Copyright

By

Alyson Lindsey Moss

2019

Women in Progress and the Power of Patriarchy: A Transnational Comparison of, Japan, Mexico, and Britain

By

Alyson Lindsey Moss

A Thesis Submitted to the Department of California State University Bakersfield In Partial Fulfillment for the Degree of Master of Arts in History

2019

Committee Members:

Dr. Marie Stango Dr. Cliona Murphy Dr. Christopher Tang Women in Progress and the Power of Patriarchy: A Transnational Comparison of Japan,

Mexico, and Britain

By

Alyson Lindsey Moss

This thesis has been accepted on behalf of the Department of History by their supervisory committee:

C~;tshrist ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This project - this tim e consuming, mentally arduous, and three country com parative project - would not have been possible without the support of many wonderful people. If I sound verbose, it is because I have much to say about all those who have helped me write, think, revise, and relax in moments of need. First, to my partner in life and in love, Jeffrey Newby - who read numerous drafts and revisions, and whose own st udying was interrupted with questions from me trying to make sense in my tim es of disorder: thank you, my love. To Dr. Marie Stango, who read each chapter as I finished, and set tim e aside to help me conceptualize terms, comparisons, and context: thank you so much for helping me each step of the way; I could not have continued without your guidance and encour agement. And thank you for challenging m e to do m ore – I have grown so much because of you. I want to acknowledge and thank Dr. Christopher Tang and Dr. Stephen Allen as well. Tha nk you both so much for your insi ght and support. To Dr. Cliona Murphy – thank you for inspiring m e to write this thesis. You have motivated me in more ways than you could know, from undergraduate to gr aduate research. Thank you for your support, advice, and wisdom. I would also like to than k Dr. Constance Orliski who guided m e years before I even knew I would be tackling this thes is. Finally, to my parents and family, thank you for all the love, support, and wine you ga ve me in this process. To you all – Kanpai! ABSTRACT

The late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries witnessed the modernization of patriarchal norms that often intersected with em erging feminist identities and ideas of equality. Looking specifically at the connections betw een Japan, Mexico, and Britain, this project exam ines how these countries negotiated their m odernity and their patriarchal principles through changing middle class women’s roles in society. Particu larly emphasized are the ways in which fem inist women positioned themselves in relation to growing m odern paternalistic national policies. Many of the wom en chosen here e xhibited fluctuating fem inist identities that reveal d ifferent philosophical ideas on wom en’s liberation. Moreover, this flexibil ity was often represented in historically significant female archetypes such as the New Woman, and the Modern Girl. Making this argument, I show that during moderniza tion middle class wom en in Japan, Mexico, and Britain endeavored to map out their own versions of what equality looked like. For som e, this included equal education for m en and women. For others, it meant the complete reformation of gendered politics. The influence of this forced the patriarchal state to transform as well; thos e who exercised patriarchal power had to sim ultaneously progress and attempt to maintain gender hierarchy. Ultimately, this thesis uncovers sim ilarities between patriarchal natio ns that cloak their modernity in progressive rhetoric. TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction…………………………………………………………………..…………..……...1

Chapter One: Male Responses to ‘The Woman Question:’ Negotiating Women’s Roles in a Modernizing Nineteenth Century World……………………………………………………………………….17

Chapter Two: Exploring the Transnational New Woman of the Nineteenth Century: Multivalent Identities and Powerful Patriarchies…………………………………………………………………….………44

Chapter Three: A Path That Has No End: Cultivating Feminist Consciousness in Early Twentieth Century Print Culture…………………………………………………………………………………….……...72

Chapter Four: From Woman to Girl: Exploring the Construction of the Modern Girl in Japan and Mexico………………………………………………………………………………………..….99

Chapter Five: The Promise of Patriarchy: “The Great Interruption” and (In)Equality Through Suffrage………………………………………………………………………………….……...114

Epilogue: The Myth of Suffrage……………………………………………………..…………………….143 LIST OF FIGURES

Image 2.1 “The Parliamentary Female” by John Leech, Punch, 1853 page 65

Image 2.2 “The Coming Race” by George du Maurier, Punch, 1874 66

Image 3.1 “Tipsy” by Kobayakawa Kiyoshi, 1930 107

Image 3.2 “Walking through Ginza” by Hekoten Shimokawa, Tokyo Puck, 1829 109

1

INTRODUCTION

Women have too often been represented as the passive victims of patriarchy . . . but one still needs to be weary of overreacting to this and making it appear as if they were/are not victims at all. Nor should one forget that some women were/are happy to create and further systems based on the oppression of women. 1 Helen Bowen Raddeker

On December 10, 1910, Kanno Sugako was sentenced to death for orchestrating the conspiracy to assassinate Emperor Meiji, known as ‘The Great Treason Incident.’ Kanno’s radicalism had grown from earlier attempts to rectify social and political problems via socialism.

In fact, she began participating in reform-minded movements in the first few years of the twentieth century, a recognized period of increased leftist politics in Japan. As an activist, Kanno edited magazines and published articles that reflected her ideologies. Many of her publications, however, were banned because of their leftist-inspired critiques of the government, especially those that suggested revolution. Kanno also published essays on the status of Japanese women, and many of her feminist solutions to gender questions reflected back to socialism and engaged with anarchism. When Kanno was convicted of treason in 1910, the Japanese public was less concerned with her death sentence and more with character – often questioning her devotion to

Japanese women as her anarchist act placed her on the periphery of “acceptable” leftist thinking.2

Nevertheless, as a feminist, a socialist, and an anarchist, she exemplified the flexible ideological inclinations of modern women in Japan during this time. For Kanno, Emperor Meiji was a representation of not only the divine line from the sun goddess Amatarasu, but also the patriarch

1 Helen Bowen Raddeker, Treacherous Women of Imperial Japan: Patriarchal Fictions Patricidal Fantasies ( Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies, 1997), 26. 2 Mikaso Hane, Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan (University of California Press and Pantheon Books, 1988), 55. Perhaps, however, this disaffection stemmed from the fact that she was a woman carrying out such radical views. Another anarchist feminist who was sentenced to death, Kaneko Fumiko, was also relatively ignored by the Japanese public. For more on these women see Mikaso Hane’s Reflections on the Way to the Gallows or Helen Bowen Raddeker’s Treacherous Women of Imperial Japan. 2 of Japan – the father that was symbolically responsible for people’s oppression and inequality.3

According to Kanno, imperial paternalism reflected “a kind of outrageous legal system and despotic political authority.”4 She spent the latter half of her life protesting this tyrannical reign.

The apex of her dissent was in her plot of assassination. Her death sentence, and its indifferent reactions from the public, ultimately, point to the strength of patriarchal influence in modern

Japanese society: “Because all too obviously, [despite being a period of liberalization] many found convincing the patriarchal-nationalist fiction of the fatherly benevolence of (the emperor’s) officialdom.”5 As Kanno sat in her cell, she reflected on her risks and efforts that opposed oppression: “Another day spent guarding the shadows created by the sunlight that comes through the barred window. I know that the cliff drops one thousand fathoms, yet I rush down the path without turning back.”6

Man’s work is from sun to sun, But woman’s work is never done –

This thesis is an examination of the global triumvirate of women, progress, and patriarchy in modern history. In the late nineteenth century, Japan, Mexico, and Britain experienced exceptional transformation. From economic growth to social change, these countries grappled with ideas of modernity. As both a historical period and an analytic, modernity encompassed a change from previous ways of thinking, acting, or interacting. In Britain, Japan, and Mexico, philosophical and epochal shifts in the social relationships between men and women

(particularly those in the middle class) were especially significant. In examining these contextual moments of change, this thesis looks at how newly cultivated ideas of gender (and racial)

3 For more on this see Helen Bowen Raddeker, Treacherous Women of Imperial Japan. 4 Kanno Sugako, “Reflections on the Way to the Gallows,” January 18, 1911. In Mikaso Hane, Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan (University of California Press and Pantheon Books, 1988), 60. 5 Bowen Raddeker, Treacherous Women, 235. 6 Kanno Sugako, Reflections, 63. 3 equality both combated and conserved conventional social norms. Therefore, a focus on the connections between these specific countries will reveal the intersection of an emerging feminist activism with a progressing patriarchal power.

I am inspired here by Mary Kelley’s Private Woman, Public Stage: Literary Domesticity in Nineteenth Century America (1985). Her analysis of nineteenth century American women writers looks at how middle class women experienced a coexistence of conditioned domesticity and an entrance into a male [literary] space. According to Kelley, this “divided self” positioned women to write publicly about the preservation of their domesticity.7 While Kelley’s analysis complicates the private (woman), public (man) “separate spheres” ideology, her insight into the ways women could be simultaneously public and domestic is helpful in examining a major theme in this thesis: modern middle class women, at times, embodied social and political progress and upheld traditional ideals. At the turn of the nineteenth century, such two ideas were not necessarily mutually exclusive. But questions remain: can women truly represent progress, yet stay tethered to conventional ideals of gender roles? Such an inquiry is explored in the following chapters through three different historical contexts.

There have been many historical analyses of women’s roles in modernizing societies around the globe; these studies have explored women’s changing status in education, the workforce, and politics. Many investigations have focused on feminist driven crusades within a specific nation and/or through comparisons and contrasts with other nations. For example, historians have made connections between suffrage campaigns in the United States and Britain – delving into ways that women from these countries influenced and supported one another in their

7 Mary Kelley, Private Woman, Public Stage: Literary Domesticity in Nineteenth Century America, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 127. 4 efforts for enfranchisement. However, there have been fewer studies regarding similar connections between women and women’s movements in Britain, Japan, and Mexico.

My initial interest in these countries has to do with their specific historical contexts:

Britain was an imperial power, Japan was a formerly isolated sovereign yet rapidly modernizing power, and Mexico was a determined modern nation with a colonized past. Each country presented a unique canvas for a refashioned patriarchy that both similarly, and more strictly, defined gender roles within the modernizing nation-state.8 For this thesis, I am most interested in the ways in which modern women positioned themselves in relation to fluctuating paternalistic national policies. A cultivated feminist consciousness during this time period additionally reveals new philosophical ideas of women’s liberation that incorporated historically significant female archetypes such as the New Woman and The Modern Girl (the moga in Japan, or la chica moderna in Mexico).

The purpose of this thesis is to reveal that the progression of patriarchy and modernizing feminism did not exist independently from nation to nation. Rather, modern ideas of womanhood and patriarchal responses to growing feminism evolved parallel to one another on a transnational scale. While the nations discussed here did not always explicitly reference one another, they often developed in similar ways. For example, communication between Japan and Mexico was much less present than both countries’ interactions with Britain; nevertheless, Japan and Mexico witnessed similar changes in gender roles throughout the late nineteenth and into the twentieth century. This provides an alternative to dominant historical narratives that often focus on such changes between two nations or within a single one. Ultimately, this allows me to consider how the modernization of these nations did not exist in a vacuum, but rather subsisted through similar

8 Caren Kaplan and Norma Alarcon and Minoo Moallem eds, Between Woman and Nation: Nationalism, Transnational Feminisms and the State, (London: Duke University Press, 1999), 1. 5 social progresses and preservations that are especially apparent in women’s changing roles in the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. Comparing three nations is valuable to understand and uncover ways in which gender ideals and ideas multi-directionally connected around the globe; it reveals that there existed similarities between bourgeois women’s changing status, fights for equality, identities, and feminists’ consciousness. I hope to contribute to previous scholarship by showing how the state reacted to, and changed with, women’s claims for equality. This study, therefore, combines previously unconnected historiographies to build on the historical understanding of change over time - to relate progressive modern ideas of gender and race with status quo preservation.

Use of historical theory has been essential to the scholarship presented here. Historian

June Purvis recognizes the difficulties in writing about women’s international histories since

“recovery of women’s past worldwide does not fit neatly into any one theoretical approach.”9

Therefore, this endeavor is not only essential in promoting comparative theory, but also in uncovering transnational parallels of modern concepts and ideas. The difficulty, however, has been in finding sources that directly connect modern conceptions of womanhood, feminist movements, and patriarchal modernity. With this in mind, my method has required much interpretation and the comparative analysis of sources. Most important have been the use of primary sources, which have provided essential insight into potential connections between these countries. Particularly valuable have been printed primary sources such as women’s journals, magazines, popular culture images, autobiographies, newspapers, artwork, and novels. These

9 June Purvis, Women’s History: Britain, 1850-1945 (New York: University of Portsmouth, 1995), 15. I have spent the past decade of my academic career researching ideas of womanhood – particularly the New Woman construct – in Britain, Ireland, the United States, Japan, and most recently Mexico. While I am more adept in some countries than in others, these past studies have inspired me explore how ideas of modern women’s roles, and actions of modern women’s movements, globally connected and interacted. This focus provides a foundation to future studies that cross cultural and global boundaries. 6 sources have illuminated how women in Mexico, Britain, and Japan were often forced to navigate patriarchal authority to achieve equality. The transnational focus has additionally required translations of many texts from Japanese and Spanish to English.10

In 1988, Joan Scott wrote Gender and the Politics of History. In this book, Scott urged historians of feminism to tread lightly when determining gender relationships based on ideological constructions of men/masculine and woman/feminine; in fact, distinguishing between social perceptions of gender remains essential to gender history. Inspired by Scott, Susan Juster states, “What is meant by the terms ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ as a means of organizing social perception – has a direct bearing on the way individual men and women live and relate to one another.”11 Prescribed gender norms – men in public, women in private; men as rational, women as emotional – influenced the ways in which many modern women exercised their politics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but it is not the only lens through which to analyze these women. Understanding the concept of patriarchy additionally becomes necessary when considering this relationship. The concept has often been charged as fixed; however, this comparative work is interested in the idea as a useful term that denotes gender inequality, and one that helps conceptualize gendered power dynamics. According to Joan Scott, “Although sexual relations are defined . . . as social, there is nothing except the inherent inequality of the sexual relation itself to explain why the system of power operates as it does.”12 The purpose of this, therefore, is to highlight moments in modern Mexican, Japanese, and British history wherein men and women equally questioned and sustained idealized gender standards that

10 While much has, appreciatively, already been translated in secondary sources, other primary documents have required my own interpretation. 11 Susan Juster, Disorderly Women: Sexual Politics & Evangelicalism in Revolutionary New England (London: Cornell University Press, 1994), 8. See also Joan Scott, Gender and the Politics of History (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999). 12 Joan Scott, “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis,” The American Historical Review, Vol. 91, No. 5 (1986), 1058. 7 upheld patriarchal norms – such norms in which men held positions of social, political, and economic authority.

Patriarchy as a historical construct is especially important to this thesis. Even as a structured system of male domination over women, patriarchal societies are “not systemic totalities bound to keep women in positions of oppression, but, rather, hegemonic forms of power that expose their own frailty in the very operation of their iterability.”13 This is to say that patriarchal societies do not always reify the idea of patriarchy itself. In this context, the use of the term patriarchy is, therefore, not to be considered as a universal category. Rather, a method that maintained specific power relations, which on occasion, were upheld by both men and women. 14 According to scholar Judith Butler, feminism, and more strictly those who employ feminism, are tasked with “exploiting” such moments of “frailty” within patriarchal structures.15

With this in mind, the definition of feminism is also not fixed or universal. Indeed, feminism should not signify pervasive standardized assumptions of how it has been practiced: “The political assumption that there must be a universal basis for feminism . . . often accompanies the notion that the oppression of women has some singular form discernible in the universal or hegemonic structure of patriarchy or masculine domination.”16 The theoretical complexity of patriarchy and feminism remain essential in understanding the intersection of the two in historical contexts.

Modernity is also used as an analytic here. This thesis adopts the view that modernity was a concept associated with the vast changes occurring during the last half of the nineteenth

13 Judith Butler, “Further Reflections on Conversations of Our Time,” Diacritics 27, no. 1 (1997): 14. 14 This thesis also makes use of the term paternalism to denote the practice of governing individuals; ultimately, this often legitimized the social hierarchies of patriarchal societies. The use of this term will be mostly expended in Chapter Five. 15 Ibid, 14. 16 Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Routledge, 1999), 6. 8 century.17 The modern era itself was a result of industrialization, urbanization, democratic reform and, to some extent, required a rejection of conventionalism. During modernization, various countries (not all) witnessed specific political, social, cultural, and psychological changes that affected their societies. This thesis examines central questions regarding modernity such as: what are the connections between the ways middle class women experienced modern social and political changes in Mexico, Japan, and Britain? How did women’s changing roles and growing feminism intersect with a modernizing and adaptive patriarchal state? At times, in Mexico and

Japan in particular, European influences were especially apparent – as was with British intellectual John Stuart Mill and his ideas on women’s equality. Other times, more localized translations of European concepts occur. In considering these local versions, I am inspired by

Dipesh Chakrabarty’s Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference

(2000). In this book, Chakrabarty decentralizes Europe as the primary model for modernity. He suggests that all societies did not follow the same path toward modernization. Through his use of historicism, Chakrabarty questions the previous universality of modernity, and looks at modernization as a “definable phenomenon . . . a measuring rod for social progress.” 18 In restructuring the way modernity is analyzed, historians must consider varying historical contexts.

Such a redefinition and, its inclusion, have are applicable to particular sections of this thesis that look specifically at ways in which Mexico and Japan internalized certain Western concepts.

17 Historians of Asia have used modernization theory in the 1950s and 1960s as a way to analyze Japan’s transformation during the Meiji period (1868-1912). This theory made a connection between Japan’s changing society in the mid-nineteenth century and its Westernization; this theory argued that a country could not modernize without Westernizing. Yet, since the 1980s, historians like John W. Dower and Dana Buntrock have challenged this aspect of the theory, arguing that modernity is a construct that has associations with Westernization, but that implementing Western culture is not a necessity of modernization. This presents important details when dissecting the modernity of different nations. See Dana Buntrock, “Without Modernity: Japan’s Challenging Modernization,” University of Illinois at Chicago 5, no. 3, (1996), 1. John W. Dower, Ways of Forgetting, Ways of Remembering: Japan in the Modern World (New York: The New Press, 2012), 10. 18 Dipesh Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), 9. 9

Historian Mrinalini Sinha’ Specters of Mother India: The Global Restructuring of an

Empire (2006) builds on Chakrabarty’s approach of provincializing Europe. She argues that such a strategy is a “pluralizing gesture . . . [that] elides too easily the unequal and asymmetrical effects produced by the intertwined and interconnected history of the modern world.”19 Sinha recognizes the importance in highlighting the “‘translational process’” through which supposed universal European concepts “were both adopted and adapted in the colonial context.” 20

Nevertheless, she argues for the necessity in addressing the ways in which European concepts were simultaneously “indispensable and inadequate” when analyzing “insistently global and intersecting history.”21 This thesis is, therefore, both inspired by Chakrabarty in some sections, and makes use of Sinha’s methods when discussing the ways in which Japan and Mexico offered interpretations of British gender ideals. This positions the European model as an influencer in some ways, but not as the universal exemplar of modernity. Such is apparent in that Japan and

Mexico, occasionally through their interactions with the West, developed ideals of modernity that manifested within their particular contexts.

Using global history as an additional method of inquiry shows how feminism reacted to dominating nation-states. Caren Kaplan, Norma Alarcon, and Minoo Moallem argue, “Refusing

‘global feminism’ requires questioning the dominance of the nation-state’s mythic narrativization or representation of itself.”22 This calls for an alternative to the often prevailing Western-centric interpretations of feminist comparative history. Furthermore, it remains the reason why this study positions Mexico and Japan as central focuses through which Britain is routinely interwoven.

19 Mrinallini Sinha. Specters of Mother India: The Global Restructuring of an Empire (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006, 15. 20 Ibid, 15. 21 Ibid, 15-16. 22 Caren Kaplan and Norma Alarcon and Minoo Moallem eds, Between Woman and Nation: Nationalism, Transnational Feminisms, and the State, 13. 10

Such an approach allows this analysis to be a provisional exploration into the intersections of women and gender in transnational history.

My transnational focus presents an array of historiography regarding modernity, patriarchy, feminist consciousness, and suffrage. Certainly, much research has progressed to include a global focus of these topics, which has developed from previous binary comparative histories. For example, the anthology The Modern Girl Around the World: Consumption,

Modernity, and Globalization (2008) traces the global phenomenon of the Modern Girl as she made her mark in countries like South Africa, the U.S., Germany, India, Japan and beyond. The scholars who have contributed to this collection have encouraged new ways in investigating modern concepts of womanhood in various changing political, economic, and social landscapes.

Yet, many of these comparative analyses do not make explicit connections between the three countries presented in this thesis. Further recent, useful scholarship includes Gillian Sutherland’s

In Search of the New Woman: Middle-Class Women and Work in Britain 1870-1914 (2015),

Marnie S. Anderson’s A Place in Public: Women’s rights in Meiji Japan (2010), and Joanne

Hershfield’s Imagining La Chica Moderna: Women, Nation, and Visual Culture in Mexico 1917-

1936 (2008). These studies present relevant secondary material regarding women’s roles in specific national politics. Sutherland, for example, examines women’s economic independence and political engagement at the turn of the century, while Anderson looks at how women attempted to understand their roles as “political subjects” in a changing modern Japanese state.

By comparison, Hershfield explores representations of the modern woman in Mexico, la chica moderna, and investigates how her construction figured into Mexican national identity post- revolution (after 1920). Other scholars have made particular comparisons between middle class women’s roles and suffrage rhetoric in Mexico and Britain that ignite the potential for further 11 comparisons. For example, Sarah A. Buck’s “The Meaning of the Women’s Vote in Mexico,

1917-1953” argues that a shift in feminist rhetoric was a significant factor in gaining enfranchisement. She shows that suffrage rhetoric in Mexico shifted from arguments based on equality to those based on difference. This change endorsed Mexican women’s enfranchisement, and women eventually acquired the vote in 1953 based on their ties to domesticity. With this historiography in mind, what sets my argument apart is the unequivocal claim that there exists a connection between the histories of women, progress, and state endorsed patriarchy in Mexico,

Britain, and Japan – beginning in the late nineteenth century and throughout the progression of female enfranchisement.

The historiography of the New Woman in the West has also provided information on modern ideals of womanhood; arguably, this scholarship has contributed to the complexity of the

New Woman character. As a symbol of female independence, the New Woman emerged in the late nineteenth century and challenged previous ideals that regulated women to an exclusively domestic purpose. However, transnational comparison remains essential in not only understanding this modern female identity, but also in suggesting that modern women had potential to uphold the political and social structure of patriarchy through platforms of independence. Sharon Sievers’ book Flowers in Salt: The Beginnings of Feminist Consciousness in Japan (1983) analyzes Japanese New Women (atarashii onna) and their expressions of political and economic independence at a time when the nation struggled to define modern gender roles.23 Barbara Sato has also contributed to the historiography of the New Woman in

Japan through her analysis of middle-class modern women’s consumerism as a means to achieve

23 Sharon L Sievers, Flowers in Salt: The Beginnings of Feminist Consciousness in Japan (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1983). 12 their “emotional fulfillment.”24 She states that the desires of the New Woman and Modern Girl

(moga) were not to clash with societal ideals, but rather “mapped out new possibilities for self- fulfillment.”25 Dina Lowy’s The Japanese “New Woman” (2007) looks specifically at gender construction of the New Woman in Japan, and incorporates a discussion of the Seito women and their importance within the larger historical narrative of gender and modernity in Japan.26

In Mexico, however, the term “The New Woman” was seldom, if at all, used to describe modern women’s break away from traditional roles; I have yet to come across any scholarship specifically about the Mexican New Woman.27 This is intriguing, as the concept of Modern Girl

(la chica moderna), was and is widely used and explored in the sources. The neglect of the New

Woman, however, does not mean that she did not exist in Mexico. The term itself is not used, but the concept is apparent in the many similarities between these modern women; therefore, it is essential to show the similarities that transnationally existed amid New Women even if similar terminology is not presented in the sources. For, if we overlook that Mexico did not have the

Western idea of the New Woman then we reduce modern Mexican women as incapable of achieving that status.28 On the contrary, modern Mexican women did exhibit similar ideals that are associated with the concept. Therefore, the examination of the New Woman, proposes the term’s relevance to understanding and comparing modern Mexican womanhood; the New

Woman was not absent in Mexico, she has simply been misplaced.

24 Barbara Sato, The New Japanese Woman: Modernity, Media, and Women in Interwar Japan (London: Duke University Press, 2003), 155. 25 Sato, The New Japanese Woman, 155. 26 Dina Lowy, The Japanese “New Woman”: Images of Gender and Modernity, (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2007), 11. Seito when translated to English means bluestocking, which were historically clubs for middle class women to participate in intellectual discourse. Seito eventually became a well-organized newspaper, and its members were a type of New Woman. It is significant in that the magazine circulated works by women for women and contributed to the New Woman debate by including works about marriage, the family system, prostitution, and chastity. 27 This is not to say that the concept of the New Woman was not used in Mexico or has not been used in its historiography; however, it begs for further research on how the idea materialized in modern Mexico. 28 For more on this idea see Sanjay Subrahmanyam, “Intertwined Histories: Cronica and Tarikh in the Sixteenth -Century Indian Ocean World,” History and Theory, Theme Issue 49 (2010): 118-145. 13

With a focus on middle class women and men, this comparative work shows how some privileged women attempted to mark out equality for themselves in different ways and through different values. In turn, this required a dominant patriarchal state to change as well – the culmination of change was evident in the eventual granting of suffrage. However, I argue that leaders in these nations were able to both relinquish and maintain their patriarchy through co- opting the language of feminism. Often times, this was through the very women who asserted their modern feminist identities in ways that linked them both with progress and conventionalism.

