Assignment instructions HIS326k discussion (Tracy):
The definitions of gender and family were sharply contested in nineteenth century postbellum America. The lives of women varied greatly, as the gap widened between the factory girls of the working class and the college-educated New Woman of the middle and upper classes, in both the North and South.
In this activity, you will discuss some of the differences between women divided by class and region, and the ways reformers and politicians used sex and gender as tools to shape their visions of social order in the wake of the Civil War. Provide response to classmates reply.
Question: How did De Graffenried and Felton’s perspectives on mill workers in the New South reveal the influence of class, race, and region in postbellum gender politics?