies","Women","Gender","Race"],"dc:title":["The History of “Having It All”: Black and White Women and Work-Life Balance, 1890s-2010s"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["History"],"thesis:degree_level":["Doctoral"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy"],"thesis:institution_name":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:59:38Z"}