The power of femininity in the New South
Subtitle: women's organizations and politics in North Carolina, 1880-1930
By: Anastatia Sims.
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Columbia, S.C
Language: eng
Number of pages: 286
Subjects: Women -- North Carolina -- Societies and clubs -- History; Women in politics -- North Carolina -- History; Women social reformers -- North Carolina -- History
Description: The Power of Femininity in the New South demonstrates how the legendary strength and moral authority of the South's "steel magnolias" inspired turn-of-the-century women to move from the parlor to the political arena.

With a comprehensive examination of the women's voluntary associations that proliferated in North Carolina between 1880 and 1930, Anastatia Sims chronicles the emergence of women - both black and white - in a political terrain torn between the tyranny of white supremacy and the promise of Progressive reform.

She tells how organized women, as they called themselves, came to terms with a sacred cultural icon of the antebellum South - the complex, often contradictory ideal of southern femininity - and how they explored the ideal's possibilities, discovered its limitations, and ultimately transformed it by their own actions.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [258]-276) and index.