Amid the rapid industrialization and urbanization of the early twentieth century, Progressive Era activists across the United States fought for social, political, and economic change. Tennessee women were no exception. In Constructing Citizenship: Tennessee Public Women in the Progressive Era, Mary A. Evins and Minoa D. Uffelman present a collection of essays that explore the contributions and civic engagement of women in Tennessee during this transformative period.
Building upon their first volume, Tennessee Women in the Progressive Era, the contributors examine a variety of themes, organizationally structured in four parts: education, associations, service, and suffrage. Across seventeen chapters, the collection covers women's roles in higher education, medicine, and public health; the women's relief corps and patriotic outreach in Tennessee; the women's club movement on the road to suffrage; the power of feminist leadership; women of color leading the national fight for African American reparations and benevolence; philanthropy and community care; rural Tennessee women's support of suffrage; and more.
Drawing on a wealth of archival materials, including personal letters, newspaper editorials, and meeting minutes, each contributor foregrounds long-overlooked stories about Tennessee women's public work during the first half of the twentieth century. Covering a period largely missing from the history of Tennessee women, this anthology fills a critical gap in scholarship. Women's history scholars, Tennessee history specialists, and students of US history more broadly will all find it to be a valuable resource both for self-study and the classroom.