Comparative Analysis Leisure-Class Women Documents 16.2 and 16.3
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
Leisure-Class Women
The spectacular economic growth in the second half of the nineteenth century spawned a rise in leisure activities. In wealthy and middle-class families, women were central in shaping household consumption. Expected to conform to public standards of female decorum, some young leisure-class women challenged established gender roles in private. Contrast the cover of The Delineator (1900), one of America’s foremost women’s magazines, with the photograph taken by Alice Austen in 1891. In this photograph Austen and her friend, Trude Eccleston, whose father was an Episcopalian minister, are pictured in Eccleston’s bedroom.
Document 16.2
The Delineator, 1900
Document 16.3
Alice Austen and Trude Eccleston, 1891
Interpret the Evidence
What do the clothing and activity of the woman on the cover of The Delineator suggest about her background?
Compare the image of Austen and her friend with the magazine’s cover woman. What norms of female behavior are they contesting?
Put It in Context
What social and political trends during the late nineteenth century gave middle-class women increased opportunities to express themselves?
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