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Dissertation Information for Cynthia Diane Culver

NAME:
- Cynthia Diane Culver

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (2004)

ADVISORS:
- Stephen Anthony Aron

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Ruth H. Bloch
- Judith Seltzer

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Gender and generation on the Pacific Slope frontier, 1845--1900

Abstract: This dissertation explores how frontier life affected the gender roles and ideology of Anglo-American farming families in Oregon's Willamette Valley between 1845 and 1900. Uniting western women's history and immigration studies suggests that gender ideology changes more slowly than do gender roles. The gender roles and ideology of the first two generations of white settlers on the Willamette Valley frontier are compared using personal papers, local newspapers, court documents and material culture.

First-generation settlers worked hard to match their lives to the mid-nineteenth-century middle-class ideal of separate work and social roles for men and women. Over their lifetimes, women were gradually freed from field labor, and men from assisting with housework. Favorable conditions in the Willamette Valley enabled Oregon men and women to progress from flexible frontier work roles to widespread participation in a growing national middle class consumer culture in only one generation.

While the first generation strove after middle-class status through refined behavior and separating men's and women's work spheres, the second generation sought to meet new class standards developing in eastern cities during the late nineteenth century. Although women's tasks did not change significantly from the first to the second generation, increased mechanization and availability of cheap fabrics and ready-made clothing reduced the burden of women's productive work. Second-generation women adopted eastern fashions, focusing on refined consumption rather than refined behavior as the marker of middle-class status. Meanwhile, education and freedom from productive work allowed some Willamette Valley daughters to postpone marriage or to take a greater role in the public sphere. Whether they pursued higher class status through consumption or struggled for greater political rights, however, second-generation women did not fundamentally challenge their parents' belief in separate social roles for men and women.

MPACT Scores for Cynthia Diane Culver

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-08-10 21:59:21

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Students under Cynthia Diane Culver

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None