Women, wealth and power: New York City, 1860--1900.

Title: Women, wealth and power: New York City, 1860--1900.
Identifier: AAI3231989
identifier: 3231989
Creator: Asher, Florence W.
Contributor: Adviser: Barbara Welter
Date: 2006
Language: English
Publisher: City University of New York.
Subject: History, United States | Women's Studies
Abstract: Using two lengthy private diaries, published first person narratives, archival and newspaper records, this work provides a complete assessment of New York's women of wealth. It explores these women's household, benevolent and social priorities as an avenue to understanding the social tensions of the period. It presents the ways in which women attempted to structure and manage their changing social environment, beginning with the 1860 Prince of Wales Ball through the reign of the conservative society matron Caroline Astor. While wealth served as the principal determinant of social status, domesticity shaped women's feminine identity. As a consequence, this study views the period's social rivalries as more than a contest between women of old and new wealth. Rather women engaged in an intense debate over the boundaries that defined women's public place as well as the values that would govern women's lives in the future.
Type: dissertation
Source: PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
degree: Ph.D.