In managing this comparative study, this research is focused into five chapters. These chapters explore the evolutions of ideal womanhood and female social participation, which ultimately paralleled with feminist cognizance and organization. Chapter One, “Male Responses to ‘The

Woman Question:’ Negotiating Women’s Roles in a Modernizing Nineteenth Century World,’” examines nineteenth century prominent male interpretations of new and modern roles for women: in Britain, male intellectual John Stuart Mill; in Japan, scholar Fukuzawa Yukichi; and in

Mexico, liberal thinker Genero Garcia. Each of these men sought to answer their nation’s contemporary ‘Woman Question’ – what was to be the new role for women in a modern society?

These men were selected because of their connections to progressive ideas of modern social roles for men and women. The use of progressive language to change women’s place in society, however, did not necessarily produce significant change. This is not to take away from their other achievements as modern male reformers; rather, it is to shed light on the stages of a conciliatory equality.

If Chapter One seeks to show that ‘The Woman Question’ was preemptively answered by prominent modern men, then it is fitting that Chapter Two uncovers the new female identity/identities that emerged in reply. Chapter Two, “Exploring the Transnational New 14

Woman of the Nineteenth Century: Multivalent Identities and Powerful Patriarchies,” explores the significant female responses that attempted to understand a new role for modern women.

Examining magazines publications by women and satirical cartoons, this chapter includes a discussion of the emergence of the New Woman. The women chosen in this chapter demonstrate the variety in public and political female participation in Japan, Britain, and Mexico. In Mexico, this discussion looks into the importance of race in defining middle class female identity during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Chapter Three, “A Path That Has No End: Cultivating

Feminist Consciousness in Early Twentieth Century Print Culture,” looks at the growth in feminist consciousness and identity within prominent magazines and literature of the early twentieth century. This chapter includes the evolution of the New Woman from the turn of the century. What becomes clear is that the New Woman identity, alongside and with the growth in feminist consciousness, intersected with ideas that often aligned modern women with the patriarchal state.

Chapter Four, “From Woman to Girl: Exploring the Construction of the Modern Girl in

Japan and Mexico,” is a brief exploration into the emergence of the Modern Girl in Japan and

Mexico. This chapter is less of a landmass and more of a bridge between chapters three and five.

It recognizes that this new type of woman (who was constructed as girl) complicated feminism and modern female identity. While the analysis in this section is brief, it is important in understanding the ways in which language circumscribed modern women’s identity through associating her with either masculinity or girlhood. The last chapter attempts to disrupt the teleological narrative that suffrage gave equality. By comparing the attainment of suffrage,

Chapter Five, “The Promise of Patriarchy: “The Great Interruption” and (In)Equality Through

Suffrage,” includes various focuses regarding women, feminism, gender, and nation building. 15

Two questions remain central: if there are similarities in feminist consciousness and gender constructions in Mexico, Britain, and Japan, what are the reasons for the significant variations of female enfranchisement? More importantly, in spite of these variations, how did these states maintain patriarchal norms alongside growth in feminist activism? The significance here is that suffrage did not rectify inequality. This chapter maintains a focus on Mexico because of its comparatively “late” female enfranchisement, which I argue complicates idea of equality.

Furthermore, while not a concentration in this thesis, the intermittent inclusion of the United

States remains necessary as a significant power and its influence in the global realm of modernization and suffrage movements. Finally, the Epilogue entitled, “The Myth of Suffrage,” brings the discussion of suffrage and feminism into the twenty-first century. This brief and final consideration looks at the historical memory of suffrage - an often perceived apex in fights for equality.

I hope that this thesis will show that many women contributed to, and shared, a variety of feminist consciousness that was influenced by different politics and efforts to dismantle patriarchy and, at times perhaps unknowingly, maintain its authority. While this type of conceptualization tends to complicate the definition of feminism, it also brings in the complexities of individual experience with ideas of progress. In her book, Women, History, and

Theory (1984), Joan Kelly states: “The moment one assumes that women are part of humanity in the fullest sense . . . what emerges is a fairly regular pattern of relative loss of status for women precisely in those periods of so-called progressive change.”29 This speaks to the contradictory connections between progress for nation and conventionality for women’s statuses. There remains a significant use of gender as analytic within this thesis; the comparative nature

29 Joan Kelly, Women, History, and Theory: The Essays of Joan Kelly, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1984), 2. 16 presented here reveals potential similarities in how concepts of gender materialized in different historical contexts. According to historian Natalie Zemon Davis, investigating the range “in sexual symbolism” allows historians “to find out what meaning they had and how they functioned to maintain the social order or to promote its change.”30 This is especially useful when comparing the countries of Japan, Britain, and Mexico as their varying historical contexts allow a better understanding of the strength in patriarchal standards to utilize the language of feminism that preserve(d) an idealized social order.

Whether domination comes in the form of the male appropriation of the female's reproductive labor or in the sexual objectification of women by men, the analysis rests on physical difference. Any physical difference takes on a universal and unchanging aspect, even if theorists of patriarchy take into account the existence of changing forms and systems of gender inequality. 31 Joan Scott

30 Jeanne Boydston, “Gender as a Question of Historical Analysis,” Gender and History, Vol. 20, No. 3 (2008): 558-583. 31 Joan Scott, Gender and the Politics of History, 34.

17

CHAPTER ONE

MALE RESPONSES TO ‘THE WOMAN QUESTION’: NEGOTIATING WOMEN’S ROLES IN A MODERNIZING NINETEENTH CENTURY WORLD

In 1868, Japan experienced a political revolution known as the Meiji Restoration. Ending the feudal, military rule of the Tokugawa shogunate, the restoration led to significant social, cultural, economic, and political changes.1 Some of the changes of the Meiji period (1868-1912) included the reinstatement of the imperial system, as well as new policies of foreign relations.2

There was a concerted effort on behalf this new government to bring Japan into the “global order of nation-states.”3 In further creating this new sense of nation, changing gender norms became especially important modernizing platforms. During the Meiji period, prominent male scholar

Fukuzawa Yukichi advocated for a change in women’s status. Fukuzawa stated, “The old custom of the feudal days which valued lineage of a family above all other things and forced the maintenance of the line on the male members of the family, pushing women into a position of virtual non-existence - that custom, from now on, must be discontinued completely.”4 As one of the most well-known participants during Meiji Japan’s fujin ronso (the woman controversy),

Fukuzawa stressed that the basis of equality between men and women rested in their monogamous relationships.5 Fukuzawa brought further awareness to modern roles for women when he attempted to dismantle Neo-Confucian ideals that had placed women in submissive

1 In fact, these changes were so significant that some scholars have deemed this a period of revolution. Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 61 and 75. 2 During the Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the Edo period, (1603-1868) the military leaders adhered to isolationism. With the Meiji Restoration, a significant shift in international policy occurred that opened up the country to foreign contact. For more on this shift see Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan, 59. 3 Ibid. 4 Fukuzawa Yukichi, “On Japanese Women,” The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa (1899), ed., trans. Eiichi Kiyooka (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1988), 53-54. 5 The literal translation of the kanji for fujin is “madam” or “lady,” with the abbreviated honorific “Mrs.” This further suggests that ‘The Woman Question’ in Japan was not necessarily one that was attributed to lower class women, but rather to noble wives. Further research on this meaning would be useful to understand Meiji Japan’s historical context in regards to modern women’s roles. 18 roles. Discontent with women’s subordinate roles in marriage, Fukuzawa called attention to, and heavily examined ways to rectify, Japan’s lack of civility.6 His writings were heavily influenced by Western concepts of modernity; most notable are such philosophies regarding modern gender roles, which were inspired from his visits to the United States and from earlier texts by British philosopher John Stuart Mill. Writing at a time when Meiji Civil Codes and new laws were placed in effect, Fukuzawa’s liberal works show that the Western promulgated ‘Woman

Question’ remained a contended transatlantic issue. In fact, translations of Mill’s The Subjection of Women appeared in Japan as early as 1878 with some publications endorsed by the Ministry of

Education. 7 This meant that there existed a clear Western inspired agenda on progressing women’s roles in Japanese society that are comparable to changes women faced in other nations during a similar time period.

In Britain, Japan, and Mexico the nineteenth century marked an era of modernization - one of exceptional transformation that involved technological advancement, industrialization, and rapid urbanization. Alongside this developmental growth arose not only the power of the nation-state, but also an understanding that modernity itself necessitated, on some level, social progress. In fact, it was the transformative process of modernity that cultivated new ways for governments to relate to their publics, which simultaneously encouraged ideas of equality and alternative ways for people to relate to one another. This meant that as individual nations were attempting to map out their places within a modernizing world, so too were men and women seeking to define new roles within a reforming society. Emerging egalitarian ideas often appeared when people compared their positions to others during this time of change: men and

6 This idea that women’s status was indicative of a nation’s lack of civility was a Western patriarchal notion that perpetuated the superiority of the West versus the East – an idea that will be developed in this chapter. 7 Fukamauchi Motoi, Miru danjo dōken ron (1878) in The Emergence of the Modern Sino-Japanese Lexicon, trans. Joshua A. Fogal (Boston: Brill, 2015), 69. See also translations of the first two chapters of Mill’s Subjection by Fukama Naiki’s Danjo Dōkenron (Shibaku, Tokyofu: Yamanakaichibee, 1878). 19 women, the bourgeoisie and the working class, minority groups and mainstream culture. Most important to this chapter are the ways in which prominent male discourse on gender roles manifested into realities for modern middle-class women who experienced these changes. As the nineteenth century witnessed the spread of liberal philosophies regarding gender equality, however, there remained a stronghold on the conventional idealization of gender roles. This becomes apparent in the state sanctioned protection and maintenance of cardinal nineteenth century female values such as virtue, modesty, and obedience. The result was an amalgamation of idealization and progress, which created new, but not wholly progressive, ideas of modern womanhood. Consequently, while prominent liberal inspired men in Japan, Britain, and Mexico envisioned reformist ideas regarding women’s roles, ultimately, each state was able to negotiate a new equality rhetoric with older patriarchal values under the guise of modernity.

One of the most intriguing turn of the century modern discourses rested in ‘The Woman

Question’ – what was to be the new role for women in a changing society? In answering this question, prominent male thinkers in Britain, Japan, and Mexico were able to conceptualize modern gender roles, specifically roles for middle class women. Often, these men remained at the forefront regarding the modern gender role debate during this period, ultimately giving them authority to discuss what women’s roles should look like. This was especially true for John

Stuart Mill, who was transnationally recognized. For example, while John Stuart Mill’s wife,

Harriet Taylor Mill, was a well-known philosopher, women’s rights advocate, and co-author to some of his noteworthy writings, it was nevertheless the man Mill whose name circulated the globe alongside such liberal ideas and heavily influenced Japan’s Fukuzawa Yukichi and fellow

Meiji intellectual Mori Arinori. Moreover, it was John Mill whose philosophies were taught at 20

La Escuela Nacional Preparatoria in Mexico where future liberal thinker Genero García attended.8

Concerns about modern gender roles and idealized Japanese, Victorian, and Mexican values intensified the polemics regarding the question of womanhood. How can women’s roles modernize and progress within the confines of a patriarchal structure determined on maintaining female subordination to men? This question is explored in three sub-sections in this chapter. The first analysis is an examination of each country’s ideal model middle class woman, and delves into ways these ideals intersected transnationally. Second is a comparison of various male interpretations of modern womanhood that shed light on the ways patriarchal power was negotiated within modern gender roles. For example, the focus of two men from the Meiji intellectual group, Fukuzawa Yukichi and Mori Arinori, suggest how Meiji Enlightenment thinkers constructed a specific vision of modern Japanese womanhood that often included traditional rhetoric. Additionally, the governmental modernizing phase in Mexico, the Porfiriato

(1876-1911), reveals a redefinition of ideals through the integration of beliefs on biological and social pre-condition. Such a phase in Mexican history parallels British progressive conservatism and marks a similar transatlantic ideology on modern gender roles. The proposed connection between these three countries primarily surrounds the spread of Mill’s progressive ideas regarding women’s equality to men and the ways in which these ideas saturated society; yet,

8 This focus on Mill as the proprietor of modern liberalism and new ideas about gender roles may have much to do with his local and international reputation as a social-political philosopher. His transnational success may have less to do with the fact that he was simply a man (since Mary Wollstonecraft’s ideas were equally transatlantic decades earlier) and more to do with the fact that he was a feminist man writing about gender equality with his wife, Harriet Taylor Mill. Additionally, Mill was writing and publishing at a time where there was cheaper print and travel compared with a century earlier. Mills ideas in On Liberty pushed his successes and notoriety even further and helped him gain a seat in Parliament in 1865, further launching his reputation. Important to note, is his attempt in 1867 to include women’s suffrage into the Second Reform Bill, which led to the first debate regarding votes for women. Parliamentary Archives GB-06. “Appendix to the Report of the House of Commons Select Committee of Public Petitions,” HC/CL/JO/6/416 (1866) Parliamentary Archives, Living Heritage Women and the Vote: Collections Signature of the 1866 Petition, https://www.parliament.uk/about/living- heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/parliamentary-collections/1866-suffrage- petition/collecting-the-signatures/. 21 what lingers in this tripartite analysis is that even despite the diffusion of liberalism, a conventionalism ultimately infiltrated philosophes about middle class women’s place in modern society.

THE IDEAL

Idealized models of womanhood were persistent even during early modernization. Most scholars refer to these roles in Britain as models of “True Womanhood” influenced by the Cult of

Domesticity, which perpetuated cardinal values of submissiveness, piety, and purity in middle class women.9 In Britain, the Angel in the House represented these venerated qualities and became synonymous with the perfect middle class wife. Such angel women were pious, docile, dutiful, and often regulated to conventionally innate feminine tasks: cooking, sewing, tending to the children. While the Victorian Angel in the House image grew in popularity decades after

Coventry Patmore's publication of the poem in 1862, its projection of the “proper” role for elite women remained a relevant and lasting image during later periods of modernization.10 In Mexico, a similar archetype for women, marianismo (The Marian Ideal) became a “cult of feminine spiritual superiority” and linked women’s exemplar social position to the perfect mother of

Jesus.11 Not only a symbol of ideal womanhood and morality, marianismo also perpetuated the belief of motherhood as sacred and exposed such religious connotations fundamental to gender

9 Barbara Welter, “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860,” American Quarterly 18, no. 2 (1966): 151- 174. 10 In fact, it was Virginia Woolf who remarked in 1931 that "killing the Angel in the House was part of the occupation of a woman writer," which suggests that well into the twentieth century this conventionalism was combated as a misnomer to truly modern womanhood. Virginia Woolf, “Professions for Women,” The Death of the Moth and Other Essays, 27 March 2016, accessed 15 October 2018, https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/w91d/ chapter27.html. 11 This ideal explicitly placed Mexican women as “counterpoised [to] machismo, the cult of virility.” As such, it propelled a dichotomous relationship between men and women in Mexico and reinforced a different, but complementary relationship. Silvia Arrom, “Teaching the History of Hispanic-American Women,” The History Teacher 13, no. 4 (1980): 496. 22 roles in Mexico. The distinction of a woman’s moral goodness solicits notable similarity between marianismo and the feminine ideal in Britain, as this ideology not only put women on a pedestal, but also suggested that all women were predestined for domestic purpose.12 Therefore, a perfect mixture of devoted wife and mother suggest a dominant nineteenth century model womanhood, which simultaneously reveals an overshadowing paternal rhetoric inherent in conventionally ideological gender roles.

Idealized gender roles also were prevalent in nineteenth century Japan. For example, most Japanese aristocratic women of the Tokugawa period (1603-1868) were held to similar conservative values of morality.13 Elite Japanese women assumed a predestined slot upon the

Neo-Confucian hierarchical scale that was solely based on their female gender; if the ruler was above his subject and the father above his son, then the husband was above his wife.14 The

Tokugawa shogunate (the military leader in medieval Japan) promoted Confucian values that also endorsed ideas of filial piety – a virtue of respect for the family unit and therefore women’s

“proper” place within the family. The emphasis on virtue, morality, and respect placed Japanese women in a position of subordination to their husbands and was justified with the philosophical teaching of Confucianism. Therefore, a similar thread can be found in examining model roles for

12 There is a shared experience in this archetypal feminine in the nineteenth century that deserves further analysis. In her book Transatlantic Travel in Nineteenth-Century Latin America: European Women Pilgrims, Adriana Mendez Rodenas discusses various European travelers who ventured to Latin America and found a “renewal of their feminine identity, understood as an affirmation of a shared female condition.” These women were able to project an understanding of a “mutual mirroring of identities” that helps establish a connection between ideals of womanhood and later feminist consciousness. Adriana Mendez Rodenas, Transatlantic Travel in Nineteenth-Century Latin America: European Women Pilgrims (Pennsylvania: Bucknell University Press, 2013), 209. 13 The Tokugawa shogunate marks a period “free of war.” Also known as the Edo period, the long reign of the Tokugawa shogunate was characterized as one with economic growth and a strictly enforced social order. A reinforced caste system of “paternalistic benevolence” was maintained, but ultimately it was this inequality in general that led to social and political unrest. Andrew Gordon states, “Rulers and the wealthy were attacked not so much for their status itself, but for the failure to exercise the duty of benevolence understood to come with status.” Andrew Gordon A Modern History of Japan, 34. 14 Kaibara Ekiken, Onna Daigaku (The Greater Learning for Women). Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. Women in World History: Primary Sources, Accessed 15 October 2018, http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/p/84.html. 23 women in Japan, Mexico, and Britain. All placed and emphasis on morality, piety, and submissiveness. The significance of idealized womanhood was not only that it transcended nations, but that it also eclipsed differences in religion and philosophical beliefs. Britain was predominantly Protestant, Japan endorsed Confucianism, and Mexico was predominantly

Catholic; therefore, a paternalistic ideology dominated the national narrative regardless of religion.15 This not only shows that there were influences and parallels across time and space that conjure possible effects on later social change, but also marks a common thread of patriarchy in state sanctioned roles for women. In Japan, the ways in which Neo-Confucianism affected women’s status through the early part of the nineteenth century is essential in understanding how modern patriarchy was able to blend with progress and create new roles for women. Furthermore, transnational connections of idealized gender roles provide an important foundation in suggesting that patriarchal ideas were much more powerful than their use in coercing women into subordination; rather, such an ideology was evolved to successfully infiltrate modernity and impact the lives and positions of women.16

THE INTRODUCTION OF LIBERAL PHILOSOPHIES

Nineteenth century Britain, Japan, and Mexico witnessed a wave of modern re- imagination aimed at a new, contemporary role for middle class women. As with the

15 The past century of census data reveals the predominance of Catholicism in Mexico from 1895 to 2000: 1895: 99.1%; 1900: 99.5%; 1910: 99.2%; 1921: 97.1%; 1930: 97.7%; 1940: 96.6%; 1950: 98.2%; 1960: 96.5%; 1970: 96.2%; 1980: 92.6%; 1990: 89.7%; 2000: 87.9%. Vid. R. González, Derecho eclesiástico mexicano (Mexican Ecclesiastical Law), in J. G. Navarro (coord.), “Estado, Derecho y Religión en América Latina” (“State, Law and Religion in Latin America”), Marcial Pons, Madrid, 2009, 162 in Alberto Patino Reyes “Religion and the Secular State in Mexico,” https://www.iclrs.org/content/blurb/files/Mexico.pdf. 16 This is further reinforced in patriarchal idealized roles for men. There existed a worry for men if women’s roles received too much liberal progress because it would blur the lines between what was considered ideally masculine and feminine. This meant that keeping masculinity protected necessitated the preservation of believed feminine values. Yet, the lines between masculinity and femininity become further blurred with the introduction of the New Woman and an increase in radical feminism. Such transgressive characters will be discussed in more depth in Chapter Three and Four of this thesis. 24

Enlightenment centuries before, this period grappled with new philosophies regarding the ways in which groups of people should relate to each other in a new society. Britain, Japan, and

Mexico saw an influx of liberal and progressive ideas regarding modern relationships between men and women. Notable are the writings of John Stuart Mill, who famously published his piece

On the Subjection of Women in 1861. He argued that the subordination of women obstructed

“human improvement” and did not allow for the modern development of society. 17 As a philosopher and literary innovator, Mill enticed public opinion with creative discussions regarding women’s human rights. He challenged entrenched gender norms such as those influenced by images of the “angel in the house.” Additionally, Mill held that the family unit could be the impetus for progressive change in women’s equal status to men: “I believe that equality of rights would abate the exaggerated self-abnegation which is the present artificial ideal of feminine character…” 18 According to Mill, the institution of marriage symbolized a stronghold of patriarchy on the lives of women. Historian Elieen Hunt Botting argues that Mill’s complicated relationship with marriage legitimized his advocacy of women’s rights. In fact,

Botting describes that it was Harriet Taylor Mill’s “enduring sense of obligation to her first husband” that was influential on John Mill’s own feminist ideas concerning conventional patriarchal institutions. According to Botting, “By bravely recognizing men’s share of this emotional burden Mill could make patriarchal marriage an even more urgent problem for the human species to confront and solve.”19 Therefore, Mill’s indirect experiences with patriarchy mirrored women’s direct relationships with patriarchal institutions; ultimately, making the power of patriarchy a human problem that required significant change. This meant that women’s place

17 John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women (London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1869), 7. 18 Ibid, 77. 19 Eileen Hunt Botting, “Human Stories: Wollstonecraft, Mill, and the Literature of Human Rights,” Wollstonecraft, Mill, and Women’s Human Rights (Yale University press, 2016), 205. 25 in marriage necessitated revolution if, according to Mill, equality was to exist as a prerequisite of modern society.20 With this in mind, it is clear why some focused on a change to women’s status as essential to modernization.

Mill’s philosophical writings were widely circulated in the latter half of the nineteenth century and contributed to significant transnational discourses on progressive ideas. His texts On

Liberty (1859) and The Subjection of Women (1869) facilitated debate surrounding ‘The Woman

Question’ in Mexico and Japan.21 For example, the philosophies regarding societal relationships in On Liberty challenged others to consider new ways to view equality in marriage. Specifically,

Mill argued that a married couple’s mutual power to divorce meant that society could not hold authority over such an individual choice. Mill writes that marriage “should require nothing more than the declared will of either party to dissolve it.”22 Such an emphasis on equality in marriage and decisions concerning divorce were also demands made by male literati in Japan and Mexico; changing women’s status in marriage was one of the first transnational resolutions to ‘The

Woman Question’ even years after Mill’s publications. This marital-model of progress apparent in Mill’s writings in On Liberty, was then reinforced in The Subjection, wherein Mill asserted his favor of marriage based on equal conditions.23 Mill writes, “The despotic power which the law gives to the husband may be reason to make the wife assent to any compromise by which power is practically shared between the two, but it cannot be the reason why the husband does.”24 Here,

Mill not only recognized the substructure of subjection inherent in marriage, but also that such a structure was often legally endorsed. These problems, according to Mill, required significant

20 Certainly, not all modern societies chose to inforce equality in every aspect of life. Nevertheless, equality based rhetoric, inspired by ideas of liberalism, can be associated with conceptions of modernity. 21 Hunt Botting, “Human Stories,” 239. 22 John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (London: Longman, Roberts & Green, 1859), 185. 23 Mill, The Subjection, 54 and Botting, “Human Stories,” 234. 24 Ibid, 75. 26 changes to uplift women’s status as equal citizens. Such ideas were circulated around the globe and eventually culturally translated into the creation of modern gender roles in Japan and Mexico.

