Framing the Future: Women's Media and Activism in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Texas

This thesis examines how three members of the Texas Woman's Press Association — Mrs. M. R. Walton, Aurelia Hadley Mohl, and Isadore Miner Callaway — used journalism and women's club networks to challenge patriarchal norms and expand women's social, political, and professional roles in turn-of-the-century Texas. Writing for major urban newspapers, these women employed rhetorical strategies comparable to those of national suffrage and temperance movements, amplifying collective action while working within the constraints of a patriarchal Old South culture. Drawing on discourse analysis and Karlyn Kohrs Campbell’s feminist rhetorical theory, this study recovers largely forgotten voices to demonstrate how ordinary women effected significant historical change. It also examines why these women remain difficult to locate in the historical record, arguing that their erasure reflects the same structural forces their work sought to dismantle. Their legacy carries continued relevance for understanding gender equity in Texas today.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Grantor

Texas Woman's University

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Kuyoth, Melanie

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Abunasser, Rima

Committee member dc:contributor.committeemember

• Bender, Ashley

• Mary R. Walton
• Texas Woman's Press Association
• Isadore Miner Callaway
• Aurelia Hadley Mohl
• Texas history
• Women's clubs
• Feminist rhetoric
• Gender and the press

Language dc:language.iso

English

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/11274/17842

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:twu-ir.tdl.org:11274/17842