The Advance of the Mobile Woman: Representations of British Women's Physical Mobility, 1660-1820

Author

Amanda Booth Springs, Graduate Center, City University of New YorkFollow

Date of Degree

6-2014

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

English

Advisor

Carrie Hintz

Subject Categories

English Language and Literature | Literature in English, British Isles | Women's Studies

Abstract

Britain's long eighteenth century (1660-1820) underwent an infrastructure and transportation revolution. Over the same period of time, scholars argue, the ideology of "the domestic woman" grew increasingly prevalent. This dissertation explores the improvements to roadways and representations of the various ways in which British women of the period increasingly utilized transportation, equestrianism, and pedestrianism to traverse the nation, which was also reflected in the development of traveling clothing for women. It argues that these literary and pictorial representations depict the tensions around women's increasing capacity for physical movement, contending that the ideology of the domestic woman was largely reactionary rhetoric to this improved capacity for physical mobility.

Recommended Citation

Springs, Amanda Booth, "The Advance of the Mobile Woman: Representations of British Women's Physical Mobility, 1660-1820" (2014). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/290