The inspiration of Mill’s liberalism on transatlantic gender roles is apparent in the work of Mexican historian and academic Genero García whose educational and professional writings suggest his many encounters with Mill’s texts. García attended the private school Escuela

Nacional Prepatoria, and in 1887 enrolled in the Escuela Nacional de Jurisprudencia in Mexico

City. While in attendance, García interacted with Mill’s writings on liberty, equality, and

Unitarianism.25 By 1894, García had worked as a licensed attorney, and by 1898 he had been elected and re-elected as a representative in the National Congress. An educated and renowned man of his time, García also published critical works on women’s education and rights. In 1891 he wrote Apuntes sobre la condicin de la mujer (Notes on Women’s Condition) in which he, commented on female subjugation in Mexico:

La igualdad es condicin primera de la libertad, sin la cual no es posible bienestar alguno... verdades hermanas, no pueden tener vida separada: cualquiera desigualdad debe considerarse como una mutilacin de la libertad de ciertos individuos, en beneficio de otros./Equality is the first condition of freedom, without which no welfare is possible... true sisters, they cannot have a separate life: any inequality should be considered as a mutilation of the freedom of certain individuals, for the benefit of others.26

García is explicit regarding his stance on women’s roles in society, and that equality was an obligation of a modern society. Studying Mexican history at this time, however, shows us that

Mexico had fallen to the same patriarchal manipulation as Britain and Japan. García argues that women’s inequality in Mexico existed for “incontestable reasons . . . despite philosophical

25 In fact, Mill’s writings were so often referenced in Escuela Nacional Academia that on the centenary of his birth in 1906, the school held a special memorial with the reading of his influential works. Clementina Diaz y de Ovando and Elisa Garcia Barragan, La Escuela Nacional Preparatoria: Los Afanes y Los Dias 1867-1910 (Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 2006), 260. 26 Genaro García, Apuntes sobre la condicion de la mujer (Mexico: 1891), 7. 27 teachings.”27 Indeed, he points to the role of a liberal philosophy on gender equality in Mexico that has explicitly been ignored, or perhaps incorrectly appropriated. García’s multiple references to Mill in Apuntes indicated a liberal feminism that mirrored that of the British intellectual. In fact, both men similarly reflected on the oppressive, patriarchal marriage system in their respective countries. It is a “tiranía doméstica,” or “domestic tyranny,” García states, which perpetuates women’s married statuses as slaves masked in “lady’s clothing.”28 Again, we see reference to the domestic as the impetus for change: “La desigualdad en ninguna parte como en el matrimonio es tan perjudicial al individuo/The inequality nowhere like in marriage is so damaging to the individual.”29

There existed tremendous irony embedded within such a widespread, transnational circulation of liberal philosophies regarding women’s modern roles. Alongside the struggle to improve women’s position in society, certain individuals in the modernized West perpetuated a

“patriarchic myth” that the status of women indicated a country’s progress toward

“civilization.”30 As a method of legitimizing imperialism, some countries attempted to exploit this idea in their efforts of colonization and expansion of empire.31 Such patriarchal logic has placed the plight of women as “evidence of barbarism,” and has given power to the colonization process.32 In fact, the claim became a perquisite for a modern and developed nation even while women in the West recognized its paradox. American suffragists Susan B. Anthony and

27 Ibid, 7-8. 28 Ibid, 24-25. 29 Ibid, 50-51. 30 See Sharon Sievers, Flowers in Salt: The Beginnings of Feminist Consciousness in Modern Japan, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1983), 10. One of the West’s criticisms of Meiji Japan was that they were “uncivilized,” especially in regard to their treatment of women. The term “civilized” here to reiterate that the Japanese made efforts in the late nineteenth century to distinguish themselves as a developed nation. 31 This idea is also apparent in Chapter Five’s discussion of suffrage and war. 32 This idea continues, as seen in 2001, with First Lady Laura Bush’s remarks regarding the position of Afghan women in their country as proof of a lack of civilization. Ann Towns, “The Status of Women as a Standard of ‘Civilization,’” European Journal of International Relations 15, no. 4 (2009): 682. 28

Elizabeth Cady Stanton remarked on this specific decree: “And now all the writers on Eastern civilization tell us the one insurmountable obstacle to the improvement of society in those countries is the ignorance and superstition of the women. … Hence the self-assertion, the antagonism, the rebellion of women, so much deplored in England and the United States, is the hope of our higher civilization.”33 While women in the West used the paradoxical nature of this myth to justify their claims for equality, it still linked the status of women with the imperial process and, consequently, perpetuated patriarchal values of protection and male authority. This sheds light on important context when discussing modern Japan; a country that sought to prove its civility in prescribing new roles for Japanese women. Therefore, within the context of Meiji

Japan’s modernization, this Western myth rang true, and women’s roles within society became targets of change. Through modern Japan, it becomes apparent how difficult it was to uphold [an image of] civility when any proposals for women’s status reflected superficiality rather than substantial change.

The impact of Western Enlightenment thinking on changing conceptions of Japanese gender roles is apparent in the discourse among Japanese intellectuals, the Meirokusha (1873-

1875).34 In the mid-nineteenth century, a similar influx of Western and liberal ideas on gender relations influenced the ways in which male intellectuals envisioned modern Japanese womanhood. During the Meiji period, the new ruling oligarchy sought to distance themselves from Tokugawa reign; by proxy, this included previous ways of idealizing women’s roles in society. The Meiji era marked an important transition from an isolated and feudal Japanese society to a more modern progressive one, and the state attempted to qualify this progress in its

33 Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “The Kansas Campaign, 1867” in The Complete History of Women’s Suffrage: All 6 Volumes in One Addition (Musaicum Books, 2017). 34 The Meirokusha (Meiji Six Society) was a group of male intellectuals who met during the early years of the Meiji era and often debated issues concerning Japanese modernity. Most important to this paper are their discussions on Japanese women. 29 prescribed roles for women. The Meirokusha were the first to debate ‘The Woman Question’ in

Meiji Japan.35 Their experiences with the West gave them a “superior” knowledge of how to integrate modern ideas into Japanese culture.36 Intellectuals Fukuzawa Yukichi and Mori Arinori produced various writings on gender roles during the Meiji. Publication of their writings in the

Meiroku zasshi (a social criticism journal) helped promote new and modern ideas of women’s roles. In fact, it was Mill who heavily influenced Mori’s perceptions of Japanese womanhood as witnessed in his “Saisho-ron” (“On Wives and Mistresses”). 37 Similar to Mill’s On the

Subjection of Women, Saisho-ron explored issues such as equality between husbands and wives, and the importance of educating women.38 In fact, Mori and Fukuzawa had a twofold goal during modernization: to uphold Japanese civility within the eyes of foreign nations, and to do so by changing the status of Japanese women.39 This connects back to the idea in the West that the status of women marked civilization. It also suggests that foreign nations were pushing for this change in status. “Status” is the important term that is emphasized here. Unlike Mill and García,

Japanese intellectuals did not necessarily strive to increase the rights of women, but merely their status in marriage. This meant that the transmission of modern British (and American) ideas of progressive womanhood were important to Japan and its modernization.40

Significant changes at this time centered on Fukuzawa’s perceptions of middle-class women’s equality in the home. Fukuzawa declared that one of the most important changes rested

35 Marnie S. Anderson, A Place in Public: Women’s Rights in Meiji Japan (Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2010), 61. 36 Much of these experiences were a result of government sponsored trips to the United States – an effort to exchange social, cultural, and education ideas. 37 Mori’s "Saisho-ron" first appeared in the Meiroku zasshi and ignited debate surrounding the idea of equal rights for men and women in Japan. See Seiichi Hasegawa, “‘Saisho-ron’: Divorce on Wives and Mistresses by Mori Arinori,” Lifelong Education and Libraries 1 (2001), accessed 12 September 2018, http://hdl handle net/2433/43583, 9. 38 Ivan Parker Hall, Mori Arinori (Cambride, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1973), 253. 39 For more discussion on equal rights versus equal status, see Marnie Anderson, A Place in Public, 62-65. 40Ryoichi Fujuwara, “‘Japanese Intellectuals’ Perceptions of Gender Issues and the Utilization of Western Knowledge in the 1870s,” Asian Thought and Society 19, (1994): 247. 30 in altering earlier Confucian concepts of innate female inferiority in marriage. Upon his visit to the United States, Fukuzawa observed that most middle class American women not only bore more responsibilities, but also possessed a sense of authority, which he argued was lacking among prominent Japanese women. He saw American women who owned land, were heads of households, and even possessed their own wealth.41 This led Fukuzawa to believe that a fixed definition of “authority” was a crucial requisite for the privileged modern female role. 42

According to Fukuzawa, this meant significant changes to women’s status within the family unit:

“The house she lives in belongs to a man. The children she brings up belong to her husband.

Without property, without rights, without even children, she is no more than a parasite in her husband’s home.” 43 Notably, what Fukuzawa advocated was the implementation of vital institutional changes regarding women’s roles in a modern society. As Fukuzawa sought to revolutionize women’s conventional roles through changes in marital status and property rights, his next step called for education, so that women could progress and join the modern state. Thus, to function properly in this new society, women needed an education that would support a stronger, more civilized Japan. 44 This signified an important first step in connecting women’s intellectual development as an asset to the state.

Fukuzawa believed that female education benefitted a woman’s management of the household and, therefore, would change her status as a mere domestic servant to an equal authority in the family. For example, he argued that it was necessary for women to be educated

41 Fukuzawa Yukichi, “On Japanese Women,” edited by, translated in Eiichi Kiyooka, Fukuzawa Yukichi on Japanese Women (Japan: University of Tokyo Press, 1988), 13 42 Carmen Blacker, The Japanese Enlightenment: A Study of Writings of Fukuzawa Yukichi,” (London: Cambridge University Press, 1969), 87. See also, Edward Sylvester Morse, Japan Day by Day 187, 1878-79, 1882­ 83, Volume I, (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1917), 83. 43 Fukuzawa Yukichi, “Nihon Fujinron” in Juji Shinpo (1885), 6-10. http://iiif.lib.keio.ac.jp/FKZ/F7- A41/pdf/F7-A41.pdf. Here, Fukuzawa makes no mention of divorce rights, but rather emphasizes that a women’s role as wife necessitated elevation. 44 Fukuzawa, “On Japanese Women,” translated in Kiyooka, Fukuzawa Yukichi, 14-17. 31 in family finances, to strengthen power of their familial responsibilities.45 This outlook provided those women who could afford to spend their time on education with a more autonomous relationship within the family and community. According to Fukuzawa, as Japanese women’s education grew, they were no longer considered mere “instruments for breeding,” but rather modern citizens who asserted their independence as modern Japanese women.46 Mori also saw female education as an important step toward improving the status of women in Japan. As one of

Meiji Japan’s leading diplomats, he supported the Iwakura Mission (1871-1873), which influenced his promotion of Japan’s modern educational system. For Mori, this diplomatic mission offered the Japanese government “valuable firsthand exposure to the West.”47 Several important political figures spent almost two years observing Western practices and institutions.

Significantly, the Japanese government also sent a group of young girls on the mission to be educated in Western teachings. Similar to Fukuzawa, Mori believed that educating young women would make them better mothers and wives, which not only benefitted the family unit, but also the Japanese state. Reminiscent of the philosophy of Republican Motherhood, Mori recognized the influence mothers had on the character development of their children; therefore, female education became crucial because it eventually shaped Japanese (male) citizens.48 This presents an important underlying characteristic of Mori and suggests much about his vision of a modernizing Japan. For example, Mori believed in raising intellectually superior Japanese

45 Fukuzawa, “The New Greater Learning for Women,” translated in Kiyooka, Fukuzawa Yukichi, 235. 46 Ibid, 236. 47 Gordon, A Modern History of Japan, 73. The broader context for the Iwakura Mission was to reestablish treaties between Japan and the West. According to Andrew Gordon, “The Japanese were told they had to bring their legal and political system up to European standards before treaty revision could even be considered.” This presents important historical contextual background. For the Japanese government, there coexisted a “respect for the value and power of Western ideas” alongside an “ongoing anger at the unequal political relationship between Japan and the Western powers.” For more on this see Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan, 73. 48 Republican Motherhood was a newly defined role for middle class women in the United States following the results of the Revolutionary War. The term coined by historian Linda Kerber in 1980, Republican Motherhood signaled women’s new roles as guardians of their family’s civic virtue and morality. This new role justified women’s political role within the state and allowed educated women to become even more socially acceptable as they could use their education to raise good children (sons) for the republic. 32 subjects, partially through Western Enlightenment teaching. This reveals a growing Japanese nationalism with connections to foreign ideas of womanhood that parallel what happened in the

U.S. with Republican Motherhood. Therefore, through Mori and Fukuzawa, we can see just how

Western ideas, combined with Japanese patriotism (kokutai), influenced modern Japanese conceptions of womanhood.49 This is important because it suggests a strong relationship between liberal ideas from the West and Japanese attempts to integrate and reinterpret those ideas into their changing society.

Arguing for an increase in women’s education and equality in marriage contributed to a newly conceived role for women in modern Japan. Still, such a role remained centered on woman’s position within the home and her relationship to her husband. Mori, for example, additionally argued for equality in marriage wherein he recognized that the marriage customs of

Japan were oppressing women whose husbands treated them no better than “subhuman animals.”50 Fukuzawa mirrored this with his criticism of the decades of “beastly” male behavior that subjugated women and stole their rights as mothers and wives. 51 Therefore, besides education, a solution for reestablishing a more “modern” role for middle class women was to redefine the marriage system, through which women could become equal partners to their husbands.52 These proposed changes suggest comparisons to Mill and García who also advocated for equality in marriage and reveal that such reform mindedness did not exist in a vacuum. These similarities provide insight into how prominent men shaped modern gender roles in their countries. Such newly conceived roles, however, did not always translate perfectly into society.

49 While Fukuzawa remained much less a proponent for a Japanese nationalism supported by Confucian gender values, his equality based advocacy in marriage was manipulated to suit modern nationalistic needs. 50 Hasegawa, “Saisho-ron,” 9. 51 Yet still, regulating women to “mothers and wives” becomes important for future evidence of a powerful modern patriarchy. Fukuzawa in “Critique of Greater Learning for Women,” translated in Kiyooka, Fukuzawa Yukichi, 200. 52 Fukuzawa, “On Japanese Women,” translated in Kiyooka, Fukuzawa Yukichi, 9. 33

INTERPRETATIONS OF PROGRESS

There existed in the latter half of the nineteenth century a transnational circulation of liberal ideas concerning women’s roles in the modern era. These ideas, however, did not always come to fruition. In Japan, for example, Mori’s position of what was “progressive” and “equal” ultimately reveal the lasting influence of a Tokugawa idealism and Japanese conventionality.

Mori states, “I argued that the status of husband and wife was equal . . . but I said not a word about equality of rights.”53 While Japanese intellectuals generally agreed that women deserved equality within the household unit, the Meirokusha maintained that equality in “rights” was not beneficial to Japanese society. In fact, another member of the Meirokusha, Sakatani Shiroshi, argued that “equal rights” would only hinder society because they would create an ongoing desire by both men and women to oppress the other.54 Therefore, a maintained hierarchy of the genders was essential to keep society functioning and productive. Liberal and progressive images of womanhood undoubtedly influenced perceptions of modern Japanese gender roles; however, their biased implementation into society reveals that patriarchy was able to manifest as progressive enough to infiltrate modern ideas. While Mori argued that husbands and wives should uphold each other’s rights, he maintained that these rights were different from one another. What ultimately materialized was an equality based on tradition, a way for Mill’s liberalism to be integrated into Japanese ideological boundaries. 55 This is apparent in the eventual prescribed “modern” role for middle-class Japanese women, ryosai kenbo (“Good Wife,

53 Mori Arinori, Meiroku zasshi, no. 32 (1875), 211 in Hall, Mori Arinori, 249. 54 Apropos, only men allowed to oppress – [insert snarky comment here]. Sakatani Shiroshi, “Pivotal Times of Change,” Meiroku zasshi 38, (1 May 1875): 467-473, accessed 15 October 2018, http://www1.udel.edu/History- old/figal/Hist370/text/er/meiroku.pdf. 55 Hall, Mori Arinori, 249. 34

Wise Mother”). 56 Ryosai kenbo was a new and modern position for middle class Japanese women, yet one conventional enough to clandestinely uphold women’s subjugation to men.57

This new role reflected the earlier changes that Fukuzawa and Mori envisioned for women: increased education and a high sense of authority within the family unit and, therefore, the state.

Yet, the state sanctioning of the role with the enactment of the Meiji Civil Codes of 1896 and

1898 reveals the preservation of a patriarchal standard. For example, the wife needed her father’s consent before marriage and then needed her husband’s consent before participating in any legal contract. These laws were, therefore, a modern reversion to Confucian ideas of legal [male] authority of the household, but ones that placed a woman’s responsibilities “as a wife [and as a kind of public servant]” rather than her role as mother.58

There existed a similar reality for women in Mexico. While Genero García interacted with John Stuart Mill’s ideas of liberalism and moreover radicalized them for the public, significant governmental changes did not necessarily reflect progress for women or equality of the sexes. García maintained that “no es así en realidad;” in reality, “Los que se llaman protectores son hoy día, en un estado normal de la sociedad, las nicas personas contra las cuales se tenga necesidad de proteccin/ Those who call themselves protectors are today, in a normal state of society, the only people against whom protection is needed…”59 For García, even though the law had granted women new protections as widows or made changes in proprietorship of their dowries, Mexican women still needed the “acquiescence or husband's

56 This new role was propagated by Meiji intellectual Masano Nakamura who was not only a convert to Christianity but had extensive travels to the West. Margaret Lock, “Restoring Order to the House of Japan,” The Wilson Quarterly 14, no. 4 (1990): 44. 57 If ryosai kenbo was the new role for middle class Japanese women in a modernizing society, does that not designate the good wives and wise mothers as faultlessly modern? Is ryosai kenbo a different role for modern women from their mothers and grandmothers? Did women who embodied and support this new role see themselves as new and modern? Such questions are important to remember for Chapter Two. 58 Gail Lee Bernstein ed, Recreating Japanese Women, 1600-1945 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 8. 59 García, Apuntes sobre la condicion de la mujer, 54. 35 tolerance,” which suggest the “tyrannical submission” of women and a failure of liberal progress to infiltrate modern gender roles in Mexico.60 Furthermore, the mere fact that men are labeled the

“protectors of society” reflects a lingering paternalism in the reality of Mexican relationships.

García attempted to uncover the acts of brutality toward Mexican wives on behalf of their husbands in an effort to push forth ideas of significant social revolution that needed to parallel government amendment. Yet, this radicalism that circulated in Mexico did not necessarily reflect the reality of how liberal ideas were implemented during modernity.

Understanding the period in which García was writing is also necessary to reveal how his radicalism proved too unfit for the realities of Mexican hierarchical status quo. While earlier reforms in Mexico provided women with significant changes in education, property rights, and women’s workforce, the Porfiriato period (1876-1911) maintained its modernity with progressive and transformative ambitions: investments in railroads and infrastructure to name a few. However, despite new progress, Mexico’s president, Porfirio Diaz, remained pragmatic when implementing his European influenced modernity, and this is especially apparent in transitioning gender roles. According to historian Julia Tuñón Pablos, the marianismo ideal still existed for women during the Porfiriato, but the role was now defined in modern scientific terms.61 This transition toward an emphasis on empiricism parallels progressive movements in

Britain (and the U.S.) as national progress obliged new reforms for the improvement of society.

In Britain, the progressive movement sparked both modern liberalism (as seen with Mill) and a progressive conservativism. Both ideologies advocated reforming society through scientific,

60 Ibid. 61 Julia Tuñón Pablos, Women in Mexico: A Past Unveiled, trans. Alan Hynds (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999), 83. 36 economic, and technological innovation.62 For example, English naturalist and biologist Charles

Darwin’s Descent of Man (1874) connected evolutionary theory to the preconception of women’s mental inferiority to men. By making this link, Darwin manifested the use of biological determinism to justify sexual inequality and reinforced idealized Victorian tropes.63 This presents important historical context for both Mexico and Britain and shows similar conventional ideologies morphing with modern ideas of progress and change.

In Mexico, this new justification for women’s position relied on a discourse that focused on women’s biology and temperament. We see the culmination of this gender constructed social hierarchy in the writings of prominent Mexican intellectual thinker Andrés Molina Enríquez.

Enríquez believed that men and women were “incomplete” because of their reproductive strengths and weaknesses.64 For example, men were weak because they could not reproduce, while women’s weaknesses existed because their bodies were “devoted to inactive functions of laziness and roundness that constitute beauty.” 65 Consequently, women’s inactivity became connected to their inabilities to “obtain their food except by the hand of man.”66 Such an idea related back to women’s ultimate dependence on men while at the same time presenting women with an essential, “important” familial role. 67 Enríquez maintained that ultimately it was women’s entrance into the workforce that disrupted the balance in society and the biologically justified hierarchy of the family: “the father as the head, the mother as the person subordinated to

62 Therefore, like Porfirio Díaz, British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli became a proponent of reform, albeit through an alternative form of conservative politics. I will delve more into this in my next chapter when discussing ways in which modern women reacted to their historical contexts. 63 Patricia Murphy, “Reevaluating Female ‘Inferiority’: Sarah Grand Versus Charles Darwin,” Victorian Literature and Culture 26, no. 2 (1998): 221. 64 Tuñón Pablos, Women in Mexico, 83. 65 Obviously, Enríquez was referring to elite women who did not have to work in public spaces to support their families. Ibid, 83. 66 Ibid, 83. 67 This also reiterates the problem inherent in marriage according to Mill and García – dependence. 37 the father, and the children dependent on the mother.”68 This idea defended women’s subjugation to men inherently based on their sex and reveals just how Mexico’s paternalism was able to mask its conventionality with a modern, scientific façade. Furthermore, it suggests that male intellectual discourse dominated the reality of social and political space. This is apparent in

Mexican politician Ignacio Ramírez’s open advocacy for women’s education; yet, Ramirez, like

Fukuzawa and Mori, believed in educating Mexican women “so that they could become more efficient mothers.” 69 This tied any reforms for women to their essential domestic role and allowed the appearance of modern improvement while maintaining patriarchal and paternal norms.

While biology supposedly made women inferior to men, that same biology made them morally superior as mothers and housewives.70 And while the home was expected to be the center of women’s lives, a luxury that many lower-class women could not maintain, a mother could gain autonomy through education.71 Mexico’s Porfiriato period, therefore, encompassed contradictions surrounding its roles for women, and masked its modernity in biological and social ideas of progress. Such contradictions reveal why and how mainstream ideas on education became the exemplar of progress rather than García radicalism – because it is easier to maintain patriarchal supremacy with small ideas of change than larger, radical ones. This is apparent in the reality of Mexican reform during the Porfirato period. The introduction of the Civil Codes of

1870 and 1884 in Mexico (like Japan’s Civil Code) reinforced women’s legal submission to their husbands.72 Therefore, despite changes in educational rights and the entrance of middle-class

68Tuñón Pablos, Women in Mexico, 84. 69 Ibid, 61. 70 Ibid, 74. 71 Ibid, 74. 72 Nancy LaGreca, Rewriting Womanhood: Feminism, Subjectivity, and the Angel of the House in the Latin American Novel, 1887-1903 (Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2009), 35. 38 women into the workforce, legal changes reflected a conservative progress and not a García advocacy of equality of the sexes.

To fully understand the manifestation of transnational modern gender roles, it is necessary to return to John Stuart Mill and his own historical context. Presenting this context, at this point, gives necessary emphasis to the ways in which Mill’s feminism was globally interpreted as well as to similarities in the historical settings.73 Mid-nineteenth century Britain experienced new class relations brought on by significant transferals of power and authority. By

1832, middle-class men could vote and were formally recognized at the national political level.74

While such a new exercise of power was still under the umbrella of a dominant propertied class, it significantly led to an increase in organized pressure politics attempting to ignite change.75 As a result, the regular mobilization of middle class men forged strong spheres of influence during the mid-nineteenth century in Britain. Mill was a product of this intellectual middle class change and, alongside his writings on women, wrote extensively on ways in which society could grow in civility. For Mill, the primitive societal state rested in notions of dependence. This dependence was especially reflected in the relationships of women and enslaved men. Through this, Mill’s thoughts on female marital status become apparent, as he compared the subordination of women in marriage as worse than the bondage of slavery. Mill argued that wives had an absolute lack of liberty in their condition compared to an enslaved man: “… for in some slave codes the slave

73 It is important to distinguish that Mill’s writings preceded his Japanese and Mexican contemporaries; nevertheless, Mill remains relevant well into the twentieth century as well. To justify this bounce back, it is important to remember that the focus on Mill is directly related to his powerful transatlantic influence. This does not to suggest that women were not actors in defining their own modern roles, but rather that such historical contexts allowed for men to be much more so. 74 Walter L. Arnstein, Britain Yesterday and Today: 1830 to the Present (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001), 10-12. Of course, there were specific property qualifications to this act, which is why universal male enfranchisement remained a contended issue. 75 The attempt to further broaden enfranchisement continued with the Second Reform Act in 1867 and then the Third Reform Act in 1884. In 1867, a bill was initiated to extend the vote to “all urban rate-payers . . . to all university graduates . . . to owners of government bonds or savings bank deposits of fifty pounds or more, to members of learned professionals, and so on.” Then in 1884, the vote was extended to [male] county voters, which “increased the total electorate from 3,150,000 to 5,700,000. Arnstein, Britain Yesterday and Today, 127 and 157. 39 could, under certain circumstances of ill usage, legally compel the master to sell him. But no amount of ill usage, without adultery superadded [sic], will in England free a wife from her tormentor.”76 While such a comparison reflects Mill’s fight for the liberation of the middle class white housewife, it additionally exposes the cultural bias inherent in Mill’s philosophical beliefs.

Recognition of such “blind spots” are not an attempt reduce the significance of Mill’s rhetoric on behalf of the plight of women; rather, it suggests the importance of this comparative study in the evidence of the power and privilege of male influence.

The existence of Mill’s cultural prejudice reflects a lingering transatlantic division on behalf of this human problem of patriarchy.77 While his writings inspired the critical thinking and intellectual discourse necessary to ignite change for women in Britain and internationally, it also reflects the moral preconceptions of his historical context that partially paralyzed tangible, radical change. Perhaps this is due to the strength of patriarchy inherent in the nineteenth century political and social realm. Or perhaps such biases allude to reasons why countries like Japan and

Mexico used Mill as inspiration for change. The knowledge that Mill was not writing for all women, but rather middle class white, British women does not take away from his importance in creating a discourse to liberate women’s subjugation to men. It does, however, present necessary evidence for possible reasons why such radical and liberal ideas did not fully develop into transatlantic gender equality. Mill may have continued to open the door to important debates regarding women’s rights, but the existence of prejudices allowed for further manipulation of what was intrinsically beneficial of Mill’s writings. Much of Mill’s feminist writings did not

76 Mill, The Subjection of Women, 59. In this quote, notice the use of Mill’s gender preference by referring to an enslaved man. This suggests a comparison perhaps only between enslaved men and white middle class women; it does not take into account the life of the enslaved woman. Also interesting is that Mill gives a sense of agency to the enslaved man who can, at times, manipulate his bondage; yet, that same agency, even slightly, does not exist for the white middle class woman. 77 No doubt that patriarchy was a problem for middle class British women, but what about women in other countries? What about women who lived within the boundaries of the British Empire? Does their subjection fit within the scope of the human problem of patriarchy? Such questions are important to consider for future research. 40 look beyond white, middle class women’s equality, which ultimately allowed other prominent men to maintain their own blinders regarding women’s positions and rights in society.78

PATRIARCHAL ASCENDANCY

Male interpretations present necessary insight into how prominent (and even radical) men re-imagined middle-class women’s roles. Simultaneously, these men continued to contribute to a patriarchal ideology that placed male interpretation at the pinnacle of modern re-imagination. A precondition for change was that men were often the ones responsible for its propagation, and despite the existence of transnational male sympathies toward ideas of egalitarian reform, the power of patriarchy proved its transcendence. Perhaps it was that these ideas of egalitarianism emerged from a patriarchy inherent in enlightenment thinking itself, which ultimately promoted an impression of equality that was never truly equal. Therefore, while prominent men attempted to forge new roles and status for women based on ideas of equality, it remains significant that what emerged were roles that incorporated idealized modes of womanhood that fueled nationalistic and patriarchal agendas of dominance. This is not to take away from the liberalism or radicalism exhibited in men like Mill, García or even Fukuzawa, but rather reveals that their notions of liberal equality were manipulated by the very gender that they represented. These men were able to use ideas of gender equality for the purpose of progressing modern gender roles.

