Women in Public: Between Banners and Ballots, 1825-1880

On May 15, 1862, U.S. General Benjamin Butler, commander of occupied New Orleans, ordered that any women who publicly insulted Union soldiers be subject to prosecution as a prostitute. Not all nineteenth-century women, Bulter learned, felt their place was in the home. As his order implies, women were governed by an unwritten code of public conduct, appeared on public streets, spoke out on public issues, and were subjects of public policy. In Women in Public noted historian Mary P. Ryan exam...