Women and the Everyday City: Public Space in San Francisco, 1890-1915

Description

In Women and the Everyday City, Jessica Ellen Sewell explores the lives of women in turn-of-the-century San Francisco - a period of transformation of both gender roles and American cities. She shows how changes in the city affected women's ability to negotiate shifting gender norms as well as how women's increasing use of the city played a critical role in the campaign for women's suffrage.

Jessica Sewell is assistant professor of art history and American studies at Boston University.

"Jessica Ellen Sewell takes her readers on an invigorating jaunt through women's history. She shows more vividly than ever before how a generation of women took command of public space and moved decisively and exuberantly onto the streets, and all the way to the voting booths." -Mary Ryan, Johns Hopkins University "Women and the Everyday City illuminates how the shifting geography of consumption transformed women's physical experience of the city-scape and increased their comfort at exerting rights to public space. Sewell makes a significant new contribution to the understanding of urban space and power." -Sarah Deutsch, Duke University