78 I understand this analysis utilizes presentism, but if we can examine suffrage movements in the United States as not inclusive of all women (especially African American women), then the same the idea can be used for Mill. It is not to place judgement on Mill, but rather to shed light on ways in which the faults in his writings were potentially used to uphold specific cultural patriarchal values. Even still, perhaps these particular discontinuities in ideas of women’s liberation foreshadow the lack of diversity in feminism through the twentieth century. Maybe it is how patriarchy has remained powerful: through disjointedness in the necessary overlapping diversity of the feminist identity. See Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color,” eds. Martha Albertson Fineman, Rixanne Mykitiuk. The Public Nature of Private Violence (New York: Routledge, 1994).

41

What they failed to consider was the potential in the harmonious language of modernity and patriarchy, and the state’s ability to create a symbiotic relationship between the two.

The transmission of liberal ideas, and the subsequent translation of them into Japanese,

Mexican, and British societies, presents a unique comparative analysis of the ways in which gender equality compare globally. If British intellectual John Stuart Mill’s liberalism regarding women’s equality was perceived as a modern way of looking at gender roles, yet his own society did not implement full gender equality, then it is comprehensible that other countries could manipulate ideas of equality in ways that fit within their own modernity. Prominent male interpretations are important in showing an existing patriarchal structure attempting to cognize modern and progressive gender roles for middle class women. 79 For example, while some of these men remained more conventional in their objectives for achieving modern womanhood, others circulated radical ideas about women’s equality. What ultimately materialized was an endeavor to re-imagine and redefine women’s roles in areas of marital, educational, and political space that, in reality, obligated a semblance of tradition. The significance, therefore, remains in the ability of tradition to morph with progress to re-envision an archetype of womanhood that so often transcended boundaries and affected the ways in which modernity manifested itself in society. So, while radical ideas circulated, and while men and women interacted with these ideas in different ways, women were still kept as second class citizens despite the advent of tremendous progress.

Connections of ideas of womanhood and of equality between the sexes also manifested in nuanced ways due to specific historical contexts. In Japan, we see a desire on behalf of the ruling oligarchy to appear Western; therefore, men like Mori and Fukuzawa began emulating gender

79 These interpretations represent a spectrum of ideology regarding modernity and ways to implement progress into society. For example, John Stuart Mill represented a liberal reformer, while Japan’s Mori Arinori and Fukuzawa Yukichi were perhaps more mainstream, especially compared with Genero García’s radicalism. 42 equality based on progressive education and social function. In fact, it was Mill’s own push for an end of patriarchy within the family that led Mori and Fukuzawa to prescribe for middle class

Japanese women a new role based on potential equality. The reality, however, was that equality in Japan necessitated tradition in order to be accepted by society. Therefore, the culmination of

Mill’s intellectual equality rests in ryosai kenbo. Similarly in Mexico, despite García’s call for the freedom of humanity based on gender equality, a rebirth of marianismo, encompassing women’s proper role, became justified by modern science and progressive education for mothers.

This links the envisioned changes for middle class women with their perceived inherent feminine qualities. While it is important to recognize that women were not silent pawns in this re- imagination of their roles, what remains significant here is that realized liberal ideas of equality for women were still often regulated to changes within domestic space; these reforms maintained that the only (or at least first) place for women’s equality needed to be the home. Therefore, if the home can be deemed a reflection of societal hierarchy, it begs inquiry why public space

(societal space) was not the first setting in which intellectual men demanded equality. Or was the focus on changing the home and marriage a strategy to advocate patriarchal progress? Was beginning with marriage and the home a way for patriarchy to prevail and grasp onto rhetoric of equality? Such questions solicit significance as to why women’s discourse on equality did not have the same transnational presence. Was Mill attempting to use his male privilege to pave the way for women? Or was his dominance in feminist rhetoric used as a way for men in other countries to assert their own gendered modern agendas? These lingering questions divulge that while Japan, Britain, and Mexico all sought to re-evaluate modern roles for women they negotiated a progress through the pretense of liberal egalitarianism that ultimately maintained patriarchy. 43

While prominent male interpretations comprise an important element to this discussion, it is also essential to consider ways women themselves interacted with modern ideas of progress.

Many middle-class women also responded to ‘The Woman Question,’ and sought to forge new roles for themselves in a changing society. Such roles often included declarations of autonomy or associations with radical change. These New Women of the late nineteenth century symbolized modernity through their pursuits of female independence. Often, New Women promoted female education that fostered an increase in social and political activism. In Japan, Mexico, and Britain, the New Woman of the nineteenth century remained a significant, multidimensional figure, often tethered to diverse notions of progress for women. 44

CHAPTER TWO

EXPLORING THE TRANSNATIONAL NEW WOMAN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: MULTIVALENT IDENTITIES AND POWERFUL PATRIARCHIES

Both the cow-woman and the scum-woman are well within range of the comprehension of the Bawling Brotherhood, but the new woman is a little above him. 1 Sarah Grand, 1894.

Every feminist has [her] own private feminism.2 Madeleine Pelletier, 1908.

In 1862, Irish writer and social activist Francis Power Cobb wrote “What Shall We Do with Our Old Maids?” In her article, she expressed her views on the increasingly large number of women who were not marrying in the Victorian period (1837-1901). Power Cobb’s reflections on marriage, and ultimately female celibacy, were not unfounded, as there were statistically fewer women marrying and having children compared to decades earlier.3 Yet, Power Cobb’s recognition that single women had potential to be a revolutionized constituency suggests that female independence could become a fundamental element of Britain’s social and political landscape. In fact, Power Cobb accepted female independence from conventional marriage as a foundation to the modern idea of companionate marriage. 4 This transformed the ideal of

1 Sarah Grand, “The New Aspect of the Woman Question,” The North American Review 158, no. 448 (1894): 660. 2 Quoted in Marlene LeGates, In Their Time: A History of Feminism in Western Society (New York: Routledge, 2001), 2. 3 Frances Power Cobb, “What Shall We Do With Our Old Maids?” in Essays on the Pursuits of Women (London: Emily Faithful, 1863), 60. According to the 1851 census, 30% of women twenty years or older were listed as “unmarried.” That number rose to 40% by the end of the nineteenth century. This was not necessarily due to women’s choice of independence, however, but “partly due to military conflicts and differing lifespans.” For more on these statistics see Heather Lea Nelson, “The Law and the Lady: Consent and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century British Literature,” Purdue University, open access dissertations (2015): 8. 4 According to historian Rebecca L. Davis, the definition of “companionate marriage” describes relationships of a romantic ideal “union based on a partnership of friends and equals.” These companionate marriages implied “mutual emotional and erotic fulfillment; companionate spouses would derive their fullest intimate satisfactions from one another.” For more on this definition see Rebecca L. Davis, “‘Not Marriage at All, but Simple Harlotry’: The Companionate Marriage Controversy,” The Journal of American History 94, no. 4 (2008), 1141. Power Cobb was involved in a companionate marriage for over 30 years with her “beloved friend” Mary Lloyd. Sharon Marcus, Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), 211. 45 matrimony, as an obligated element of English social life, and asserted that women could be successful and happy in their independence. The result of this emphasis on independence eventually culminated in the emergence of a new type of woman who expressed her modernity in a variety of ways and allowed women to be seen in new public, social, and political participation.

In nineteenth century Britain, ‘The Woman Question’ dominated feminist discourse, and marked a shift in the social awareness of a new type of woman.5 It was within this context of modernization and questions about gender roles that the term ‘The New Woman’ first appeared in an effort to describe a distinct group of middle class women breaking away from their mothers’ traditional roles.6 The term ‘New Woman’ was popularized in public discourse by 1894 with

Sarah Grand’s “The New Aspect of the Woman Question.”7 This Western term continued to influence transnational ideas of modern womanhood. Such diverse transnational manifestations suggest that this concept, and modern female identity, was not monolithic, but rather encompassed various types of women. Therefore, this chapter will specifically focus on the New

Woman as a unique, yet malleable, identity responding to ‘The Woman Question.’

Fiction authors were some of the first to reinforce the term ‘New Woman.’ The heroines of these novels often broke traditional barriers, posed questions about marriage, and had a profound influence on feminist identity. Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen’s, nineteenth century play, A Doll’s House (1879), further highlighted New Woman characteristics and

5 This new type of woman was associated with independence and education, a significant change from what was considered ideal womanhood. ‘The Woman Question’ represented the discourse surrounding this new type of woman – what would her role be in a modern society? For more on this refer back to Chapter One. 6 Sarah Grand, “The New Aspect of the Woman Question,” The North American Review 158, no. 448 (1894): 271. The New Woman concept was imbued with contradictions since her inception. Sarah Grand’s recognition of a New Woman sparked a debate with English novelist Ouida (real name Maria Louise Rame) through which the New Woman concept was solidified, as both authors used and reiterated the concept. Their discussions will be analyzed later in this chapter. 7 Sarah Grand, “The New Aspect of the Woman Question,” The North American Review 158, no. 448 (1894). According to scholar Elizabeth Tusan, Grand’s publication in a popular periodical garnered much attention from the public. See Elizabeth Tusan, “Inventing the New Woman: Print Culture and Identity Politics during the Fin-de-Siecle,” Victorian Periodicals Review 31, no. 2 (1998): 169–182. 46 strongly influenced her identity well into the twentieth century.8 Yet, conventional scholarship has complicated her identity by associating either fixed temporal or fictional descriptions to her character; ultimately, such classifications fail to recognize the nuance of the New Woman’s reality. The New Woman was a symbol of emancipated womanhood: liberated, educated, at times a proponent of suffrage, and an image of progress. Nevertheless, I argue, that the existence of rival articulations also materialized in this modern and educated figure. Therefore, variation within her identity offered many women individual enlightenment towards their own modern womanhood.9 As a result, the New Woman comprised particular permutations that can be further observed when comparing her as a transnational figure. Ultimately, her identity fluctuated depending on who was relating to, constructing, or writing about her.

This section will look at who the New Woman was in Japan, Mexico, and Britain to show how her character ideologically fluctuated. Additionally, this chapter pursues an investigation of how these identities interacted with ideas of modernity and fashioned female participation in educational and political space that ultimately provided women with new, independent platforms to assert their feminism. Finally, a discussion of modern constructs of the middle class New

Woman character will reveal how such discourse complicated a feminist female identity. 10

Further analysis suggests that range in New Woman identity became a way for the language of feminism to intersect with the cultural boundaries of patriarchy.11 Therefore, placing the New

8 Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House, trans. William Archer (Boston: Walter H. Baker & CO. 1890). A Doll’s House told the story of Nora, who left her restrictive, oppressive husband to find personal freedom. Leaving her husband and children to pursue individual ends, Nora both shocked and inspired societies around the world with her fervent independence. 9 Questions of identity heightened throughout modern British culture in the late nineteenth century. From defining oneself through Britain’s expanding empire, to ideas of sexuality brought forth by the Oscar Wilde Trials, the New Woman was no exception. 10 For the purpose of this chapter, I will be exploring the identity of the New Woman in the late nineteenth century. Chapter Three will be a continuance in the exposure of the New Woman identity into the twentieth century and include further discussion of print culture. 11 While these characteristics play a role in a type of New Woman identity they are not necessarily absolute. 47

Woman within her broader global context reinforces the idea that new womanhood had the potential to mean different things to each modern woman in the transnational landscape.

DOES SCHOLARSHIP AFFECT HER IDENTITY?

While the New Woman portrayed identifiable traits that marked her as a symbol of modernity, she additionally rendered ambiguity as to who she was both regionally and on a global scale. This is reflected in both her historical reality and in New Woman historiography.

For example, the New Woman not only changed depending on who was constructing her character, but there exists further ambiguity in her historiography. Since the 1970s, and in conjunction with the increase in women’s and gender historiography, scholarship on the New

Woman has been vast. These histories have explored the controversies embedded within the elusive figure, yet, there remains a tremendous debate regarding the New Woman concept.

Conventional scholarship has focused on the New Woman as a controversial figure at the fin-de­ siècle. Recent research, however, has discussed the connections between the New Woman with the later Modern Girl of the 1920s. Alternatively, Talia Schaffer in her article, “‘Nothing but

Foolscap and Ink:’ Inventing the New Woman,” argues that the New Woman only existed on the pages of novels; however, her invention did not detract from her significance as a cultural symbol. 12 Ann Ardis, on the other hand, emphasizes that the New Woman’s fictional representations actually hindered and almost trivialized her as a symbol of emancipated womanhood.13 Other scholars, like Kristi Bohata, dissect how the New Woman concept was regionally conceived. She explores national identity as an ideological tool, and investigates how

12 Talia Schaffer, “‘Nothing but Foolscap and Ink:’ Inventing the New Woman,” eds. Angelique Richardson and Chris Willis, The New Woman Fiction and Fact: Fin de Siècle Feminisms (United Kingdom: Pelgrave Macmillan, 2002), 39. 13 Ann L. Ardis, New Woman, New Novels: Feminism and Early Modernism (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990). 48

Welsh women utilized the idea of the New Woman to justify their own distinct feminist identity.14 Further research on the New Woman strives to uncover the origins of the concept and its effects on the politicalized modern female. For example, historian Susan Kingsley Kent mentions the New Woman alongside suffragists, while others maintain her existence as only the liberated heroine in fiction.15 It remains, however, that New Women were all of these things at once; they were independent and fought for the vote, while simultaneously found agency in passivity. Therefore, a reexamination of the New Woman is necessary to show that there existed nuance to her reality.

Scholarship on the New Woman in Japan reflects the diversity of the concept, as not all

New Women were the same archetype of modern womanhood. Historians of Japan have typically assigned the New Woman identity to specific, stand-out feminists in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Japan without acknowledging or delving into the embedded complexities of the identity itself. Therefore, it is necessary to open up the concept of the New Woman and re- evaluate how such an identity transcended spatial and temporal frameworks. For example, some have argued that Kishida Toshiko, a prominent radical Meiji feminist, was the Meiji archetype of the New Woman, while others do not mention the concept until the emergence of the Seitosha women in the 1910s. 16 Current scholarship by Paula Harrell steps away from the Seitosha

14 Kristi Bohata, “‘For Wales, See England? Suffrage and the New Woman in Wales,” Women’s History Review 11, no. 4 (2006): 643-656. 15 While scholars like Schaffer maintain her relevance in new novels, the discontinuity regarding her character remains a significant query. The New Woman in novels has allowed research on the concept to cross over into various disciplinary fields. For example, scholars of literature, historians, even anthropologists have attempted to define and redefine the New Woman. This has further contributed to the substantial amount of published works regarding New Woman character. 16 The prominent women’s journal Seito, founded in 1911, ignited the Seitosha movement. Seitosha women sought to encourage feminine artistic/creative freedom. Many of these women were represents of the New Woman in the twentieth century, and expressed feminist attitudes towards women’s submissive roles. In fact, Seito’s founder, Hiratsuka Raicho, proclaimed in 1913, “I am the New Woman.” While this declaration is significant to twentieth century new womanhood, it does not take into account how early nineteenth century women who appeared in converse ways against Raicho might fit within the New Woman identity. This group of women, and especially Raicho, will be more thoroughly discussed in Chapter Three regarding feminist consciousness in print culture. 49 women and associates Shimoda Utako, a mainstream Meiji reformer, with the New Woman model. In her article, “The Meiji ‘New Woman’ and China,” Harrell argues that there existed a

Japanese New Woman who combined traditional Japanese values with modern Western culture.17 This suggests that the New Woman identity, at least in Japan, fluctuated regarding individual ideology, and presents important questions regarding interpretations versus historical realities.

Looking at the evolving identities of the New Woman reveals the influence that historiography has had on the memory of the New Woman concept and her identity.18 Perhaps that is why the question, “Who was the New Woman?” is so complicated to answer; there is no single definition, nor one type of woman who fits that mold. As a result, further discussion on the topic remains essential to understanding the emergence of modern feminist characterization.

Therefore, instead of only looking at the radical elements of new womanhood in Japan, Britain, or Mexico it is necessary to consider how she questioned the social order while also, at times,

“suggest[ed] that order be preserved.”19 Each approach to the New Woman inadvertently relied on her ambiguity, which has allowed scholarship to fossilize aspects of the New Woman identity at distinct moments in time. This becomes problematic when attempting to understand who the

New Woman truly represented. Was she a socialist woman? A radical? A conservative feminist?

Can she be all of these things at once if they are contradictory? Can she be one but not the other?

These uncompromising questions are why a re-examination of the New Woman figure is

17 Paula Harrell, “The Meiji ‘New Woman’ and China.” ed. Joshua A. Fogel, Late Qing China and Meiji Japan: Political and Cultural Aspects (Connecticut: EastBridge, 2004). 18 In fact, the overwhelming amount of scholarship has contributed to the ambiguity in similar ways as the actual New Women themselves. Perhaps ‘The Women Question’ debate has been extended into contemporary scholarship. 19 Miriam Silverberg, “After the Grand Tour: The Modern Girl, the New Woman, and the Colonial Maiden,” in The Modern Girl Around the World: Consumption, Modernity, and Globalization, eds. Alys Eve Weinbaum, Lynn M. Thomas, et al. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2008), 357. 50 necessary so as to establish a working understanding of who this modern woman really was in a transforming global society.

THE EMERGENCE OF NEW [TYPES OF] WOMEN IN JAPAN

Meiji Japan encountered many changes during its modernization in the nineteenth century. This included changes in education, government, and gender roles. Shimoda Utako

(1854-1936) was a product of the rise in educational opportunities for women in Meiji Japan.20

Her role as an educated aristocratic woman positioned her to embrace a modern female identity, which included reform mindedness. Promoting female education, however, did not deter her from ideologically aligning with the rise of Japanese nationalism in the late nineteenth century.

Therefore, in Shimoda, there existed a New Woman that was sympathetic with maintaining a strong national identity based on tradition while also promoting changes to the way the nation informed its women. In her travels to America and Europe, Shimoda focused on understanding just how to promote equal educational practices between men and women. Notably she, like

Mori and Fukuzawa, interacted with Western culture and modernity, yet maintained connections to a traditional Japanese identity. According to Shimoda, the status of Japanese women had been in steady decline, especially during the Sengoku period (the Warring States period 1400s-1600) due to women’s lack of physical strength and participation in fighting.21 In England, Shimoda witnessed women who were valued for their virtues, while women in Japan were still demeaned for theirs - a result of which was an ultimate loss of independence and self-worth on behalf of

Japanese women:

20 The women’s education movement was supported by Mori Arinori and Fukuzawa Yukichi; Shimoda’s education was directly linked to changes in female education during the early Meiji period. 21 Masako Racel, “Shimoda Utako’s Ryosai Kenbo: A Patriotic Japanese Women’s View of the West, Southeast Review of Asian Studies 39 (2017): 34. 51

Our countrywomen’s social status has sunk so deep in the last 700 years during the period of warrior rule to the present that we no longer seem to belong to the same race as men. … women had to uphold the teachings of three obedience, which did not allow women to gain any independence. Consequently, the pressures placed upon good and meek women were tremendous…22

For Shimoda, the status of Japanese women had become despondent, which weakened the civility of the Japanese state. Ironically, much of her writings associate her vision for modern women with ryosai kenbo (good wife, wise mother), the modern Japanese ideal for middle class women.23 For Shimoda, this role was an empowering one, as it allowed women to be modern protagonists in a civilized Japanese society. Therefore, important to consider within this ideal are the effective ways in which it upheld both modern womanhood and the patriarchal structure.

Ryosai kenbo, thus, becomes complicated when assessing it from the perspective of Shimoda

Utako. Her nationalism and conservatism were undoubtedly strong elements of her modern new identity; however, her role as an independent professional woman, and her advocacy of women’s higher education, present subtle contradictions. For instance, Shimoda was a pioneer of Japanese women’s education. By 1899, she was a well-established teacher and founder of two all-girls schools, Jissen Jogakkō and Joshi Kōgei Gakkō.24 In fact, Shimoda’s feminism was so linked with advancing women’s education that her advocacy of ryosai kenbo did not detract her from also supporting women’s independent professional careers. Such contradictions embedded in

Shimoda’s ideology reveal further paradoxes between constructions of ideal modern womanhood and the aspirations of New Women.

The same complexity is true for Hatoyama Haruko (1861-1938), whose many interactions with the West led her to reinterpret and revitalize “indigenous alternatives” to

22 Shimoda Utako translated by Masako Racel in “Shimoda Utako’s Ryosai Kenbo,” 34. 23 Racel, “Shimoda Utako’s Ryosai Kenbo,” 31-33. 24 Racel, “Shimoda Utako’s Ryosai Kenbo,” 31-32. 52

Western culture and subsequently the New Woman identity. 25 Hatoyama observed Western culture first-hand during her travels to America, wherein she contended that “the foreign freedom of sex intermingling” led to promiscuity and was disastrous for women. 26 Perhaps this was because like Shimoda, Hatoyama advocated ryosai kenbo due to its ties to Japanese morality.

She argued that women’s roles as good wives and wise mothers provided them with an independent nature that would ultimately benefit them if they were ever without a husband.27 Her view relates back to Fukuzawa Yukichi’s arguments about educating women economically, which reinforces their independence should they be single mothers. However, Hatoyama’s and

Shimoda’s advocacy of ryosai kenbo did not mean that they supported the indoctrination of women. On the contrary, they saw women’s roles as more than “ornamental,” but rather as autonomous contributors to Japanese society.28 Hatoyama stated in an interview while visiting the United States that “with a ‘new Japan’ came a ‘new woman.’” 29 These New Women, according to Hatoyama, received a liberal education, yet maintained the virtues of tradition: chastity and modesty.30 Hatoyama was critical of Western customs on Japanese culture, and even remarked that she wished Western style dress would be discouraged in Japan - a stark change from the sentiments of the Rokumeikan era. 31 Yet, her reversion to upholding tradition and

25 Sally Ann Hastings, “A Dinner Party is Not a Revolution: Space, Gender, and Hierarchy in Meiji Japan,” U.S. –Japan Women’s Journal 18 (2000): 126. 26 Hastings, “A Dinner Party is Not a Revoultion,” 126. 27 Paula Harrell, “The Meiji ‘New Woman’ and China.” Late Qing China and Meiji Japan: Political and Cultural Aspects, ed. Joshua A. Fogel (Connecticut: EastBridge, 2004), 120. 28 Geneva Daily Times, “Progress of the Fair Sex: Mme. Hatoyama Tells of Conditions in Japan,” November 25, 1901. Rochester Regional Library Council. http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn84035773/1901- 11-25/ed-1/seq-2.pdf 29 Geneva Daily Times. 30 This suggests that the New Woman in Japan may have included elements of traditional Japanese culture that were not always present in New Women of other countries. Geneva Daily Times. 31 The Meiji state experienced an intense period of Westernization known as the Rokumeikan era (1883- 1890). During this time, the emperor and the ruling court adopted not only Western style dress but also Western customs, such as social gatherings, where women held especially important roles. In the West, dances and dinner parties allowed women to intermingle with men. These “dinner parties” appeared to be markers of civility as modern women occupied the same social space as men. In fact, Fukuzawa even wrote about such occasions, where men and 53 culture did not mean that Japanese women remained confined to the home, but rather suggests that Japanese New Women were testaments to a redefinition of the modern Japanese concept of womanhood.

