What A Young Woman Ought To Know - Etiquette
Mary Wood-Allen’s What a Young Woman Ought to Know, published in 1913 as part of the Self and Sex series, is a turn-of-the-century guidebook that instructs young women how to conduct themselves in a way that highlights their femininity and morality.
The book is broken up into thirty three chapters, each pertaining to a different aspect of a woman’s life. The more physical aspects of being female are addressed first, such as the right way to eat, exercise, and treat “female disease.”1 The later chapters deal with social aspects of life, like understanding love, the ill effects of being immoral, and the duties of an engaged woman.
Since there was a societal issue ofnot including sex education in children's schools, these guidebooks and manuals were used to teach young women about their growing bodies. Mothers or other older female relatives most likely would have given this book to the young women in the family.
This book is progressive in the fact that it discusses women's health in a new way, but the author inserts her Christian purity ideals, making this book confusing on what a woman is truly supposed to be during this time.mWood-Allen was the National Superintendent of the Purity Department of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. A question to ponder is: Is it appropriate for an etiquette, marriage, health, and hygiene guidebook to be so biased based on the Christian ideals it portrays?
It may be surprising to see how Wood-Allen speaks to her female readers. Notice some of the hints towards proper etiquette and marriage practices below in the Table of Contents.
