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Dissertation Information for Lee S. Polanksy

NAME:
- Lee S. Polanksy

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- Emory University (USA) (2002)

ADVISORS:
- Elizabeth Fox-Genovese

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Mary E. Odem
- Dan T. Carter

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: "For it made me a lady": The Georgia Training School for Girls and the delinquent girl, 1914--1922

Abstract: During the Progressive Era, Georgia's new middle classes gave rise to a group of social reformers including religious groups, women's clubs, and social workers. Women's clubs, in particular, were essential in starting a network of social services, especially in child welfare. Around 1912, reformers perceived a surge in "wayward girls," working class white girls who acted in ways considered inappropriate for Southern white "ladies." They ran away from home, refused to obey their parents, went with boys, and even prostituted. The state's reformers utilized "progressive" and maternalist arguments about social reform to validate participation in the political arena and to justify their welfare work. Unlike many Northern reformers, however, this group did not offer a critique of the social conditions necessitating child welfare work. Rather, their intent was to reify the existing Southern hierarchy. White labor, they argued, was needed across the region, and white girls who became prostitutes or criminals would harm the future of the race. A "training school" would re-train white girls to become useful wives and mothers. Subscribing to Northern progressive ideas about juvenile rehabilitation, the group established the Georgia Training School for Girls in 1914. From 1914, until the 1921 resignation of its first long-term superintendent, the Georgia Training School for Girls (GTS), housed a total of 356 girls, mainly committed for sexual offenses.

Scholarship on women reformers and "deviant" girls in the Progressive Era South is sparse. Especially little is known about the lives of these girls. This dissertation looks at both reformers and reformed. Chapter One discusses the social reform in Georgia in the context of Progressive reform, concentrating on women's clubs, their efforts at child-saving, and the fight to open the girls' training school. Chapter Two discusses the School's administration and its first superintendent, Cynthia Embree, who played a central role in determining GTS policy. Chapter Three concerns the girls who were sent to the GTS, including their family backgrounds and offenses. Chapter Four examines the girls after their release and their continued relations with Superintendent Embree, who often played a strong role in their lives even after they left the School.

MPACT Scores for Lee S. Polanksy

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-02-02 21:50:47

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Students under Lee S. Polanksy

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None