Of course, it is important to remember that while Shimoda and Hatoyama represent a type of New Woman, there also existed more radical protagonists with similar educational goals for women. Kishida Toshiko was a prominent Japanese feminist during the late Meiji who publically spoke against the inequality of women, and promoted that the solution to inequality was female education. Kishida was often seen as politicized and critical of the Japanese government; yet, she viewed her speeches as academic campaigns that actually benefitted the state because they benefitted women.32 For Kishida, Japanese women had been placed inside oppressive cages that, like flowers, “were too confined to open freely.”33 Therefore, in order for women to be better wives, better mothers, and to be better members of Japanese society, education was essential. Kishida fought against the decree that “learning obstructs marriage,” and advocated for women’s intellectual development.34 While her ideas remained aligned with progress, the platform from which she spoke signaled her as more radical than others. By the

1880s, expressing one’s views in a public forum was a popular and new interest for many modern men and women, and the Meiji government began to take notice. In 1882, new laws

women “exchanged salutations and greeted each other on equal terms.” Dances during the Rokumeikan were also controversial, as Japanese conservatives witnessed the close proximity of men and women as a collapse in traditional mores and public virtue. As a result, all who attended the Rokumeikan played an important role in “re- imagining” Japanese civilization and modern gender roles. James L. McLain, “Mr. Ito’s Dance Party,” Historian 5 (1987): 154-160. 32 Kishda believed that a strong Japanese state was only reinforced when its citizens, men and women, were equally strong. While it can be argued that this idea subtly reinforced ryosai kenbo, Kishda’s call for full female emancipation through education positioned her on the more radical side of the female feminist spectrum. 33 Sugano Noriko, “Kishida Toshiko and the Career of a Public-Speaking Woman in Meiji Japan,” The Female as Subject: Reading and Writing in Early Modern Japan (University of Michigan Press, U of M Center for Japanese Studies, 2010), 181. 34 Noriko, “Kishida Toshiko,” 181. 54 emerged slowly restricting the assembly of political forums.35 In 1883, Kishida participated in a women’s speech meeting wherein she spoke about women’s previous place in traditional

Japanese society and how education could uplift all women out of a subjugated state.36 Not wholly rejecting earlier Confucian texts, such as the onna daigaku, Kishida maintained moral education as relevant and benefitting for Japanese women. Yet, her radicalism in mobilizing women to question their place in society and seek independence through education marked

Kishida as a political radical in the eyes of the Meiji state and the quintessential New Woman in the eyes of many scholars. There exists diversity in New Woman identities that are exhibited by

Shimoda, Hatoyama, and Kishida. All women promoted similar goals for the modern female in

Japan, yet not all are historiographically considered within the same New Woman concept. Their differences and similarities demonstrate a fluctuating New Woman character present in Japan in the late nineteenth century, and further indicate the ambiguity present within her identity.

In Japan, while the state restricted women’s political activity in the 1880s, women were still recognized as contributors to national goals outside the home. Women, mostly middle-class, increasingly involved themselves in women’s organizations that permeated public space.37 Many women participated in fujinkai (women’s groups) in which they found new ways of socializing and participating in official patronage. While this appears contradictory to the political restrictions in the 1880s, it also shows that the state did not view all women in public as political, even if they were. Historian Mara Patessio argues that many women’s groups were an indication of “society’s enlargement of women’s spheres of action and their ideal position in society.”38

35 Ibid, 178. Perhaps this is why Kishida referred to her speeches as academic. 36 Apparently, such a topic was too politicized, and Kishida was arrested and put on trial for criticizing the government. 37 Sharon H. Notle and Sally Ann Hastings, “The Meiji State’s Policy Toward Women, 1890-1910,” Recreating Japanese Women, 1600-1945, ed. Gail Lee Bernstein (Berkeley: University California Press, 1991), 161. 38 Mara Patessio, “The Creation of Public Spaces by Women in the Early Meiji Period and the Tokyo Fujin Kyofukai,” International Journal of Asian Studies (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 167. 55

Perhaps this suggests that when placing ryosai kenbo within its larger historical context, the ideal can possess progressive elements of change. Or perhaps it reveals that the Japanese state was able to repurpose ryosai kenbo within the New Woman identity with the help of mainstream

New Women. Nevertheless, the state’s intentions of this could have been manifold – conceivably, it could have been an effort to maintain social stability or prove national strength in the face of

Western imperialism. After all, the Japanese government sought to improve the conditions of their women so that they would be equal to those in the West. Conventional histories of women in Meiji Japan make little mention of ryosai kenbo as the state’s version of the New Woman concept. Although Patessio does illuminate this opinion, many of these histories fail to recognize that the Meiji state constructed such a concept through its contact with the West, which ultimately aided in maintaining a dominant patriarchy.39 At the same time, while this modern ideal was undoubtedly “cloaked with traditional rhetoric,” it still gave some women a purpose and goal that they had not previously received.40 Therefore, the New Woman in Japan had the potential to embrace both conservative and progressive values. Furthermore, it gives insight into why the state repressed women like Kishida Toshiko who politicized women’s education, while at the same time condoning women like Shimoda and Hatoyama who publicized women’s education to fit within the national scope. The state’s endorsement, however, of women who

“availed themselves of similar language” does not deter from their own New Woman

39 Historian Mrinalini Sinha argues a similar story for feminist women in India who also interacted with nationalism. She argues, “. . . in keeping with the increasing dependence of the women's movement upon a pre- dominantly male-dominated nationalist movement, [scholarship] has tended to underestimate the emergence of a new discourse of Indian feminism in the early women’s movement.” This new and early discourse, according to Sinha, was small but “highly influential.” She states, this “section of the leadership of the early women's movement framed their contribution to the nationalist project precisely in the discourse of liberal feminism.” This shows the potential interconnected relationship between feminism and nationalism in non-Western countries. For more on this see Mrinalini Sinha, “Refashioning Mother India: Feminism and Nationalism in Late-Colonial India,” Feminist Studies 26, no. 3 (2000): 624. 40 Notle and Hastings, “The Meiji State’s Policy Toward Women,” 152. 56 distinctiveness, but suggests the attempts of a modern patriarchy to appropriate the complexity of the New Woman character.41

MEXICAN NEW WOMEN

As in Japan, women in Mexico demonstrated the complexity of their New Woman identities. In Mexico, during the Porfiriato period (1876-1911), there were occupational changes that paralleled those in Europe and had significant impacts on female political consciousness and activism. Women workers in these countries began to hold roles in public spaces, often working as store clerks, secretaries, or domestic servants. Eventually, women who worked outside the home found themselves participating in social organizations and political movements. These women often became threats to the ideal of the domestic household as their presence in public space usually offered a heightened consciousness of gender and class issues. As active members in social organizations and liberal movements, women during the Porfiriato period were increasingly connected to feminist activities. Whether actively participating in a movement of progress or peripherally demanding improved working conditions for women, Mexican society during the Porfiriato became more aware of emerging female activism. Some of the most notable and politically active women during this time were teachers and publishers.42

Educated women in the late nineteenth century who founded women’s magazines that promoted their individual feminisms are important to the discussion of the New Woman in

Mexico. Different from early twentieth century women’s journals, women’s texts of the 1870s traced their roots to the radical socialism that strove to improve working conditions for women

41 Marnie S. Anderson, A Place in Public: Women’s Rights in Meiji Japan (Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2010), 6. 42 Julia Tuñón Pablos, Women in Mexico: A Past Unveiled, trans. Alan Hynds (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999), 79-81. 57 and increase female education. Rita Cetina Gutiérrez (1846-1908) was not only a product of the expansion in women’s public education in the nineteenth century, but also a notable poet and feminist. As a teacher and a publisher of a well-known newspaper, Gutiérrez also founded the secular all female institution in Mérida, La Siempreviva. 43 As a public institution, La

Siempreviva gave women the opportunity to study topics outside of domesticity.44 The school also functioned as a well-known women’s group and newspaper, and by 1870 Gutiérrez and others were participating in previously male-dominated political discussion. Gutiérrez not only challenged the religious morality that often dictated women’s ideal place in Mexican society, but also proposed political change for women. Her promotion of a feminist ideology subverted patriarchal attempts to keep women domesticated. In her poem “A nuestro sexo” (“To Our Sex”), she challenged patriarchy by calling for women to take a stand against constructed and entrenched gender roles that kept women subservient to men:

Dejad la postracin que tanto tiempo la gloria y el saber os han ocultado. Oíd con atencin, la hora ha llegado de que ilustre su nombre la mujer. Dotada la mujer por el Eternode nobles sentimientos como el hombre ambiciona también legar su nombre ilustre y grande a la futura edad. Sí; ¿no es cierto queridas compaeras, que halagáis ese bello pensamiento? Pues no esperemos más; lleg el momento, proclamemos: Unin, Fraternidad. ¡Venid todas, venid! LA SIEMPREVIVA/To leave the prostration that for so long the glory and knowledge have hidden you. Listen carefully, the time has arrived that the woman should illustrate her name. Endowed to woman by the Eternal, noble feelings as the man’s ambitions also to bequeath his illustrious and great name to the future age. Yes; is not it true, dear compañeras, that you praise that beautiful thought? Well, do not wait any longer; the time has come, proclaim: Union, Fraternity. Come all, come! THE EVERLASTING. 45

43 Piedad Peniche Rivero, Rita Cetina, La Siempreviva y el Instituto Literario de Nias: una cuna del feminismo mexicano 1846-1908: Orígenes de la educacin femenina en Yucatán (Mexico: INEHRM, 2015), 79-80. 44 In fact, it was a primary goal of Gutierrez to educate women in more than just domestic skills. 45 Rita Cetina Gutierrez, “A nuestro sexo,” La Siempreviva, número 1, Mérida, Yucatán, pp. 2-3, 7 de mayo de 1870 in Rivero’s, Rita Cetina, La Siempreviva y el Instituto Literario de Nias, 57. Her use of the word “fraternity” is also interesting and perhaps indicates her attempt to weaken masculine language. 58

Like Kishida Toshiko, Gutiérrez’s New Woman identity rested in her ability to mobilize women to access male dominated space.46 By 1877, Gutiérrez was appointed as director of the Instituto

Literario de Nias (Literary Institute for Girls), which promoted women’s secondary education and trained women to become primary teachers.47 She advocated that women take control of their talents and be independent in the economic, which exemplified what was new about modern women in the late nineteenth century.

An increase in women’s access to education in Mexico pioneered female activism and new womanhood. It allowed women to forge new and independent roles for themselves, which ultimately allowed for a growth in female agency in their modernity. This gave way to women discussing their conditions with one another in academic and political settings. In 1873, Las

Hijas del Anahuac (The Daughters of Anahuac) published a series of literary essays that attempted to understand modern female identity in Mexico.48 These women tackled the public domain with their journalistic criticisms of parochial female roles that regulated women to the household. As feminist women disrupting the status quo of Mexican patriarchy, the hijas informally publicized their roles as New Women - an established part of the modern Mexican female experience. However, what becomes unique about the New Woman identity in Mexico is that it paralleled the growth in forging an equally complicated mestiza identity. Cristina D.

Ramírez argues that the Daughters of Anahuac made a conscious decision to claim themselves as

“hijas” (daughters) and not “las mujeres” (women) of Anahuac; this marked direct ascendency from the Aztec Kingdom and reflected a tangible merging of the indigenous and modern female

46 Her radicalism inspired many women; future 1920s female activists often traced their feminist roots to Gutierrez. Ibid, 59. 47 Ibid, 104-105. 48 Cristina D. Ramírez, “Forging a Mestiza Rhetoric: Mexican Women Journalists' Role in the Construction of a National Identity,” College English 71, no. 6 (July 2009): 611. Anahuac is Nahuatl meaning “close to water.” Its use by the hijas is reference to the pre-Hispanic origin of modern day Mexico City, and aligns the group with the Aztec Kingdom. 59 identity. 49 The juxtaposed language of daughter and woman traced a unique New Woman inspired identity in Mexico that relates back to a specific Mexican historical context. This is why such context is necessary in relating types of womanhood and types of patriarchic dominance.

These specific new Mexican women were simultaneously looking backward to forge new and modern roles for themselves by aligning with past symbols of female Aztec power. It was, therefore, both an embrace of their past and a resistance to European identity that marked their new womanhood. This brings forth important questions regarding the New Woman in Mexico: is it appropriate to insert the identity of ‘The New Woman’ onto modern mestiza women of the nineteenth century who actively sought to distance themselves from a European identification?

Was the New Woman a Western character, or does the use of such an identity transcend culture and nation? Does scholarly use of the term to describe women from different cultures and nations from its origin reveal a colonization of language?50 These questions stem from the lack of historiography that specifically uses the term ‘New Woman’ in Mexico. Nevertheless, while the idea of the New Woman may be a foreign import, its use as a transnational label was not always a means of keeping women colonized or without sovereignty. Rather, it presents scholars with a necessary element that requires further exploration when comparing modern women around the world.51

The Hijas del Anahuac’s first attempt at public recognition was not well received.

Ramírez speculates that this was due to their “rhetorical contradictions of dual impulses of identification.”52 However, the social neglect of the women’s journal did not last long. In 1886,

49 Ibid, 611-612. 50 These questions are tentative, but important ones to consider when discussing how a concept can be used. 51 Looking at the colonization of the New Woman term, while not the focus of this paper, necessitates further research. It will aid in a more complete understanding of how language can affect historical interpretation. Nevertheless, the similarities between New Women in Japan and Britain and modern women in Mexico suggest that the use of the term is appropriate. 52 Ibid, 611. 60

Laureana Wright de Kleinhans became editor of a new women’s journal with the same name.

Later changed to Violetas del Anahuac: Periodico Literario Redactadopor Senoras (Violets of

Anahuac: A Literary Periodical Edited by Ladies) in 1887, Wright de Kleinhans’ women’s journal was filled with feminist rhetoric. Wright de Kleinhans, the middle class daughter of an

American father and Mexican mother, was a well-known feminist presence in modern Mexico.

Married to a German, her writings mirrored her own modern identity: an indigenous past mixed with Western European modernity.53 She gave the modern female a voice in the construction of a national identity, which, unofficially, embodied feminist ideologues. Ramírez argues that

“Violetas de Anahuac intersected at the apex of power… by appealing to the Mexican elite's sense of nation construction, while encouraging women to be involved in intellectual pursuit.”54

Simultaneously, and perhaps unexpectedly, Wright de Kleinhans’ feminism connected with conventional ideology when she sought to find agency for women in the Marian ideal, marianismo.55 She argued that this ideal construct empowered women in the home and gave them a special purpose as intellectual members helping to build a national identity:

Mothers everywhere are the ultimate expression of affection and tenderness; but we can declare without fear of making a mistake, that among Mexican women this sentiment is doubly powerful and dominating, which is why it is not strange that severity and rectitude in the guidance of children, are also more scarce than in other countries where habits live on that, we, Mexican mothers, would not be able to bear, as is the one of sending the children to the countryside during nursing, delivering them into mercenary hands.56

This indicates similarities to middle class women in Japan who advocated ryosai kenbo as an agentive, feminist status for modern women. Therefore, Wright de Kleinhans, like Shimoda and

53 Including a European influence to her identity was a significant difference from previous Hijas del Anahuac. 54 Ibid, 614. 55 For more on marianismo as a female ideal in nineteenth century Mexico see Chapter One. 56 Laureana Wright de Kleinhans, “La Educacion,” in Cristina D. Ramírez, “Forging a Mestiza Rhetoric: Mexican Women Journalists' Role in the Construction of a National Identity,” College English 71, no. 6 (July 2009): 614-615. 61

Hatoyama, operated within the ideological spectrum of the New Woman identity, but were not as radical as the women of the earlier Las Hijas or Rita Cetina Gutiérrez. Wright de Kleinhans employed an intellectual feminism that she explored through publications advocating progress, and included women within the rhetoric of building a national identity. Emphasizing the role of mother as women’s purpose in life, she emulated patriarchal ideals, but on a platform that simultaneously encouraged women’s independence and intellectual progress. The ambiguity embedded in not only Wright de Kleinhans, but also in the journal she edited, suggests that some

New Women in Mexico (as in Japan) often had to straddle the two worlds in which they were finding themselves: the world of patriarchic progress and the world of female emancipation.57

The simultaneous preservation and destruction of the feminine ideal reveals the conflict of the times regarding gender roles in nineteenth century Mexico and Japan.

BRITAIN’S NEW WOMEN

Like in Japan and Mexico, British New Women embodied various characteristics of a modern female; many British modern women constructed the idea of the New Woman to fit their ideological boundaries. Women like Beatrice Webb and suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst personified the New Woman idea and embraced its existence. 58 As modern, educated, and politicized nineteenth century women, Webb and Pankhurst held many similarities with the concept. Such connections reveal that the New Woman character infiltrated various identities of modern womanhood. This range suggested that there were individual definitions of what “new” in New Woman meant - whether a socialist, an educator, or a suffragist, different backgrounds

57 And perhaps, at times, these women did not realize their straddle. Ibid, 615. 58 Emphasis on these two women in Britain are not to suggest that they were the only types of New Women, but rather exceptional in their vocalization during this time period. Compared with the selected women in Japan and Mexico, Webb and Pankhurst suggest that the fixed definition of the New Woman does not necessarily reflect her transnational experience. 62 aided in individual interpretation of the New Woman identity. New Women did not comprise a homogenous group; therefore, placing these women within a wider transnational context reveals much about their identities. While Chapter Five will involve a discussion of modern women’s feminist identities during wartime, it is appropriate here to briefly consider nineteenth century suffragist women in relation to the New Woman.

Suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst expressed her views on women and suffrage in the late nineteenth century. In 1889 she founded the Women’s Franchise League (WFL) - a precursor to the more popularly known Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) (1903), which sought to enfranchise all women. 59 The WFL’s radicalism gained criticism with the organization’s promotion of not only female enfranchisement, but also full equal rights for women. The ideology of the WFL, and subsequent militancy of Pankhurst in the early twentieth century, reveal yet another unique avenue of the New Woman. In fact, Pankhurst personified a new type of female that ultimately called for women to turn in their halos as previous angels of the house for the vote. Pankhurst traced her feminism to her realization of the inequalities between young men and women in the nineteenth century: “The education of the English boy, then as now, was considered a much more serious matter than the education of the English boy's sister. My parents, especially my father, discussed the question of my brothers' education as a matter of real importance.”60 Again, reference to women’s education was an impetus for equality. At the same time, Pankhurst had her own reservations with the modern education she received:

My education and that of my sister were scarcely discussed at all . . . nobody seemed concerned. A girl's education at that time seemed to have for its prime

59 June Purvis, Purvis, June. Emmeline Pankhurst: A Biography (London: Routledge, 2002), 29-30. The founding of this league was a result of the suffrage movement in England splitting. Some nineteenth century British suffragists accepted intermittent granting of the vote to unmarried women only, as married women often had their husbands to vote for them. 60 Emmeline Pankhurst, “My Own Story,” (London: 1914), accessed 20 Novemeber 2018. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34856/34856-h/34856-h htm. 63

object the art of “making home attractive"—presumably to migratory male relatives. It used to puzzle me to understand why I was under such a particular obligation to make home attractive to my brothers. We were on excellent terms of friendship, but it was never suggested to them as a duty that they make home attractive to me. Why not? Nobody seemed to know.61

Modernity was relative to the person experiencing it in the late nineteenth century. For Pankhurst, her modern education lacked in implementing true equality, and reveals her radicalism regarding her New Woman identity. Pankhursts’ uncompromising feminist views fueled her activism to change women’s roles in society (and politics), and reveal a more familiar New Woman identity: the New Woman suffragette. What is more significant is that this alignment with suffrage, as with socialism and education, suggests that New Women found a common goal in their efforts to invalidate cultural interpretations of masculine and feminine identity and position women within reformed social space. The stereotype, however, of the New Woman as suffragette does not allow for a multivalent identity. Therefore, it remains essential to understand Pankhurst as one type of New Woman, responding to her individual circumstance and context that powered her individual character.62

In alignment with enfranchisement, many modern women in Britain associated socialist reforms with women’s rights and bridged the connection between socialism and feminism.

Beatrice Webb, for example, permeated the public sphere through her social activism. Her diary entries, which detail her encounters with anti-feminist women and prominent British politicians, reveal that her socialism and education informed her New Woman identity. As a young woman growing up in the late 1870s-1890s, Webb experienced the shift toward professionalism for women who sought to transcend the prominent distinction between what it was to be “feminine”

61 Ibid. 62 Emmeline’s daughter Sylvia Pankhurst has often been more popularly connected to the New Woman concept. However, the purpose of this chapter is to explore how the New Woman was not fixed. If the New Woman idea emerged in the late nineteenth century, then it bespeaks the importance in connecting Emmeline’s 1880s activism with New Womanhood. 64 versus “unfeminine.” 63 In her quest for a fairer society, Webb belonged to various social organizations, many of which had high numbers of women activists in its ranks. Through her affiliations with groups like the Charity Organization Society (COS) and the Fabian Society (of which she was a co-founder), Webb grew increasingly aware of her connection with the New

Woman.64 As a single, independent woman who advocated social reform and female education,

Webb was active in the male-dominated political arena. Furthermore, her contributions to social reform set her apart from other women who often referred to Webb as a “poor weak woman with a man’s brain.”65 The association with masculinity was often a requisite for many New Women, because having intellect and political opinions was so clearly a male characteristic. This presents important connections between the New Women who threatened masculinity, and the attempts to place their radicalism on the periphery of ideal social norms.66

By the 1870s and 1880s, British magazines played a significant role in constructing their own perceived New Woman identity. Often labeling modern women as “wild,” or associating their character with oddities, these magazines shed light on the non-traditional nature of the New

Woman. Through the avoidance of marriage (whether purposefully or not) some modern women

63 Many middle-class women, in fact, became active in social reform that involved health, poverty and education. These women did not define emancipation in terms of enfranchisement, but “in terms of gaining the right to do officially, publically and professionally what they had been doing in an unacknowledged and unpaid form.” Deborah Epstein Nord, The Apprenticeship of Beatrice Webb (New York: Cornell University Press, 1985), 116-117. 64 One example of Webb’s experience of female autonomy being challenged by the patriarchal social order occurred in a discussion with British politician Joseph Chamberlain: [Chamberlain] ‘I have one domestic trouble: my sister and my daughter are bitten with the women’s rights mania. I don’t allow any action on the subject.’ [Webb] ‘You don’t allow division of opinion in your household, Mr. Chamberlain?’ [Chamberlain] ‘I can’t help people thinking differently from me.’ [Webb] ‘But you don’t allow expression of the difference?’ [Chamberlain] ‘No.’ Beatrice Webb in Juliet Gardiner editor, Women’s Voices 1880-1918: The New Woman, (London: Collins and Brown, 1993), 156-157. 65 Beatrice Webb, “Poor, Weak Woman,” in Women’s Voices 1880-1918: The New Woman, eds. Juliet Gardiner (Collins and Brown: Great Britain, 1993), 47. Beatrice Webb was involved in Charles Booth’s The Life and Labour of the People in London (1886-1903) in which she helped investigate the working conditions of the British people. Her publications in this survey are testament to her education and intellect, both of which are aspects of new womanhood. Carole Seymour-Jones, Beatrice Webb: A Life (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1992), 152. Beatrice Webb, “Poor, Weak Woman,” in Women’s Voices 1880-1918: The New Woman edited by Juliet Gardiner (Collins and Brown: Great Britain, 1993), 47. 66 Gail Cunningham, “‘He-Notes’: Reconstructing Masculinity,” eds. Chris Willis and Angelique Richardson, The New Woman in Fiction and in Fact: Fin De Siècle Feminisms (London: Palgrave, 2001), 94-97. 65 threatened conventional Victorian society, and magazines often responded in fear to this threat.

Founded in 1841, Punch magazine was the most notorious for depicting independent women engaging in politics, sports, modern dress, and participating in higher education. In conjunction with the way modern women witnessed their own New Woman identity, Punch contributed extensively to her social impact as a modern feminist figure – at least in Britain. Therefore, illustrations are essential in understanding not only the context in which the New Woman concept emerged, but also in recognizing how popular culture constructed a new modern woman.

Punch produced images of masculine women who asserted their independence in the face of men; inadvertently, this often feminized the role of men. The possibility of female masculinity and male femininity was a terrifying notion as it disrupted the complementarity of ideal modern gender roles.

Image 2.1: John Leech, Punch, (1853), accessed 9 December 2018. https://punch.photoshelter.com/image/I0000WRT9bYDKRWc. 66

Image 2.2: George du Maurier, Punch, (1874), accessed 9 December 2018. https://punch.photoshelter.com/image/I0000snpOODwY0fY

For instance, masculine women would not be suitable for raising children, while feminine men would be a threat to a patriarchic society. The images of militant women discussing law, or drinking brandy while the husband watched the children, jeopardized the ideal social order and were common satirical themes in Punch magazine well before the inception of the term New

Woman. Emphasis on female valiancy simultaneously promoted a fear of new womanhood, which allowed Punch to contribute to the level of transgression inherent in the New Woman identity. An internal female transgression implies that there existed an attempt to position modern women between two extremes, transgressive and moral. While difference in gender was essential in maintaining patriarchic gender norms, a transgressive New Woman complicated the state’s ability to keep gender polarized and complementary. 67

Looking at the New Woman identity in Britain necessitates a brief discussion on the character’s inception to fully understand her ambiguity. This jump back allows the discussion to come full circle. In the 1894 debate between Sarah Grand and Maria Louise Ramé (pseudonym

Ouida) the New Woman concept was explained. While Grand believed the British New Woman to be liberal-minded, independent, and informed, Ouida hotly contested her status as a modern icon of ideal womanhood. In fact, for Ouida the New Woman was an “unmitigated bore” whose

“fierce vanity” went against all that was refined and decent about middle-class women.67 Ouida contested the New Woman and fueled the stereotype that she was abrasive and uncompromising.

