A Young Rebel: Isabella Rittenhouse

While Maud Rittenhouse Mayne is not a well-documented historical actor, her writings provide insight to how young women defied the social norms of the Progressive Era in order to gain autonomy and a sense of liberation.

The etiquette of the Progressive Era (1890–1920) empowered young women, leading many of them to indulge in more unorthodox premarital lifestyles than their foremothers. Isabella Rittenhouse was one woman who took advantage of this.

Living in Chicago in 1884, Isabella maneuvered her way through the strict, yet evolving, social norms that consumed western culture[4]. She profited from the new social norms of the Progressive Era by gaining a sense of power that led her to execute a distinctly forbidden private lifestyle—she dated two boys. Though the norms of the era condemned this as a promiscuous act, she pursued it anyway. Isabella was just one of many young girls who, once gaining a taste of power with men, wanted more. Her now published diaries illustrate how women obtained power by defying the empowering yet rigid premarital etiquette of the the Progressive Era.

The diaries contain tales of her provocative excursions with two boys: Ned and Elmer. Each night, young Isabella recorded her experiences with the two men and even compared their attributes. Though she appeared to live a proper and average life during the day, Isabella gained a secret sense of power and control through her private relationships. These writings illustrate how Isabella, like many other young girls, navigated her way through the tricky cultural rules of the Progressive Era[5].

[4] James Marten and Paula S. Fass, Children and Youth During the Gilded Age and

Progressive Era (New York: NYU Press, 2014), 168.

[5] Ibid.