Previously published as Evolution Toward Equality by Teresa S. Neal, BEYOND DOMESTICITY captures the stories of authors, artists, educators, doctors, lawyers, elected officials, and other women who became important role models. They led the way for future generations of women to take their work and service outside the home and no longer be limited to the domestic sphere. This edition has been republished under a new title in honor of the 100th anniversary of women's right to vote. On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, and women began voting throughout the United States.
Election time 1920, however, was not the first year that women began legally voting in national elections. Women in Wyoming had already been casting their votes officially for over 50 years. When Wyoming became a territory in 1869, their territorial constitution had granted full suffrage rights to women. In fact, by 1920 when the 19th Amendment was ratified, 15 states had already given women the right to vote. Thirteen of those states were west of the Mississippi. In addition, many women in the West could own property, had more equitable divorce laws, and were allowed to hold public office. This was not true of most women in the East.
Although the first woman's rights movement began in New York in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention, why were women in the West able to experience increasing equality rights before their sisters in the East? Why was the first female justice of the peace, the first woman governor, and the first congresswomen all from the West? Beyond Domesticity explores some of the many factors that led to why progress in the women's rights movement took place more rapidly in the West.
A significant factor, according to Dr. Neal's research, was the facilitating role of the environment. While older women tried to maintain their proper Victorian ideal of domestic purity, young girls growing up in the West often found such restrictions to be both undesirable and impractical. Beyond Domesticity examines the importance of the role of fathers in supporting a more public and assertive role for daughters whose work and interests took them beyond the domestic, traditional role of their mothers.
In the West, because of the scarcity of workers, women were often required to do many of the same outdoor tasks that their fathers, husbands, and brothers performed. Because they worked side by side with men, they became more independent and self-assured that they had earned the right to be treated equally. By 1920, women had clearly moved into the public sphere formerly reserved for men. Although full equality has still not been achieved, women have made considerable progress. This book describes highlights of the progress that was made during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.