Ironically, Ouida’s writings against the New Woman were equally stubbornly abrasive and reveal that she perhaps shared more in common with New Woman characteristics than she realized. As opinionated, published, and at the forefront of one of the most popular debates in the nineteenth century, Ouida’s nonconformity placed her within the spectrum of the New Woman identity. The idea that a supposed anti-feminist could still potentially represent unconventionality is essential to this chapter because it suggests that the New Woman was more than just the stereotyped oversexualized, smoking, boomer-wearing, gruff modern female. While Ouida may not have identified herself with the New Woman, her actions align with the same characteristics she so feverishly debated. Ultimately, this suggests that the discourse surrounding the identity of the New Woman encompassed a convolutedness that sheds light on the ultimate ambiguity of her character.68

67 Ouida, “The New Woman” (1894) The North American Review 272, no. 3 (1987): 61. 68 Michelle Elizabeth Tusan dissects this New Woman’s political identity in her article “Inventing the New Woman: Print Culture and Identity Politics during the Fin-de-Siecle” (1998). According to Tusan, when the New Woman idea reached the press, it significantly changed. While it was first an ideal for a utopian feminist future, it soon became a mocking ideal that swept through Britain’s popular culture. The parody of the New Woman in newspapers and magazines often trivialized her as a symbol, which perhaps suggests why some modern women did not identify with her character despite in reality being aligned with her traits. Tusan states that while male- dominated magazines like Punch had an effect on the identity of the New Woman, so too did female journals and magazines from the 1880s. For example, Women’s Herald and The Women’s Gazette solidified that the New 68

THE MANIPULATION OF AMBIGUITY

Placing the New Woman in her broader economic, cultural, and imperial context shows how powerful cultural symbols of new womanhood can speak to broader concerns regarding gender and patriarchy in Mexico, Japan, and Britain. There were multiple meanings of the New

Woman as both reality and symbol. Therefore, the emergence of such continuities and discontinuities embodied in the New Woman directly related to the ability of many types of women to exemplify her character. This becomes apparent in the existence of New Women identities that emerged and publicly advocated for and against elements of conventionalization.69

In Japan, for example, while the government promoted an image of educated middle-class woman (mother), they continued to have reservations about any woman entering political public discourse. This is evident in attempts to distance ideal Japanese modern womanhood away from radical women like Kishida Toshiko. Ryosai kenbo, on the other hand, sanctioned women as well-educated role models for their households, and ultimately gave them special roles within the

Meiji nationalist agenda.70 Ryosai kenbo not only illustrated social change within Meiji Japan, but its endorsement by mainstream New Women like Shimoda and Hatoyama inadvertently substantiated male hierarchy; therefore, ryosai kenbo was a way for Japan’s modern patriarchy to appropriate the radicalism of some New Women so that it included convention. 71 The same is true for Mexico’s Laureana Wright de Kleinhans whose role as New Woman (public,

Woman identity was not only created by feminists, but that she also embodied both traditional and progressive ideals “in her role as a politically charged social reformer.” 69 Such a dichotomy becomes even more polarized as Japan, Britain, and Mexico enter into the twentieth century and women become even more mobilized through print culture as will be discussed in the next chapter. 70 Hatoyama even labels herself and her fellow clubwomen as the New Woman in Japan, while at the same time advocating a patriarchal ideal. Sheldon Garon, “Rethinking Modernization and Modernity in Japanese History: A Focus on State-Society Relations,” The Journal of Asian Studies 53, no. 2 (199): 358. 71 Even Westerners such as Ernest W. Clement had an opinion on the Meiji New Woman. Clement spent time in Japan as a missionary, and soon after became a professor of Modern Japanese history. His article “The New Woman in Japan,” published in 1903, references a specific New Woman in the mainstream educational Meiji reformer, Tsuda Umeko. While his article and his views about the New Woman in Japan are but one portrayal in a larger picture, they continue to provide credence to the fact that the New Woman was not a monolith. Ernest W. Celement, “The New Woman in Japan,” American Journal of Sociology 8, no. 5 (1903): 693. 69 independent, published) did not deter her from validating the traditional marianismo ideal.

Similarly, Ouida’s anti-feminism was broadcast on the very platform that New Women represented. These women were not always the radical feminists of the 1880s, nor did they remain apathetic toward conventionalism. Rather, they included mainstream values in their New

Woman identities.

Modern women, however, did not have to be conscious of their identities as New Women.

That the New Woman, at times, allowed for traditional ideas to infiltrate the language of feminism suggests that this period in history allowed modern women to uphold ideals in certain areas, while on other issues embracing progress. This ultimately offered individuality for modern women, as public vocalization of conventional ideas paradoxically coincided with platforms of progress. The concept of the New Woman was not singular. Sarah Grand may have reinforced her existence through a distinct definition, but her characterization has become amorphous. This does not mean that her label has been misused; rather, it confirms that the concept of the New

Woman is unique and ever changing. Such women were absent from previous historiographies that regard radicals Beatrice Webb, Emmeline Pankhurst, Kishido Toshiko, and Rita Cetina

Gutiérrez to be archetypes of the New Woman. However, including a spectrum replaces the singularity of such an identity and provides the inclusion necessary in understanding how female responses to ‘The Woman Question’ in Britain, Japan, and Mexico intersected with the growing presence of modern patriarchy. If scholars recognize the spectrum of the New Woman, what becomes apparent is that paternalistic states were able to appropriate her as a symbol to serve their own purpose. This is not meant to give more power to the historiography of the state or 70 male status quo, but rather to consider that that there existed New Women who worked against and within the boundaries of modern patriarchy to assert their own modern womanhood.72

The New Woman often changed depending on who was interpreting or identifying with her various traits. Such social construction of the New Woman in the nineteenth century was then imagined by modern women who recognized themselves as part of that identity; therefore, the New Woman comprises an imagined community of various modern female identities.73

Rather than solely being the independent and emancipated female of the late nineteenth century, the New Woman character helped modern women create a feminism that was individual and unique for them. In fact, the New Woman often arose out of radical and socialist political spaces while at times simultaneously espousing more conventional rhetoric. Therefore, New Women, even mainstream ones who possessed a semblance of tradition, asserted their agency in multivalent ways and avenues. Understanding this complex and antithetical uniqueness supports the idea that the “new” in New Woman was often confined by what was “new” at the time – new ideas of womanhood, new ideas of empowerment. While these “new” ideas can often appear opposite to the function of progressive modernity, it nevertheless contributes to an ever-changing idea of “new” that allows the New Woman concept to adapt with the changing times ever present within modernity; furthermore, it allows the New Woman identity to be a choice of many women, not just one typical type. This signifies that women were not simply complacent or antithetical during the change in modern patriarchy, but rather interacted with its power in many ways - through a variety in femininity that foreshadows later feminist consciousness.

72 But questions remain. Does a symbol risk losing its potency if it is appropriated by different interests for their own use? If they can erase the radicalism of it, does the process of erasure or of banalization chip away at its power? If appropriation existed, what does this say about women who saw this mainstream modern identity as agentive? By including the mainstream, scholars can break the patriarchal dichotomy of New Woman as radical or moral; it shows that the New Woman was a philosophy to be had by many women and not just radical ones. 73 For more on imagined communities see Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1991). 71

Discussion of the New Woman necessitates the recognition that her identity continued to change at the turn of the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth. Participation in writing, and reading early twentieth century magazines and journals, became a new social and political activity for many women. Therefore, as print culture expanded and infiltrated public life, middle- class women continued to explore their identities in parallel. Engagement with and in print culture further complicated the context in which modern women charted their feminism. Looking specifically at women run magazines, and with a brief discussion of one male authored novel, the next chapter shows how modern women simultaneously broke down and sustained traditional standards of female behavior and mores. This allowed for the New Woman identity to further change; additionally, having significant effect on the ways in which feminism was expressed, and the way modern patriarchy was preserved. 72

CHAPTER THREE

A PATH THAT HAS NO END: CULTIVATING FEMINIST CONSCIOUSNESS IN EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY PRINT CULTURE

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is, I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.1 Rebecca West, 1913

In early twentieth century Mexico, the magazine La Mujer Mexicana (1904-1907) provided a homogenous representation of middle class female discourse which spread ideas of legal equality between men and women. Despite its writings pertaining to concepts of equality, its goal was not to challenge the male status quo, but to encourage women to join and support their partners in moral and intellectual development. Often promoting traditional ideas of women’s roles as destined familial moral leaders, La Mujer Mexicana placed the nineteenth century Marian Ideal on a new and modern platform, advocating a complementary coexistence of men and women: “Para conseguir nosotras conéxito seguro una emancipacinracional y justa sin que abandonemos las faenas delhogar, nido de nuestras alegrías/To achieve a secure and fair emancipation for us, without abandoning the chores of the home, the nest of our joys.”2 The magazine both stimulated women’s political participation and simultaneously reinforced their

1 Rebecca West (1913), The Young Rebecca West: Writings of Rebecca West, 1911-1917, ed. Jane Marcus (London: Macmillan Press, 1982), 219. 2 For a more in depth definition of the Marian Ideal or marianismo, refer to chapter one. Marita Martín Orozco, “La Mujer Mexicana (1904 a 1906), una revista de época,” No. 33 (2005), 83. The separate spheres ideology claimed that men and women maintained their prescribed spaces: women in the private and men in the public. In the 1960s, historians Gerda Lerner and Aileen S. Kreditor reinforced “separate spheres” by looking at American middle-class women’s roles through the lens of this ideology. Critical of this, historian Linda Kerber argued that “separate spheres” was not a universal predisposition. Rather, its use as an analytic preserves a dualism that “denies the reciprocity between gender and society and imposes a static model on dynamic relationships.” For more on the historiographical debate on public versus private see Linda Kerber, “Separate Spheres, Female Worlds, Woman’s Place: The Rhetoric of Women’s History,” The Journal of American History 75, no. 1 (1988): 9-39 and Amanda Vickery, “Golden Age to Separate Spheres? A Review of the Categories and Chronology of English Women’s History,” The Historical Journal 36, no. 2 (1993): 383-414. 73 connections with domesticity and, notably, chastity: maintenance of virginity before marriage, fidelity after marriage, and a strict adherence to “morality and submissiveness.”3

The first editor of La Mujer Mexicana was Dolores Correa y Zapata who, in 1904, belonged to the first feminist women’s association in Mexico.4 Historian Marita Martín Orozco states that feminism at this time in Mexican history did not always attempt to distance itself from ties with family values. Rather, the editors and contributors of La Mujer Mexicana considered themselves feminist with regards to emancipating women (mothers) through education.5 The contradiction of proclaiming feminism and women’s liberation, yet upholding traditionally prescriptive roles for women, reflected a spectrum of feminism that continued to grow with twentieth century print culture. Such contradiction existed outside of Mexico as well; Japanese women politically aligned themselves with radical ideas of socialism while encouraging that women maintain ideas of virtue. This meant that in the early twentieth century, feminism had the potential to encompass a more comprehensive definition than we consider in today’s politics - one that allowed women with different political and social views to tackle its meaning. Therefore, what became possible was the malleability of early feminist consciousness as some women were promoting ideals drenched in conventional fervor while others were distancing themselves from them.6 This suggests that many women were grappling with the capaciousness of feminism as its early definition included ideas of both sexual liberation and women’s rights that were not always

3 Ibid, 78. 4 Rosa María González Jiménez, “The Normal School for Women and Liberal Feminism in Mexico City, Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century,” Resources for Feminist Research 34, no. 1 (2012): 33-55. 5 Martín Orozco, “La Mujer Mexicana,” 82. 6 The discussion here is not to suggest that feminism is ultimately an all-inclusive definition that involved all modern women who participated in print and political culture; rather, it is to reinforce the idea that women could, at times, be simultaneously agentive and submissive, especially in the early twentieth century with the growth in feminist consciousness. For it is imaginable that patriarchy remained alluring for those modern women who simultaneously took comfort in the protection through idealized gender roles, while also grappling with feminist ideas. This is not to argue that all women who upheld patriarchy were feminist, but that their interactions with ideas of women’s emancipation helped shape what was and was not considered feminism. This idea that women had potential to embrace feminist rhetoric while protecting patriarchal norms is inspired by Phyllis Mack, Visionary Women: Ecstatic Prophecy in Seventeenth-Century England (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992). 74 reconcilable.7 Martín Orozco argues that La Mujer Mexicana aimed its publication to the elite class, which often marginalized women and men who remained on the periphery of bourgeois culture; nevertheless, it played a vital role in creating both class and ideological divisions within

Mexican feminism.8 Contextually, this shows that female participation in print culture brought forth new ways in which feminism and the modern female identity was read, experienced, and appropriated.

Middle class women’s roles changed through participation in print culture; some women promoted and worked on magazines that offered unique and ideologically guided avenues into political life. While certain women wrote about suffrage and gender equality, others supported various social and political issues that they deemed exceedingly essential. For example, Japanese feminist Ito Noe maintained a politically radical view against the strong national government, while at the same time aligning with governmental anti-abortion policies. Women, therefore, became both active voices and readers in the cultural, social, and political changes occurring in the early to mid-twentieth century.9 This allowed for the emergence of particular permutations of feminism and even the New Woman identity. This chapter compares the rise in women’s access and contribution to print culture in Mexico, Japan, and Britain. 10 Looking specifically at women’s publications, such as Seito in Japan, what becomes apparent are the ways in which conventional undertones often leaked off the pages of a well-known feminist journal. Therefore,

7 Leila J. Rupp, “Feminism and the Sexual Revolution in the Early Twentieth Century: The Case of Doris Stevens,” Feminist Studies 15, no. 2 (1989): 289-290. 8 Martín Orozco, “La Mujer Mexicana,” 68. 9 For more on how reading was a public and social activity see Janice Radway’s Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1984). In this work, Radway investigates the “cultural and historical meaning of literary consumption and production.” Chapter Three is especially helpful to consider the ways in which reading a book - a romance novel in this case - can act as an individual form of resistance. 10 The timeline of this chapter is structured with specific omissions. I have purposefully left out a discussion of war and revolution, which often occurred alongside early twentieth century print culture. Insight into war and revolution, and its influence on feminism and women’s roles, will be left for Chapter Five as it more explicitly intersects with the fight for suffrage in Mexico, Japan, and Britain. 75 women’s social and political participation in print suggests that the modern female experience often intersected with ideas that simultaneously preserved and resisted patriarchal values.

Further observation in this chapter includes discussions of ideas of chastity, morality, and women’s agency in choice. Observed here is H.G. Wells’ 1909 novel Ann Veronica wherein the protagonist ultimately chooses marriage and wifehood over independence. Such attempts to understand the complexity within feminism, and the language used to declare its value, further contributed to the variety found in the New Woman identity. Twentieth century New Women, for instance, continued to complicate idealized middle class gender roles because they often associated themselves with such language. What this eventually shows is that, in an effort to maintain the male status quo, the state prescribed an inherent transgression only to those New

Women who challenged this ideal. This is witnessed in the state’s rejection of radically outspoken New Women and then its ensuing endorsement of those who sought educational freedom while upholding traditional values of matrimony. Such attacks and reinforcements of female independence further complicated what it meant to be a New Woman and what it meant to be a feminist.

Some scholars have prescribed the New Woman to be a predetermined identity with fixed characteristics that included more radical elements of feminism.11 Therefore, this ideal plays a significant role in this chapter, which bridges the gap between the New Woman of the nineteenth century to her evolution in the twentieth century.12 Analysis of women-run magazines, compared

11 Japanese historian Barbara Sato, for example, argues that the twentieth century Japanese New Woman was part of a new Japanese feminism that existed specifically prior to the 1920s: “A progressive group of educated young intellectual women who found solace in self-cultivation through reading, writing, and meditation.” Do scholars confine her identity to a small moment in time in an attempt to account for the ever changing features of modernity that impact the modern female? Or, by temporarily limiting the New Woman, has scholarship imprisoned her? Barbara Sato, The New Japanese Woman: Modernity, Media, and Women in Interwar Japan (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003), 14. 12 My focus on middle class women in Japan, Britain, and Mexico has regrettably meant the exclusion of other women who also considered themselves feminist. However, by the early twentieth century, increased social 76 to decades before, illustrates how women envisioned their new, modern roles and identities within a changing landscape.13 Additionally, the brief discussion of Wells’ Ann Veronica, as a fictional representation of modern women in Britain, further contextualizes the realities of the twentieth century New Woman, while also revealing that fiction posed a considerable influence on the discourse of female sexuality.14 While Wells’ novel is not necessarily representative of the entirety of the transatlantic New Woman experience, it does reveal that modern women in

Britain, in response to the novel’s themes, had the potential to agree on topics even if their politics remained adverse. This becomes apparent when assessing feminist Beatrice Webb and anti-suffragist Mrs. Humphry Ward who held similarities in their discussions of female sexuality and morality, but who ultimately charted individual modern female identities. Therefore, while today’s contemporary views hold a (relatively) clear political definition of what it means to be a feminist, during its emergence a century ago, many women related its meaning to their own ideological experiences. What materialized was a range of feminist identity that scholars can begin to uncover through examining the New Woman in print culture. This range fortuitously enabled a patriarchic power to sequester a natal feminism that helped maintain its control.15

and political involvement facilitated a transient emergence of a range in middle class feminist identity. These fluctuating feminist identities significantly improved women’s abilities to fight for change from within and without a patriarchic state. Therefore, as more women emerged from the nineteenth century with a higher education and enhanced social and political awareness, a growing variety in feminism began to explicitly interact with a changing modern patriarchy. 13 Many women in the mid to late nineteenth century wrote for and read contemporary magazines and journals. By the twentieth century, technological advancements allowed for a less expensive and more accessible circulation of magazines. 14 Within the scope of British and Japanese modern femininity is the idea of the feminist imperialist; imperialism was another avenue of new womanhood. Yet, due to limited time and space, the imperial feminist will not be a subject of this study, though perhaps an interesting and necessary one for future investigations. 15 Certainly, choosing how to be a modern woman is in itself a form of agency, which at times could serve useful to preserving patriarchal power. 77

A PATH ON PAPER: NEW WOMAN VOICES IN PRINT CULTURE

Many scholars of Japan have designated Japanese New Women as members of Seitosha

(Bluestockings), the feminist collective who published a self-titled women’s magazine and brought attention to gender distinctions in Meiji and Taisho Japan. 16 Seitosha women were strong, intellectual, bold, and at times defiant of government promoted gender roles. They were the next step in feminist activism in modern Japan, building on the legacy of women like Kishido

Toshiko who decades earlier publically advocated for women’s equality through education and an end to oppressive governmental policies that subjugated women.17 The women of Seitosha created an outlet for their New Woman identities and expressed their views on modern ideas of sexual liberation, chastity, and gender norms, arguably epitomizing a feminist voice in magazine culture in the 1910s and 1920s.

The publication of their journal, Seito (1911-1916), presented the public with the New

Woman experience that illustrate nuanced portrayals of what modern and feminist looked like.

They reached a variety in readership from veteran social feminists of the 1890s to mainstream men and women. In fact, Seito became so known for bringing such taboo topics into public discourse that several issues, and eventually the magazine itself, were banned by the government.18 Its first edition in 1911 was groundbreaking and had significant effect on ideas of feminism and women’s place in society. Seito’s most notable founder, Hiratsuka Raicho,

16 The name is a reference to the Bluestocking Society women of the eighteenth century who partook in educated, intellectual discussions. These upper class women often gathered in reading circles to discuss various writings by contemporary Enlightenment thinkers. Inspired by these writings, bluestocking women often focused on the social standards that placed limitations on their gender. Frequent meetings allowed women in Europe to publically discuss topics of education, morality, and sexual differences. Such an emphasis on these topics foreshadows similar early twentieth century discourse. It seems fitting, then, that Japanese women adopted that name. Katherine L. French and Allyson M. Poska eds. Women and Gender in the Western Past. Volume Two: Since 1500 (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007), 265. The Meiji period lasted until 1912 with the death of Emperor Meiji. Ushering in a new reign was Emperor Taisho (1912-1926) whose period is known for its liberalism and increased internationalization. 17 For more on Kishida Toshiko see Chapter Two. Vera Mackie, Feminism in Modern Japan (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 15-20. 18 Mackie, Feminism in Modern Japan, 48-52. 78 galvanized young women, who were discontented with the burdens of tradition. The first issue catalyzed public response to women’s traditional roles in society, and within the first month catapulted Seito’s number of subscriptions with Raicho’s now famous line: “In the beginning woman was truly the sun. An authentic person. Now she is the moon, a wan and sickly moon, dependent on another, reflecting another’s brilliance.”19 In this brief statement, Raicho mandated female independence while also evoking antiquated representations of women – notably reminding of the “mythic mother” of the Shinto religion and imperial line, the sun goddess

Amatarasu.20 This bridged a connection between modernity and indigenous Japanese religion, and solidified Seito’s voice within contemporary discourse.

In its early years, Seito remained at the forefront of the debate regarding the twentieth century woman question. This led the editors of Seito to discuss such notorious topics that dealt specifically with feminism and the New Woman identity. For example, in their 1912 issue the women of Seito took special aim at the individualism of Henrik Ibsen’s Nora in the famous modern play A Doll’s House (1879). In the play, the main character, Nora, experienced the epiphany of the New Woman in her decision to pursue independence over caring for her family.

In 1911, a university production of A Doll’s House debuted in Tokyo. The play spawned considerable attention from the Japanese press. In a clear divergence from Kabuki theatre norms, a woman was rejecting the man’s authority, both on stage and as depicted in the home, to pursue individualism.21 A few months later, Seito offered female commentary to the play; such voices

19 Hiratsuka Raicho, “In the Beginning Woman Was the Sun,” Seito Manifesto, Seito 1.1 (September 1911) in Jan Bardsley, The Bluestockings of Japan: New Woman Essays and Fiction from Seito, 1911-16 (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan, Center for Japanese Studies, 2007), 94. 20 Such connections of Japanese New Women to their indigenous line reawaken ideas from Las Hijas del Anahuac in Mexico in the nineteenth century (see Chapter Two). Ibid, 89. 21 In traditional Kabuki theatre, men performed all on-stage roles. According to historian Laurel Rasplica Rodd, reviews of the production sparked the debate of the New Woman in Japan. While not all female audience members felt inspired or moved by Nora’s epiphany, it is imaginable that other women saw and discussed this play off the pages of the popular press. Laurel Rasplica Rodd, “Yosano Akiki and the Taisho Debate over the ‘New 79 represent those who both revered and held contentions with Ibsen’s Nora.22 Some scholars have emphasized Nora’s traits as exemplary New Woman qualities, which in reality presents an all too fixed association and fails to take into consideration the many New Women who had reservations with Ibsen’s Nora.23 Kato Midori was a member of Seito from its foundational issue until its last year; she wrote many nonfiction essays that directly reflected her own ideas of the

New Woman identity. In the 1912 issue, Midori participated in the discussion regarding Nora’s character and subsequent sudden feminist awakening. Sympathetic with the heroine, Midori believed that Nora’s earlier juvenile behavior was a result of “the mask she wore out of love for her husband,” suggesting that this act was not the true identity of her character.24 Rather, Midori argued that the entirety of the play suggests the “gradual unfolding” of Nora’s New Woman identity, contradicting ideas that the heroine experienced an abrupt enlightenment of new womanhood and independence.25 Midori wrote, “I hope that both the awakened and yet-to-be awakened Noras in Japan will think more seriously about women’s position.”26 Many modern, feminist women like Midori, generally accepted Nora’s statement of individualism and self- awareness; however, others, like Hiratsuka Raicho, held more critical reservations. Raicho did not recognize Nora’s triumphant departure from the home as a sign of self-awakening, but rather as a superficial epiphany.27 Published in the same issue as Midori, Raicho wrote:

Woman’,” Recreating Japanese Women, 1600-1945, ed. Gail Lee Bernstein (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 175. 22 See Sato, The New Japanese Woman, 14. 23 Ibid. 24 Dina Lowy, “Nora and the ‘New Woman’: Visions of Gender and Modernity in Early Twentieth Century Japan,” U.S. – Japan Women’s Journal, no. 26 (2004): 87. 25 Ibid. 26 Kato Midori in the notes of Hiratsuka Raicho, In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun: The Autobiography of a Japanese Feminist, trans. Teruko Craig (New York: Colombia University Press, 2006), 322. 27 Raicho took specific reservations with the way Nora was portrayed in the Teigeki production of A Doll’s House in Japan. 80

Dear Nora, It would be a different matter if you were a hopelessly impulsive and ignorant girl of fourteen or fifteen, but you are a mother of three children. What you did is beyond comprehension for Japanese women . . . Still, you certainly slammed that door with vengeance. But now that you’re one step out the door, I worry about you. It’s pitch dark, you can’t tell east from west, and your steps are unsteady. I feel I should follow you and make sure you’re all right.28

Questioning the sincerity of Nora’s self-discovery, Raicho remained critical of what true female independence meant. Yet, the mere criticism of Nora is not the only striking significance of

Raicho’s writings; she also placed emphasis on Nora’s abandonment of her children. This,

Raicho states, Japanese women would not and could not fathom. This reveals insight into

Raicho’s own identity as a New Woman as it conjures connections with a motherly self- awareness. In later years, Raicho became increasingly aligned with theories of mother’s rights

(boken) wherein the valorization of motherhood was emphasized with the expectations of support from the welfare state.29 Different from women’s rights (joken) theory, which rejected such potential of dependence on men or a patriarchal state, Raicho’s mother’s rights movement aided in her own evolutionary identity as a New Woman. This suggests that the New Woman could evolve by experiencing cultural shifts. Such a possibility is indicative of the potential in future female politicization to fight for equality through a spectrum of feminism.

As in Japan, Mexican middle class women’s entrance into public society, through their increased access to education, further cultivated modern female identities as they became more aware of feminist driven ideas. Feminist activity remained strong before, during, and after the

Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) with continual growth in female run publications that called

28 Raicho, In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun, 168. Other translations of Raicho’s views can be found in Sharon L. Seivers, Flowers in Salt: The Beginnings of Feminist Consciousness in Modern Japan (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1983), 171. 29 Mackie, Feminism in Modern Japan, 57. 81 for changes in women’s statuses in Mexico.30 Publications like La Mujer Mexicana remained influential, but not necessarily representative of the wide range in feminist agendas. Mexico’s

Hermila Galindo (1886-1954) was a product of previous increases in education for women during the Porfiriato (1876-1910), and was exposed to literature and progressive discourse that significantly influenced her modern feminist identity. A writer, suffragist, and advocate of sexual education, Galindo was active in many political circles in twentieth century Mexico. In 1915,

Galindo directed the magazine La Mujer Moderna (1915-1919), which was a weekly publication on behalf of various journalists and feminists who commented on social changes in Mexico.

