1900s: "Progressive Era"
Historical Context
American society met the Progressive Era as a transitional period from conservative Victorian norms into liberal concepts during a climate of global conflict. The United States aimed toward public education reform, discussion of child labor laws, and how World War I altered the American people’s perception on warfare activity. Medicine developed as a science, though some populations maintained the use of “magic elixirs,” similar to modern use of “natural home remedies” for various illnesses. Professional and non-professional medical practitioners crafted books about health-related matters, such as dieting and hygiene, particularly concerning women’s health. Women’s health in particular concerned matters of birth control, contraceptives, and sex education. Comstock laws that prevented the publication of “obscenity” resulted in the halted spread of sex education and health information. Various activists, like Victoria Woodhull and Margaret Sanger, worked toward providing information to unrepresented women, such as working class, immigrant, and women of color. The Progressive Era saw the emergence of the “New Woman,” a growing representation of women’s exceeding entrance into the public sphere as a bold worker and a moral guardian.
Ella Adelia Fletcher’s The Woman Beautiful
The Woman Beautiful, by Ella Adelia Fletcher, serves as an advice book to guiding the women of the 1900s in preserving their health and beauty. Beyond the fraying edges of mossy green cloth coverings and red accents, The Woman Beautiful is one of Fletcher’s many guides for companionship to women, presenting everything from helpful skincare tips to shampoo recipes. Grounded in the social and philosophical insight to the conception of beauty, Fletcher provides a comprehensive guide to women’s beauty, and is written by none other than a woman herself. Subsequently, the latter half of her work provides recipes, diagrams, and advice to women out of the desire to achieve their ‘crowning glory.’
Although at first glance it may seem that Ella Adelia Fletcher is merely providing a list of do’s and don'ts to the female population, her intentions are likely rooted in a larger idea. Fletcher’s interests lie in a genuine concern to have women feel the most beautiful, as seen in her dedication of work to, “the lovely women sixty years young, whose noble womanhood wins beauty from the passing years[,] this book is inscribed in loving esteem and admiration.” Futhermore, Fletcher’s decision to quote poet and minister George MacDonald on her title page emphasizes the true intentions behind her project. Fletcher quotes MacDonald when stating, “I want to help you grow as beautiful as God meant you to be when he first thought of you” and then expands with her own subtitle, “the health of women and the purity and elevation of their tastes, desires, and ambitions, set the standard for the race.” Fletcher’s mission here is to serve her own population - women themselves.
Mary R. Melendy's Perfect Womanhood for Maidens, Wives, Mothers
Mary R. Melendy’s book, Perfect Womanhood for Maidens, Wives, Mothers: A Complete Medical Guide for Women, appears near the beginning of the Progressive Era and the tail-end of the Victorian Era. This book was published as women increasingly left the boundaries of the domestic home to enter the public sphere, a previously male dominated domain. This emerging period of fluidity in gender roles intrinsically links to the very publication and existence of the guide itself. The World Publishing Company published the work of Dr. Mary Melendy, M.D., Ph.D., of Rush Medical College, Chicago; Cook County Clinic Hospital; and lecture on diseases of women and children in the American Health University. This publication reveals a surfacing of female doctors from official medical schools, a focus on the specific matter of women’s health, and the concept of medical texts written by women specifically for women.
The guide portrays a narrative between the female author and the presumed female audience, teaching female readers how to proceed with issues of health and their duty in upholding it properly, as well as the stakes of failing. She instructs on the following matters: the human body, love, courtship and marriage, the organs of generation, care and management of infants and children, helpful hints to mothers, female beauty and accomplishment, and the mother serving as the doctor in the home. These main topics reveal a great deal about the expectations of women in maintaining her home, as well as the main concerns of women’s health. Melendy perpetuates the understanding that physical health automatically correlates with a woman’s beauty, and that she can prevent any ailment if she only knows how.[1] This guide provides close detail to information on female-focused medical matters, such as reproduction, menstruation, and the female body. She presents these matters to mothers, instructing them how to teach these concepts to their daughter(s).
Melendy portrays women as the orchestrator of mankind. Where society requires men to act as the main benefactors for the success of the race, society requires women to morally guide men and, by extension, all of humankind itself. As the start of the greatest men of society begins with his mother’s influence, the mother has the more important duty to her country to adequately lead her family. She expresses the necessity for women to hold themselves to the highest moral standards, lest society crumble itself from her failure.[2] Furthermore, the publication of guide books to aid mothers in the proper raising of children enforced the idea that children reflect the ability of their mother's guidance. The outcome of her children correlated directly to her ability as a mother and worth as a person.[3]
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[1] Schneider, “Introduction,” 19.
[2] Mary R. Melendy, “Preface,” Perfect Womanhood for Maidens, Wives, Mothers: a Book Giving Full Information On All the Mysterious And Complex Matters Pertaining to Women ... : a Complete Medical Guide for Women, (Guelph, Ont.: World Pub. Co., 1901), 7.
[3] Schneider, “Women at Work: Housekeeping, Homemaking, and Mothering,” 37-38.
Conclusion
Ideological commitments of women having the duty to make sacrifices for familial success pervaded at the turn of the century. Whether the sacrifices were to improve her beauty, or to positively influence the lives of her children, white middle class women of the Progressive Era were placed on pedestals. They had to act as ideals emphasizing what the middle class Progressive families should strive for--successful home lives with children in line to carry on the tradition of domesticity and middle class culture.
Ella Adelia Fletcher and Mary R. Melendy’s guide books participate in this concept by teaching their female audience how to be ideal women. Fletcher addresses her audience’s beauty needs with compassion and empathy towards their situation. This shows how gendered norms and expectation persisted during a rapidly changing time period. In similar reference to women’s sex and health, Melendy’s work emphasizes how women must exemplify the highest of moral standards, stressing that failure to do so would result in a failure to the family. These expectations show that white middle class women of the Progressive Era did not aim to redefine themselves, but rather to adhere to gendered norms and expectations.