Date of Award
1-28-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
History
First Advisor
Nathan Tye
Committee Members
David Vail; Linda Van Ingen; Will Stoutamire
Keywords
homosocial environments;LGBTQ+;Queer history;social reform history;women's history
Abstract
The late 1800s and early 1900s saw a wave of social change in the United States, including increased urbanization, European immigration, the end of Reconstruction in the South, and new educational opportunities for women. These changes combined in various ways to contribute to ongoing social reform movements addressing education, health, and safety. Much of this reform was initiated by women, particularly those coming out of institutions of higher learning. The women described in scholarship have typically been white and of middle or upper class origins, and have been classified as being so dedicated to their work that they chose to remain single instead of pursuing any romance. However, more recent scholarship has added considerations of race, and built a consensus that a significant portion of these women were queer, in this case meaning disengaged from the norm of heterosexual marriage and/or involved in long term romantic relationships with other women. Although there remains a widely held belief that queer women, if they even existed, lived in isolation and secrecy prior to the last several decades due to legal and cultural prohibitions, I will argue that the early social reform movements of the late 1800s and early 1900s saw countless examples of women involved in relatively open romantic relationships with other women, and participating in larger social and professional networks of others like them. This openness and community was due to greater opportunities for queer women to find and recognize each other, the ability of women to enter into romantic relationships with other women without shame, and new cultural and economic factors that allowed these partnerships to maintain stable independence. The existence of these queer relationships and the cultural context which enabled them will offer new understanding of LGBTQ+ history and the extent to which environment influences safe expression of same gender love.
Recommended Citation
Johndrow, Kathleen W., "Normal and Known: Identity and Community Amongst Queer Women Involved in the Social Reform Movements of the Late 1800s and Early 1900s" (2025). History Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity. 52.
https://openspaces.unk.edu/hist-etd/52