La Mujer Moderna paralleled emergent transnational feminist rhetoric that further opened a dialogue for female political participation. Much of Galindo’s magazine focused on ideas of, and reactions to, new types of feminine: la chica moderna, the Modern Girl with her bobbed hairstyle and progressive fashion, and the pelona, literally translated as the “shorn woman.”31 While the magazine dealt with this new modern woman in twentieth century culture, it also included features of conservatism with modern characteristics. Conventional sections often focused on various domestic activities that pandered to modernity – new cooking styles, new fashions for in and outside of the home, and personal hygiene.32 At the same time, the magazine explicitly called for women’s right to vote by signifying the benefits of female suffrage and by comparing Mexico with other international communities that had already enfranchised

30 The Mexican Revolution and its effect on women in social and political space will be more thoroughly analyzed in Chapter Five. I am purposefully omitting its significance in this chapter to keep a more nuanced approach to this thesis, which does not always rely on temporal analyses of modern feminist identity. 31 For further discussion on the Modern Girl in Mexico, Japan, and Britain, see Chapter Four. Laura Isabell Serna, Making Cinlandia: American Films and Mexican Film Culture Before the Golden Age (Durham: Duke University Press, 2014), 124. 32 In fact, an increase in technology alongside local and international print consumerism, promoted a transnational captivation with la chica moderna. This inherently linked the modern woman with both progressive and regressive modern ideas. Oliva Noguez Noguez, “Hermila Galindo y ‘La mujer moderna’ (1915-1916). Abriendo espacios: entre la domesticidad y los derechos por la igualdad,” Historia 2.0 2, No. 4 (2012): 65. Also see Joanne Hershfiel, Imagining la Chica Moderna: Women, Nation, and Visual Culture in Mexico, 1917-1936 (London: Duke University Press, 2008). 82 women. 33 To appreciate why the magazine held the significance it did necessitates an understanding of its contributors and range. Price reflects the quantity of its circulation. At twenty to thirty cents per issue, such a high cost - one that the magazine itself tried to justify in its 1916 issue - suggests only a certain class of people were able to hold an audience with the magazine.34 Additionally, several of the magazine’s writers used pseudonyms that scholars have concluded held potential to be both male and female.35 This offered further variety to its readers who were not solely women. In fact, renewal subscribers were congratulated in several editions that provide further insight into its readership: “Miss María Jaques mentions: ‘The female teaching staff has found great impulses’ and requests 50 weekly copies."36 Men also served a significant portion of its readership. In one edition, a Mr. J. García López congratulates the magazine for its variety in gendered content that allowed for male and female readership to explore gender issues.37 Through such mention, readers themselves could also see the scope of the magazine. The central take away from these facts is that its variety of content allowed the ideological consumption of a modern identity wherein the New Woman and feminist discourse was at the center.38 In this way, La Mujer Moderna served to successfully circulate topical discussions on gender issues in line with both a committed readership and their own concerns.

Despite conventional aspects of La Mujer Moderna, Galindo’s own feminism continued to radicalize as she became increasingly associated with gender equality and suffrage. Galindo’s increased alignment with gender equality suggests a trajectory of the Mexican New Woman

33 Ibid, 68. La Mujer Moderna ran from 1915-1919 and British women over the age of 30 received the vote in 1918. It would be interesting to find a reference(s) to the women’s suffrage in Wyoming, U.S. in 1869. This is, perhaps, a project for future research. 34 Moreover, that they tried to justify the price in one of their issues indicates previous backlash. La mujer moderna: semanario ilustrado, 19 (20 de febrero de 1916) as seen in Noguez, “Hermilla Galindo,” 65. 35 Noguez, “Hermila Galindo,” 65. 36 “Buzón de la mujer moderna,” La mujer moderna, 3 (3 de octubre de 1915): 9 as seen in Noguez, “Hermilla Galindo,” 66. 37 Noguez, “Hermilla Galindo,” 66. 38 Noguez, “Hermila Galindo,” 64-68. 83 toward female enfranchisement. By 1916, Galindo’s involvement in the First Feminist Congress further radicalized her feminism towards women’s political equality. Yet, Galindo remained pragmatic in her rhetoric that justified women’s enfranchisement:

. . . una casa sin mujeres es lo peor del mundo, y, sin embargo, estos mismos hombres no quieren darse cuenta de que un Municipio y un Estado sin mujeres son mucho más lamentables que una casa en que falta el elemento femenino; porque, en una casa, el mal recae sobre unos cuantos individuos, y en un Estado, toda la poblacin del estado lo sufre/ . . . a house without women is the worst in the world, and . . . these same men do not want to realize that a Municipality and a State without women are much more regrettable than a house in which the feminine element is missing; because, in a house, the evil falls on a few individuals, and in one State, the entire population of the state suffers.39

Galindo’s entrance into print culture may have started with La Mujer Moderna, but eventually evolved into other forms of political resistance to gender oppression. Her access to, and participation in, print culture allowed her to foster and explore new avenues for feminist political expression that eventually informed her modern New Woman and feminist identity. The twentieth century, therefore, sparked a new wave for the New Woman to continue to emerge and explore her distinctiveness and feminism.

Galindo’s experience in fighting for the vote mirror similar female participation in twentieth century British print culture, which was equally connected to the suffragist agenda.

The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), undertook a moderate approach in their endeavor to enfranchise women. Lead by suffragist Millicent Fawcett, the NUWSS was an umbrella organization that sought to achieve the vote through democratic process.40 More militantly labeled “suffragette” women, such as Emmeline Pankhurst, split from the NUWSS to

39 La Mujer Moderna, No 62 (February 4, 1917) in La Voz de la Revolucin, Mérida, Yucatán, (November 25, 1916): 5-24 in Rosa Maria Valles Ruiz, “Segundo Congreso Feminista en México: una historia olvidada,” Accessed 12 January 2019, https://www.uaeh.edu mx/investigacion/productos/4925/segundo_congreso_feminista.pdf. 40 Much of the peaceful tactics that the NUWSS employed had not changed since the mid-nineteenth century. By the early twentieth century, even with an increase in pro-suffrage Parliament members, women were still not close to receiving the vote as no laws had been changed. Sophia A. van Wingerden, The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain, 1866-1928 (London: Macmillan Press, LTD, 1999), 70. 84 form the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in the early twentieth century. These two groups, while advocating similar goals, had very different paths on which to achieve their aims.

For Pankhurst, militant tactics had become a necessary tool to achieve the vote, and the WSPU gradually increased their radicalism. Fawcett, on the other hand, believed in non-violent means for the vote; the NUWSS maintained their support for candidates that would eventually vote in favor of enfranchisement. 41 While these political groups witnessed two different feminist ideologies for suffrage, the periodical The Freewoman (1911-1912) presents scholars with another path of feminist thought.42 Founded by Dora Marsden, The Freewoman established itself as a canvas for divergent opinions on feminist issues of the time. For example, Marsden believed that being a feminist was more than just advocating for the vote, but included ideas rooted in women’s emancipation in other ways. In turn, this allowed for the establishment of new types of feminism that combated stereotyped notions of New Women (suffragist) participating in politics.

This included discussions of free love, sexuality, marriage, and family life; it was especially the topic of sexuality that differentiated Marsden from other feminists of her time.43 The Freewoman, therefore, was an exploration of the New Woman identity in Britain. For example, Marsden sought to promote intellectual feminism and discourse that placed women’s politics within an array of present social issues. While Marsden started out as a member of the suffragist WSPU, her eventual resignation reveals that, as a New Woman, her identity was more complicated than

41 Additional differences arose in the way the groups sought to mobilize support. Fawcett had, in many ways, “alienated many members of the public,” while the WSPU did not align themselves with any political party; their goal was to oppose the British government until they acquired the vote. Van Wingerden, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 76-77. 42 Despite having a relatively small circulation and lifespan, The Freewoman was still able to offer strong opinions that remained hotly debated before and after World War I. This is witnessed in the many contributors, such as H.G. Wells and Rebecca West, who were involved in popular discourse of such topics as sexuality and gender roles. Gordon N. Ray, H.G. Wells and Rebecca West (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974). 43 The Freewoman also included discussions of female suffrage; however, Marsden believed that feminism was not fully defined by suffrage. For more on The Freewoman see Lucy Delap, “‘Philosophical Vacuity and Political Ineptitude’:The Freewoman’s critique of the Suffrage Movement,” Women’s History Review 11, no. 4 (2006): 613-630. 85 simply an alignment with the fight for the vote.44 This is further observed in her contributions to the British print culture scene.

The Freewoman urged women to question that their sexual difference from men was what justified their enfranchisement. Such radical themes of equality positioned The Freewoman as divergent from other New Women identities of the early twentieth century. In the November

1911 issue, The Freewoman published a discursive piece on the role of women:

Though some men must be servants, all women are servants, and all the masters are men. . . It is this effort to find her place among the masters which is behind the feminist movement; and such a statement of the feminist case is a refutation of the arguments of all those who maintain that there is no duality of interest between men and women. At the present time, there is duality, and duality in this connection will cease to exist only when women sink back into the position of females with nothing beyond, or when they stand recognised as "masters," among other "masters," considering their sex just as much an incidental concern as men consider theirs.45

Marsden’s definition of feminism included a more radicalistic ideology, which deconstructed the idea that women remain in servile roles based on their sex. Suffrage organizations, such as the

NUWSS, generally subscribed to ideas that women possessed a heightened sense of morality, which justified female judgement and, therefore, their right to vote. Yet, Marsden’s feminist identity called for an individualism that promoted female free will and emphasized their rights as subjects and not as nurturing mothers. Marsden’s New Woman identity was informed by her own sense of radicalism and further allowed for other women to bridge their own feminist identities from within this spectrum.

44 While Mardsen still heavily advocated female enfranchisement, her split with the WSPU is indicative of her own feminist path. 45“Bondwomen,” The Freewoman, Vol. 1. No.1 (November 23, 1911). The Modernist Journal’s Project, Brown University and the University of Tulsa, https://library.brown.edu/pdfs/ 1300808039203129.pdf 86

A WAVERING PATH

At times, the New Woman is stereotyped to fit within a solely radical or even anti-state ideology that diminishes the nuance in her character.46 For example, historian Barbara Sato in her book The New Japanese Woman: Modernity, Media, and Women in Interwar Japan explores the ways in which female identity in Japan did not fit within a single type. However, she maintains that the term New Woman signified a “departure from state-imposed values.”47 Sato’s analysis is incredibly valuable in not only showing the ways New Women in Japan differed from those in the West, but also the ways that consumer culture shaped middle-class women’s self- identification. Nevertheless, Sato does not consider the potential that New Women could paradoxically align with conservative state values on some topics while distancing themselves from others. Such a prospect of new womanhood is demonstrated in the many modern debates on free love, chastity, and abortion. The examination of the debates on these themes reveals the subtle ways in which Seito members created New Woman identities.

While many women disagreed on the definitions of morality, chastity, and sexuality, their engagements in the debate, and their abilities to act on their own politics, solidified their New

Womanhood. For instance, the commodification of sexuality forced some women to consider the politics of the body in the woman worker. In the 1914 Seito issue, the debate on chastity, according to historian Vera Mackie, was provoked by Ikuta Hanayo’s previous article published in the Hankyou journal, “On Hunger and Chastity” (Taberu koto to Teisou to).48 Ikuta’s article referenced female prostitution as a means to survive – “trading their chastity in order to feed

46 Even scholarship regarding the New Woman in novels has maintained potential in her radicalism as a symbol of emancipated modern womanhood. For more on this see Ann Ardis, New Women, New Novels: Feminism and Early Modernism (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press 1990). 47 Barbara Sato, The New Japanese Woman: Modernity, Media, and Women in Interwar Japan (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003), 15. 48 Mackie, Feminism in Modern Japan, 50. 87 themselves and other family members.”49 In response to Ikuta, Yasuda Satsuki published in Seito

“Survival and Chastity” (Ikiru koto to Teisou to). Not only do these retorts suggests a wide circulation of both magazines, in which well-to-do women were reading and responding, but the topic also raised issues of female sexuality. Yasuda’s response reaffirmed that there was no economic justification to allow the devaluing of a woman’s chastity.50 By 1915, the debate continued with new Seito editor Ito Noe questioning why men were not held to the same mandates of chastity as women.51 Such raised awareness of sexuality inevitably led to further questions of contraception and abortion.

The Seito debate on abortion provides compelling insight into how the identity of the

New Woman held potential to be multifaceted. To better recognize why this holds significance, it is important to first understand that abortion was illegal in Japan at the time of the debate.

According to scholar Jan Bardsley, anti-abortion laws in Japan were heavily influenced “first by

French codes in 1880, and then revised according to German law in 1907.” 52 By the 1910s in

Japan, the laws were aggressively implemented as the state sought to increase the size and strength of the general populace to aide in their national defense. Therefore, the prohibition of abortion was directly related to the state’s effort to build a strong industrial and military presence.

In fact, by the 1910s, women were required to disclose their pregnancies to their local

49 Ibid, 50. 50 Ibid. 51 Such a question was also suggested by women in Britain, particularly Mrs. Humphry Ward, who worried that sexual free-spiritedness hindered the morality of the family. 52 Bardsley, The Bluestockings of Japan, 59-60. Such ideas in Japan in the early twentieth century are related to similar fears in Britain and the United States that viewed the legalization of abortion as the suicide of the white race. This promotes ideas of nativism as linked with anti-abortion rhetoric and laws. For more on this historiography of abortion in the United States and Britain see Nicola Beisel and Tamara Kay, “Abortion, Race, and Gender in Nineteenth-Century America,” American Sociological Review 69, no. 4 (2004): 498-518. Barbara Brookes, Abortion in England, 1900-1967 (New York: Routledge, 1988). 88 government officials so that such authorities could keep a “watchful eye out lest a woman attempt an abortion.”53

Still, abortion remained a contended topic in print culture. So much so that, in 1915, the authorities banned the June issue of Seito wherein the chastity debate’s Yasuda Satsuki proclaimed woman’s individual right to control her own body; such a strong statement advocated woman’s choice to abort her pregnancy if she felt that motherhood would be too difficult.54 Such censorship is reflective of the state’s perceived danger of New Women who were advocating radical choices that threatened the stability of family life and thus the state. In the September

1915 issue of Seito, editor Ito Noe, shared her views on the abortion topic responding to

Satsuki’s earlier narrative.55 Noe, a radical anarchist-feminist, took issue with Satsuki’s inability to understand the “special relationship between the mother and fetus, and the future economic, spiritual, and psychological well-being of both.”56 While Noe believed in contraception as a means to prevent unfit women from becoming mothers, her disapproval of abortion remained explicitly clear:

My first reaction is that abortion is extremely unnatural. At any rate, we cannot determine how the unborn child might flower or might wither and die. While none of us truly knows what fate lies in store for the unborn child, we do know for a fact that life has taken ahold. No matter how many excuses one might make to justify destroying a life for the sake of one’s own convenience in this or that areas, is it not, in truth, a deed which insults nature? Is it not a deed which shows complete disregard for life?57

53 Bardsley, The Bluestockings of Japan, 60. 54 What becomes intriguing here is that Satsuki held particularly conventional notions of chastity in earlier debates and then much more radical notions of abortion a year later. Such discrepancy further speaks to the multi- layered and wavering complexity of the New Woman. Ibid, 60. 55 Worth noting is that the September issue, which continued to accept letters on the topic of abortion, did not receive government intervention. This was perhaps due to the fact that the women who participated in the September issue all opposed Satsuki’s earlier stance from June. Therefore, by September, some New Women were unofficially promoting the state’s anti-abortion view. 56 Bardsley, The Bluestockings of Japan, 61. 57 Ito Noe, “Shinshin: Nogami Yae-Sama e,” (Private Message to Ms. Nogami Yae), Seito 5.6 (June 1915): 75 in Bardsely, The Bluestockings of Japan, 61-62. Noe’s reference to nature in her disapproval of abortion is noteworthy here. It indicates spiritual reference to the Japanese indigenous religion, Shintoism, which venerates the spirits that live among the natural world. The inclusion of religion in this context will be helpful in future research to 89

While Noe continued to struggle with her own approval of abortion for impoverished women, she ultimately maintained her faith in nature’s fate to prevent a pregnancy if “it were a child who did not have the strength to fight back.”58 For Noe, her feminism and New Womanhood was individual and complicated: a politically radical ally of the anarchist cause and simultaneous antagonist of abortion, a stance that ironically aligned her with the state. Therefore, in Japan and through the Seito debates on abortion, the New Woman identity became solidified in personal expression of independence as women attempted to exercise control over their own lives that at times supported the state’s control over women’s bodies.

Understanding that the New Woman could unofficially advocate state sponsored laws against women gives further nuance to her voice in a changing social, economic, and political society. Ultimately, it removes the static or temporal meaning of her identity that limits our ability to understand modernity within an emerging feminist context. It furthermore, brings in the complexity embedded within the discussion of modern day morality. For instance, Hiratsuka

Raicho undoubtedly challenged old concepts of morality and male exceptionalism with her creation of a women-run magazine; yet, she also remained transparent in her own confusion regarding New Woman identity: “Indeed, the mission of the New Woman lies in creating this new sphere. If this is so, where is this new realm? What is the new religion? The new morality?

The new laws? The New Woman herself does not know.”59 Raicho’s own questioning of her modern female identity reveals ambiguity inherent in her New Womanhood. These specific inquiries into the modern female, and its intersection with a new morality, pose similarities with

explore the depths and limits of Noe’s feminism. For more on the Shinto religion see Sokyo Ono, Shinto: The Kami Way (Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing, 1962). 58 Ibid, 62. 59 Hiratsuka Raicho translated by Teruko Craig in In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun, 203-204. 90 discussions that arose in Britain around the same time, which aided in the further construction of the New Woman and feminist consciousness.

A CONSTRUCTED PATH: NEW WOMAN REACTIONS TO PRINT CULTURE

The growing presence of women in print culture provoked attempts to reconcile an understanding of the New Woman identity on a transnational level. While in Japan, Britain, and

Mexico this was often done through female magazine culture, such an understanding was further attempted in novels.60 H.G. Wells’ Ann Veronica (1909) is a fictional representation of New

Women and feminism in early twentieth century Britain.61 Much reception of Wells’ novel considered the work to be a scandalous representation of sexual immorality. In fact, the influential weekly British magazine, Spectator (founded in 1828), ran a review that labeled the novel, “a poisonous book,” suggesting that its progressive views went against traditional morality.62 Yet, the Spectator was not the only proof of public aversion to the novel. Many libraries banned the book from their shelves, indicating the book’s overall shock factor against conventionally held mores. 63 The novel remained hotly debated as a dangerous text that promoted deviant and sexualized behavior in middle class women. This was because Wells’ main character, Ann Veronica, initially rejected conventional Victorian ideals that maintained women’s subordinate position to men. In the novel, she rebels from her father and seeks to

60 Japanese society also heavily produced novelistic constructions of the New Woman and modern feminism. Junichiro Tanazaki’s Sesameyuki (The Makioka Sisters) portrays the lives of four sisters who all embody avenues of modern Japanese womanhood from the modern wife to the Modern Girl. In future research, I hope to potentially include a more in depth discussion of Tanazaki’s book. 61 In an attempt to utilize the value of fiction as a source, I have limited myself to the use to one fictional construction of the New Woman. This is not to exemplify a Eurocentric witnessing of the New Woman in fiction, but to add insight into other popular ways in which the New Woman was imagined in Britain. The choice of Wells’ Ann Veronica over his other novel, Marriage, speak to the former’s insight into the New Woman character as feminist. 62 John Loe Starchey, “A Poisonous Book,” Spectator (November 20, 1909) in H. G. Wells: The Critical Heritage, ed. Patrick Parrinder (London: Routledge, 1972), 169-171. 63 Patricia Stubbs, Women and Fiction Feminism and the Novel 1880-1920 (London: Methuen, 1981), 183- 184. 91 achieve independence through education and single life. At various points, Wells positions Ann

Veronica within the crossroads of maintaining her sexual liberation versus becoming another domesticated woman through marriage. Throughout her road to independence, she interacts with characters who reveal the impact of construction on feminist and New Woman identity in early twentieth century Britain.

Wells’ character Miss Miniver exemplifies the stereotyped “man-hater” female activist whose antagonism toward marriage reveals the one-dimensional understanding of what it meant to be a feminist in the early 1900s. In one scene, Ann Veronica is listening to Miss Miniver discuss the ongoings of the suffragette campaign: “. . . women badgering Cabinet Minister, padlocked to railings, or getting up in a public meeting to pipe out a demand for votes and be carried out kicking and screaming.”64 Ann Veronica’s reaction to these occurrences is revulsion, for “she could not part with her dignity” in association with such women.65 If Ann Veronica’s path to self-discovery aligns her, even momentarily, with the New Woman identity (she did after all reject her father’s wishes to pursue a new path) why does she suggest that other New Women possess undignified attributes? Such reasons indicate that differences in New Woman identity exist within context of class, ideology, taste, behavior, and age.66

Perceptions of the New Woman in the novel are also telling to the culture in which modern women participated. At one point in the novel, Wells’ story shows how society often oversexualized women who did not fit within the Victorian ideal. For example, the character Mr.

Ramage makes an advance on Ann Veronica who then swiftly shuts him down. Of course, Mr.

Ramage soon blames the rejection on the perception that Ann Veronica was too intellectual for

64 Ibid, 145. 65 Ibid. 66 Still, it remains important to note that this was from the perspective of Wells who chose to portray feminism and New Womanhood in these stereotyped and vague ways. 92 her own good, ultimately positioning her within two extremes: 1) being that she, as the New

Woman, possessed a heightened sexuality that justified male behavior to pursue, versus 2) her intellect that became too extreme when refusing a man. So, New Women were first erotic and pleasing and then too intellectual/not erotic enough, yet still subject to sexual harassment. If New

Women declared their independence it was immoral, yet it was independence that often made them attractive. Does this suggest that patriarchal dominance did not always combat feminism or

New Womanhood when the transgression (sexuality in this case) served its purpose of maintaining power? This is to say that if Ann Veronica had accepted Mr. Ramage’s pursuit, then would her unconventional behavior be acceptable? Yet, if Ann Veronica had accepted Mr.

Ramage’s proposal, would she have simultaneously maintained the power of patriarchy and her feminism through choice?

The theme of choice becomes an increasingly clear signal of feminism in the novel as well. For Ann, the freedom to choose wifehood solidified her feminism more than the potential belief against marriage as a form of perpetual slavery.67 This further confirms the significance of choice in regards to individual feminism and New Woman identity. Yet, what becomes clearly significant is the legitimization of Ann Veronica’s femininity when choosing marriage over single life. Wells writes:

Ann Veronica was nearly half an inch taller; her face was at once stronger and softer, her neck firmer and rounder, and her carriage definitely more womanly than it had been in the days of her rebellion. She was a woman now to the tips of her fingers; she had said good-bye to her girlhood in the old garden four years and a quarter ago. She was dressed in a simple evening gown of soft creamy silk, with a yoke of dark old embroidery that enhanced the gentle gravity of her style, and her black hair flowed off her open forehead to pass under the control of a simple ribbon of silver.68

67 H.G. Wells, Ann Veronica, (1909) (House of Status: 2002). This presents further comparisons will John Stuart Mill who also related women’s marriage to men as slavery. See Chapter One. 68 Wells, Ann Veronica, 347. 93

This choice unequivocally made Ann Veronica a woman, whereas her previous, independent transgressions were a result of her girlhood. Does this suggest that independence was not something for women, but rather a fleeting, momentary judgement of juvenile youth to be relinquished at marriage? If so, perhaps such a construction eventually helped distance female independence away from the New Woman identity and likened it with the eventual Modern Girl of the 1920s and 1930s. Yet, by associating womanhood with marriage, and independence with girlhood, Wells was perpetuating patriarchal standards that positioned the ideal New Woman within matrimony. Such a representation of the New Woman character, whether intentionally or not, functioned as a demeaning associative characteristic and questioned the legitimacy of woman’s independence. If the New Woman could be connected with ideal gender roles through the choice of submission in marriage over independence, then there held potential to shift public perception, and individual identity, of what it meant to be a modern woman versus a girl.69 While this discussion provides insight into how a male construction of the New Woman and feminism differed from female articulations in print culture, what becomes additionally imperative to reflect on are the many women who read, and responded to, Ann Veronica.

While Wells did not solely represent, as some of his contemporaries believed, purely progressive views towards women’s roles, he did suggest an openness on ideas of free love that threatened the moral progress of chastity. If men like Wells’ Mr. Ramage pursued women’s bodies to satisfy their own sexual desires, then such advancements functioned to destabilize the

69 Of course, it could be argued that Ann Veronica’s retreat into submission in marriage relinquished any association she had with the New Woman identity. However, it seems more accurate to recognize that Ann was both a New Woman in her choice of independence and in her choice of marriage – one associated with the ideologies of first-wave feminism and the other upheld patriarchal standards that often intersected with New Woman identity. And even though this is all from the perspective of Wells, it is still imaginable that New Woman often made similar choices as Ann Veronica. 94 morality of family life. 70 What becomes clear when looking at Wells’ own contemporary reviewers is that polarized versions of New Women, and their feminisms, intersected during the free love conversation. The women of Seito also debated morality, further connecting topical themes in Japanese and British modern society. Raicho stated, “New Women not only desire the destruction of the old morality and old laws built on men’s selfishness, they also try day after day to build a new world where there will be a new religion, new morality, and new laws.” 71

Raicho’s emphasis on male selfishness mirrors British women’s concerns with men who had undermined the values of family life through weak morals. There existed, therefore, a link in the fact that many feminist New Women sought the subordination of male sexual desire that had threatened women’s bodies and the morality of family life.

