Creating the New Woman: The Rise of Southern Women's Progressive Culture in Texas, 1893-1918 - Essay Example

She has portrayed women as political activists long before they had the power to vote. How women gained sufficient political consciousness to form what McArthur calls “progressive culture”(Judith McArthur, 1998) is the subject of this well-written book. Since the book covers a wide range of subjects it is difficult to summarize. McArthur’s book has an introduction, six chapters, and a conclusion which tell the story of Southern womens desire for a public voice. According to the writer, there were two stages in the suffrage activism that took place in Texas and the South.

The first in which mainly the elite participated took place in the later half of the nineteenth century. But most women found it too radical and this movement failed. It was only in the 1910s that women won political equality. In this second stage they projected women’s domestic responsibilities and concerns to society and on this basis they fought for gender justice. She explains in detail how general concerns like pure food, education reform and prostitution shape programs. According to McArthur it was the club movement which was the first step towards the creation of the new woman.

Women joined clubs where they studied contemporary issues which in turn increased their awareness of social problems. Even though they did not tackle these problems in a formal, political manner, they were however willing to visit "legislative halls as concerned mothers rather than lobbyists. . They believed in educating public opinion and wanted ‘to be above politics" (Judith McArthur, 1998). She also shows how Southern women developed new approaches to settlement work and how they challenged southern racial and gender norms.

It is here that they differed from the women in the North. According to McArthur the idea of separate spheres for men and women existed for a much longer period in the South than in the North. These women bound by tradition and racism