Wells’ novel received further criticism for its lack of morality from women with, interestingly, very different political views. Notable among these are Mary Augusta Ward and

Beatrice Webb. Mary Augusta Ward, known by pen name Mrs. Humphry Ward, was a well- known twentieth century novelist and founding President of the National Anti-Suffrage League in Britain.72 Critical of Wells, Ward saw his overuse of overt female sexuality as a threat to the institution of marriage, for the novel publicized the potential of sexual deviancy in both men and women. For Ward, this threatened the likelihood for men and women to aspire to a single sexual morality. According to scholar Jane Lewis, such a threat moreover endangered middle-class women “by destroying the marriage contract whereby men provided for women and stood between them and a predatory outside world in return for sexual fidelity and household

70 Frances Swiney, The Bar of Isis. The Law of the Mother (Open Road Publishing Co., 1907), 43 - 49. https://archive.org/details/barofisisorlawof00swin/page/n4 71 Keep in mind that Raicho did not exactly know what this “new morality” entailed. See page 16. Mackie, Feminism in Modern Japan, 45. 72 Ward’s anti-suffrage politics differ her from New Women, like Galindo and Mardsen, who aligned themselves with women’s enfranchisement in individual ways. 95 service.” 73 Ward’s circumscriptive attitude toward sex and marriage, however, does not necessarily distance her from what it meant to be a modern woman in her own historical context.

That Ward was relevant on the political stage ultimately allowed patriarchic standards to be expressed by a woman on a modern platform. This ultimately reinforced the possibility that ideal gender roles could be supported by modern gender politics.74 This is further supported by the fact that Beatrice Webb, well-known social feminist, held similar reservations with Wells’ ideas of sexual liberation:

. . . because we none of us know what exactly is the sexual code we believe in, approving of many things on paper which we violently object to when they are practised by those we care about. Of course, the inevitable condition today of any “sexual experiments” is deceit and secrecy – it is this that makes any divergence from the conventional morality so sordid and lowering.75

Webb’s own confusion with blatant sexual expression suggests that even associative radical women and men, who discussed sex and (im)moral behavior through the shield of their pens, held slightly alternative opinions when faced with such behavior in reality.76 The debate on intimate relationships, therefore, reveals that modern women, from all political avenues, held the potential to agree on ideas of sexuality and marriage that reveal the conceivable complexities in early feminist consciousness. Perhaps when the New Woman and feminism were placed within the confines of matrimony then they remained socially and politically acceptable. But when

73 Jane Lewis “Intimate Relations between Men and Women: The Case of H. G. Wells and Amber Pember Reeves,” History Workshop 37 (1994): 81. 74 While Mrs. Humphrey Ward did not and would not have labeled herself a feminist, it remains important to highlight that women who promoted female education, and sexual morality as a means to protect women, still fit within the identity of a modern female and had potential to complicate the New Woman identity and a strong feminist consciousness. 75 The Diary of Beatrice Webb, (1905-24), 4 vols, ed. Norman and Jeanne Mackenzie (London: Virago; London School of Economics and Political Sciences, 1984), 121. 76 Of course, there were other women who reacted to Wells’ Ann Veronica. British journalist, author, and feminist Rebecca West, who famously criticized his novel, Marriage, remained convinced that Wells’ idea of women’s sexual liberation, not a controlled morality, lead to female emancipation. For more on Wells’ relationship and interaction with Rebecca West see Jane Lewis “Intimate Relations between Men and Women: The Case of H. G. Wells and Amber Pember Reeves,” History Workshop, 37 (1994) and Gordon N. Ray, H.G. Wells and Rebecca West (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974). 96 women or men threatened the sanctity of marriage, an emphasis on the transgression dominated.77 This proposes that such a circulation of ideas on sexuality, womanhood, and gender roles continued to perplex a feminist consciousness and New Woman identity in early twentieth century Britain.

AN ENDLESS PATH

Breaking out of the structures and confines that historical study had placed upon women is foundational to women’s studies; and placing the New Woman inside similar limited boundaries not only does a disservice to the historical study of feminism, but to the New Women themselves – for it is always limiting to prescribe a fixed definition to concepts of human behavior. The New Woman had many dimensions; she was generational, multi-dimensional, empowered, moral, chaste, transgressive, personal, and had rival articulations. These women were constantly trying to reshape themselves while at the same time being reshaped by others.

Therefore, to simplify the New Woman to a single typified group of women not only takes away from the complexity of her reality, but it trivializes the experiences of so many women who did

77 Further exploration into homosexuality and what it meant as a threat to marriage is an important discussion. Particularly important to highlight here were also concerns about lesbianism. American historian Carol Smith-Rosenberg’s 1975 article "The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relationships Between Women in Nineteenth Century America,” looks at lesbian relationships as intimate female friendships that were “casually accepted in American society.” In her article, “Lesbianism and the Censoring of ‘Wuthering Heights.’” Jean E. Kennard looks at the ambivalences in sexual identity as witnessed in the novel and in Emily Bronte’s own life. Exploration of sexual identity, according to Kennard, remains an important aspect in nineteenth century life. Nevertheless, in her endnote regarding the historiography of lesbianism she discusses that it was the “convention of female romantic friendship [that] institutionalized erotic behavior between women and made it acceptable.” With this in mind, it is important to consider the ways that romantic friendships were temporarily accepted and “masked the threat of [lesbianism as an] unnatural vice.” Jean E. Kennard, “Lesbianism and the Censoring of ‘Wuthering Heights’,” NWSA Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2 (1996): 31-32. For more on this see Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, "The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relationships Between Women in Nineteenth Century America,” Signs 1, no. 1 (1975): 1-29. Harriet Andreadis, “The Sapphic-Platonics of Katherine Philips, 1632-1664,” Signs, 15 (1989): 34-60. Further analysis on the transnational perceived threats of lesbianism and homosexuality will be valuable as avenues for future research. Also see Rachel Hope Cleves, Charity and Sylvia: Same-Sex Marriage in Early America (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014). 97 not fit into a specific molded concept.78 The discussion on how women were represented, and participated, in print culture shows how such actions complicated the nation’s ability to polarize womanhood. Ultimately, this forced such patriarchal power in Britain, Japan, and Mexico to work within the changeable dynamics of New Womanhood and feminism. Although these women offer a variety of guises, their individual paths of self-reflection remain significant to transnational New Woman history.

In her essay, “The Path of the New Woman” (1913), Ito Noe encouraged the idea that the

New Woman identity in Japan embodied a journey of self-discovery, and could not be weighed down by the “dusty footprints left by the women who have walked before her.”79 Evoking the imagery of a pioneer making her way through the rigors of an unexplored mountainous terrain,

Noe explored the fears and dangers that the generations of New Women individually experienced along their paths to liberation. Such an image is reflective of New Women who came before Noe and fought for women’s liberation through education; those who came alongside in their fashionable clothing, and the women who came after: those who fought firmly for their right to political equality through a determined campaign for the vote. The next chapter explores the emergence of the Modern Girl as yet another identity in feminist history. Often described as the daughter of the New Woman, the Modern Girl was an intensely commodified social and cultural construct who was committed to change, which many saw as a superficial dedication to romance and fashion.80 In Japan and Mexico, the moga and la chica moderna became defined throughout the 1920s as consumerism grew and women became increasingly

78 Re-examining the New Woman will be an ongoing process; yet, it necessitates remembrance that she was a product of multiple generations who were imagined, experienced, and constructed in a state of significant transformation. 79 Ito Noe, “The Path of the New Woman,” Seto 3.1, (1913) in Bardsley, The Bluestockings of Japan, 131. 80 Miriam Silverberg, “After the Grand Tour: The Modern Girl, the New Woman, and the Colonial Maiden,” in The Modern Girl Around the World: Consumption, Modernity, and Globalization eds. Alys Eve Weinbaum, Lynn M. Thomas, et al. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2008), 356-357. 98 involved in the political scene. In fact, the Modern Girl around the world engaged in a multiplicity of feminist actions that further align her with the earlier New Woman identity. Such comparisons show just how the New Woman identity continued to change with the emergence of the Modern Girl. And so, as an unstoppable evolution of the female identity, the pioneer New

Woman left her mark that feminism was meant to be built upon:

Unexplored, unknown, eternally silent, the path stretches on and on. It has no end. Yet the pioneer cannot possibly live forever. She will struggle against all the torment and she will finally succumb to it. Once she falls, she can walk no farther. Then and only then will the one who follows recognize the strength of the pioneer and begin to follow in her footsteps. Only then will the one who follows appreciate the one who has led the way.81

81 Ibid, 132. 99

CHAPTER FOUR

FROM WOMAN TO GIRL: EXPLORING THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE MODERN GIRL IN JAPAN AND MEXICO

Where can you folks clearly say that there is a typical Modern Girl? 1 Kataoka Teppei

Let's get naked and while we're at it work our damnedest.2 Hayashi Fumiko

The emergence of the “Modern Girl” further complicated the identity of the New

Woman. What characterized Modern Girls were often their consumption and their perceived disregard of obedient mother, wife, and daughter roles.3 Building on this idea, this section looks at the ways in which the Modern Girl in Mexico and Japan was a particular permutation of the

New Woman. During the early twentieth century, the growth of consumerism transformed the ways society viewed women who did not represent “acceptable” standards of female behavior.4

By the 1920s, even more questions of what it meant to be a modern female surfaced as images of women in shorter dresses, sporting new, trendy haircuts, and wearing lipstick were plastered on advertisements. As a fixture of this world of consumption and commodification, the Modern Girl arose as a transnational phenomenon in the 1920s and 1930s.5 With her bobbed hair, provocative style, and proclivity for drinking and socialization, the Modern Girl visually reflected the modern lifestyle of the twentieth century. Most contemporary scholarship distinguishes the Modern Girl

1 I cannot take responsibility for these remarkable opening quotes; however, what they express encapsulates the complexity of the Modern Girl identity. Both of these quotes were taken from Miriam Silverberg’s article, ”The Modern Girl as Militant,” in Gail Lee Bernstein ed. Recreating the Japanese Woman, 1600 – 1945 (Berkeley: University of California, Press, 1991). 2 Ibid. 3 Alys Eve Weinbaum, Lynn M. Thomas, et. al, The Modern Girl Around the World: Consumption, Modernity, and Globalization, (Durham: Duke University Press, 2008), 1. 4 Of course, what was considered “acceptable” was relative. The point here is that there remained, by the 1920s, an emphasis on what idealized womanhood looked like. Consumer culture, therefore, offered new avenues for women to explore their identities. For example, some of this exploration was through new fashion trends. 5 For more insight into how and why the Modern Girl was considered global see Alys Eve Weinbaum, Lynn M. Thomas, et. al, The Modern Girl Around the World: Consumption, Modernity, and Globalization. This anthology looks at the Modern Girl as a heuristic device to further explore gender and globalization. 100 from the New Woman through generational undertones: the New Woman was usually imagined as the mother of the Modern Girl. The emergence of the Modern Girl, however, was a particular evolution within the New Woman identity, and one that says much about how the modern female was constructed. In fact, debates on the Modern Girl identity reveal how the modern womanhood became a multi-valent symbol by the 1920s and into the 1930s; it held significant potential to threaten the stability of idealized gender roles. In Japan, this meant roles that sustained ryosai kenbo (good wife, wise mother), wherein women were not only regulated to their domesticity but also their special position as moral educators for the family. In Mexico, marianismo (the Marian

Ideal) held middle class women to similar standards of tradition.

As a shorter chapter, this section is concerned with how society represented the Modern

Girl as a cultural female protagonist of the 1920s and 1930s. By focusing on who the Modern

Girl was, and eventually how her construction affected the New Woman identity, this brief discussion details the non-conforming actions of Modern Girls, rather than their individual interpretations. This is not to deny Modern Girls their agencies within their own construction, but to focus this discussion on their creation from the outside. Ultimately, these transnational examinations of Modern Girl reveal that she was often constructed to include elements of masculinity that influenced modern ideas of what it meant to be feminine and, moreover, feminist.

Some scholars have attempted to distinguish the Modern Girl as a commodity versus a revolutionary figure; in doing so, they have granted the Modern Girl a range of modern identities that can present important connections with the New Woman.6 This has further stimulated inquiries into who the Modern Girl was in a changing world. There are many ways to envision

6 For more on this see Miriam Silverberg, “The Modern Girl as Militant,” in Recreating Japanese Women, 1600-1945, ed. Gail Lee Bernstein (Berkeley: University of California, Press, 1991). 101 the Modern Girl. Perhaps she was just one manifestation of the New Woman. Or maybe this girl was the woman’s freethinking, fashion-forward daughter. Further queries could suggest that the emergence of the Modern Girl in 1920s led to an extinction of the New Woman.7 Or maybe the

Modern Girl was a style, an avenue of commodified and sexualized new womanhood. This discussion poses that the Modern Girl had potential to be all of these things depending on context. Exploring the intersection of girl and woman are the basis of this glimpse into how women were perceived as cultural symbols, and embodiments, of the changing modern world around them. Correspondingly, broadening the New Woman through the inclusion of the Modern

Girl is an effort to break the paradigm of “intellectual woman” versus “frivolous single girl.”

The term “Modern Girl” has included much ambiguity as scholars have considered the extent to which the Modern Girl and the New Woman were (and were not) interchangeable in the twentieth century. Miriam Silverberg argues that while both terms have differences, especially in the case of Japan, their roles as social threats posed significant materializations: “If the Modern

Girl was to be seen, the New Woman was to be heard or at least read.”8 This idea suggests that even if the feminism (and historical context) of woman versus girl was different, the outcome of their public-facing identities was the same: the social threat of a modern female that did not always fit within an ideal gender binary that positioned men as masculine and women as feminine. Furthermore, if the New Woman and the Modern Girl were extensions of one another, and if as symbols they existed through various written and visual expressions of feminism, then

7 In choosing the phrase “extinction” I hope to evoke that with the emergence of the girl often came the disappearance of the woman. The concept of the New Woman became much less used by the 1920s and 1930s. Scholar Miriam Silverberg proclaimed that her earlier work had admittedly rendered the New Woman as “immaterial” in her efforts to prove “the Modern Girl militant.” Miriam Silverberg, “After the Grand Tour: The Modern Girl, The New Woman, and the Colonial Maiden,” The Modern Girl Around the World: Consumption, Modernity, and Globalization, eds. Alys Eve Weinbaum, Lynn M. Thomas, et. al. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2008), 358. 8 Miriam Silverberg, “After the Grand Tour: The Modern Girl, The New Woman, and the Colonial Maiden,” 358. 102 why give them generationally different names: woman versus girl? Such branding requires a deeper look into how society labeled them rather than how they labeled themselves. Joanne

Hershfield, in “Imagining la Chica Moderna: Women, Nation, and Visual Culture in Mexico,

1917-1936,” discusses Mexico’s Modern Girl, la chica moderna. Hershfield looks at how an increase in technology, alongside local and international print consumerism, promoted a transnational captivation with the Modern Girl.9 Therefore, delving into cultural (de)evolutions of modern womanhood, and specifically constructions of modern female identity, uncovers potential similarities in the continual growth in feminist consciousness in in Mexico, Japan, and

Britain.10

THE THREAT OF TRANSGRESSION

In Mexico, Modern Girls - la pelona (which translates to one with short hair or the bald one) and la chica moderna - challenged conventional gender restrictions as they declared their modern female identities through associations with transgression: cinema, birth control, divorce, and fashion. Each avenue allowed Modern Girls in Mexico opportunities to thrive in the face of aggressive masculinity, machismo.11 Such masculinity was reinforced through various patriarchal practices of authority, such as the dependence of women and children on the protection of men. This patriarchal ideal maintained the social order through attempts to keep women feminine and men masculine through prescribed gender roles. Yet, this became

9 Joanne Hershfield, Imagining la Chica Moderna: Women, Nation, and Visual Culture in Mexico, 1917- 1936 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2008). 10 British Modern Girls will play a secondary role in this section. This is not to assume that they did not significantly influence their Mexican or Japanese counterparts, but rather is an effort shed light on the comparisons of the two other countries. 11 The Mexican Revolution, and its aftermath, reinforced machismo, and often “eclipsed a nascent feminist movement.” This will be further discussed in the next chapter. For more on this see Chapter Five and Jocelyn H. Olcott and Mary Kay Vaughan eds. Sex in Revolution: Gender, Politics, and Power in Modern Mexico (Duke University Press, 2006), 25.

103 problematic when Modern Girls subverted the distinctions of masculine versus feminine. For example, in the 1920s, Mexico’s Marina Vega was a young woman who had a proclivity to cross-dress. Her segue into fame came from an earlier attempt to meet Hollywood’s Charlie

Chaplin. The story goes that Vega broke into Chaplin’s home and wore his clothing. The border and gender-crossing scandal reached the papers in Mexico City and plummeted Vega into a symbol of transgressive womanhood.12 On her return to Mexico City, Vega visibly bore her gender-crossing identity as both a bobbed hair Modern Girl and occasionally as Jose Ramos, the modern gentleman. Dressing as Jose, Vega convincingly epitomized masculinity.13 It was when the press realized that Jose was actually Vega that the threat of transgression was donned on the modern female, which rallied the state to reinforce a separation of the sexes. Unable to fit Vega within its dichotomous gender boundaries, the Mexican state denounced any modern girl because of the belief that she potentially possessed an element of Vega delusion. The Mexican state traced this threat to the increase in modern and international feminist activism. The image of the modern, suffragist woman with her equality-based rhetoric and political participation infiltrated

Mexican society from all parts of the globe. This “foreign influence of behavior and ‘masculine appearance’” ultimately affected public view of the Modern Girl.14 Often seen as androgynous, the modern Mexican woman in the 1920s and 1930s symbolized a marimacho that threatened heteronormative Mexican society.15 This changing image paralleled ideas in Britain and Japan that women, even women fighting for equality, had to fit within a binary gendered ideal.

12 Laura Isabel Serna, “La Virgin and La Pelona: Film Culture, Border Crossing, and the Modern Mexican Woman, Making Cinelandia: American Films and Mexican Film Culture Before the Golden Age (Durham: Duke University Press, 2014), 13-124. 13 Ibid. 14 Sofia Ruiz-Alfaro, “A Threat to the Nation: "México marimacho" and Female Masculinities in Postrevolutionary Mexico,” 81, no. 1 (2013): 50. 15 There existed an element of fear that crossdressing led to lesbianism. While the threat of lesbianism remained a potential threat to hetero-masculinity by the 1920s, it will not be a focus of this discussion, but necessary to mention as it existed in the contextual background. Ibid, 50-51. 104

Further “disruptions of gender” arose with people of transgender identities.16 In Mexico,

Amelio Robles changed his name from Amelia, and made the transition to a chosen masculinity.

Robles fought in the Mexican Revolution as Amelio, and once it ended, continued to declare his masculinity through fashion and behavior.17 According to scholar Gabriela Cano, Amelio’s transition was an individual articulation, “a way of being and feeling through the cultural resources at hand and within contemporary cultural debates regarding the masculine and feminine.”18 Cano argues that Amelio achieved relative success with his masculinity.

Interviewed by journalists from El Universal and photographed to be on their front page,

Amelio’s masculinity was tolerated and even accepted. Yet, this was exceptional and, as Cano argues, not necessarily representative of the treatment of future transgender men. What remains significant to Amelio’s acceptable appearance and behavior is that it “exalted the values of machismo.”19 This suggests that the upholding of masculinity by transgender individuals in

Mexico was not necessarily as threatening as Modern Girls, or transvestism, which did not placate the gender binary of masculine versus feminine.20

This presents further important distinctions between transvestism and transgender. The former being the practice of dressing as a member of the opposite sex and the latter being the desire to become opposite from one’s assigned sex. As seen with Vega, gender crossing through transvestism posed significant worries from state via its sanctioned gender ideals that kept men masculine and women feminine. However, what becomes clear is that Vega’s erratic gender

16 Ibid. 17 Gabriela Cano, “Unconcealable Realities of Desire: Amelio Robles’s (Transgender) Masculinity in the Mexican Revolution,” in Sex in Revolution: Gender, Politics, and Power in Modern Mexico, eds Jocelyn Olcott, Mary Kay Vaughan, and Gabriela Cano (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), 52-53. 18 Ibid, 53. 19 Ibid, 48. 20 By the 1980s Amelio’s transgender identity had come to be reconceptualized as the heroine of the revolution. According to Cano, such erasure of his masculinity by the 1980s dismissed the success of Amelio’s masculinization. Cano suggests that it perhaps had more to do with the country’s “eagerness to provide appraisal of the achievements and rights of women.” Ibid, 49. 105 crossing did not reinforce masculinity the same way Amelio’s transgendering did. Rather, it highlighted the necessity of further distinguishing masculinity from femininity and not allowing the fluidity of either. Such Modern Girls who exhibited moral indignation became the threats to society that desired to uphold traditional family values that required such distinct separations of the sexes and genders. The threat of the “third sex” was, therefore, reflected in radical chica modernas and pelonas in Mexico between the 1920s and 1940s. Their feminism represented marimacho, a blending of the genders and not a commitment to one or the other.21 That transgendering had potential to be tolerable in Mexico, while Modern Girls and feminist women did not, set in motion eventual changes and discrepancies within Mexican feminist philosophies; some women maintained a modern and liberal feminism while others clutched to tradition in their fights for their progress.22

The fear of masculine women connects Mexico, Japan, and Britain as Modern Girls and single women continued to position their independent minds and bodies within the political realm of men. The fear stemmed from the threat of gender elasticity seen in the fashion of

Modern Girls as cross-dressing women.23 If modern women could travel between femininity and masculinity, then it would disrupt gender complementarity and, more importantly, gender

21 In fact, chica modernas were not even allowed in “traditional spaces” because they were seen as such a significant threat. Many of the traditional spaces in which women were not allowed were Catholic churches. Sex in Revolution, 27. 22 This split in fights for female progress, especially female emancipation, will be further developed in Chapter Five. 23 Similar experiments of androgynous fashion and mass consumer culture occurred in the United States as well. Especially in California as early as the 1920s, Mexican American young women (and men) adorned the zoot suit style that was both “fashionable and defiant.” While patriotic zeal remained the ideal pathway for conformity, young Mexican American men and women often chose this fashion to declare their discontent with systematic segregation. That such parallel of defiant style extended beyond Mexico and into the United States solidifies fashion as a transgressive tool for both men and women. For more on the zoot suit style in Los Angeles from the 1920s- 1940s see Elizabeth Escobedo, From Coveralls to Zoot Suits: The Lives of Mexican American Women on the World War II Home Front (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2013), 19-21. 106 separation.24 It would allow for the interchangeability of what was considered feminine and masculine, which ultimately would fail in the reinforcement of patriarchal norms. For example, in her article, “Attitudes Towards Women’s Trousers: Britain in the 1930s,” Katina Bill comments that by the 1930s most British middle class women wore trousers because they were both fashionable and practical. Bill continues, however, that the chief objection to women in trousers was not the fact that women saw them as fashionable and sensible, but rather that others deemed them an intrusion of women into masculinity.25 Wearing trousers was, therefore, not only interpreted as a rejection of femininity, but it was to “associate with, and support, the changes that were taking place in the position of women in society.”26 Whether wittingly or not, women’s choice to wear trousers supported this change; thus, female independence was attempted through masculine fashion. This, in turn, violated the prescribed rules of traditional idealism that kept women feminine and men masculine. Perhaps the concern was that women would not marry if they could disrupt these fixed laws - further linking the fear of matrimonial destruction to the transgressive behavior of women.27

As in Mexico, Japanese images of the Modern Girl (moga) exemplified not only a threat to masculinity, but also a danger to traditional values of morality. The two images discussed below provide a glimpse into how Japanese Modern Girls were constructed by outside forces,

24 It is important to note that often men were allowed to fluidly transfer between what was masculine versus what was feminine when performing. In Japan, for example, Kabuki theatre male actors dressed up and played the part of women (which was a temporary transfer of their masculinity to femininity). This connects the threat explicitly to women or girls who visually blurred the lines of feminine and masculine. Furthermore, it strips women of any agency, at least in Japan, who were not given the authority to define ideal or modern femininity. This is proven in that ideal femininity was reinforced by “male actors who modeled gender constructs,” while modern femininity could not include traces of masculinity. For more on Kabuki theatre and gender constructions see Frank Episale, “Gender, Tradition, and Culture in Translation: Reading the ‘Onnagata’ in English,” Asian Theatre Journal 29, no. 1 (2012): 97-98. 25 Katina Bill, “Attitudes Towards Women’s Trousers: Britain in the 1930s,” Journal of Design History 6, no. 1 (1993): 53. 26 Ibid, 53. 27 This connects back with Chapter Three and the idea that New Women remained acceptable when they emphasized a morality that upheld the sanctity of marriage and the preservation of the family ideal. 107 and what such interpretations meant to societal norms. The first image, by Kobayakawa Kiyoshi entitled “Tipsy,” was a woodblock print (ukiyo-e) from the 1930s. While there has been little written about the circulation of Kiyoshi’s tipsy Modern Girl, some sources indicate that it was briefly circulated in Tokyo, but then made waves at the Toledo Museum of Art in the United

States.28 “Tipsy” suggests promiscuity inherent within the moga character – her clothes, jewelry, cigarette, hair, and alcohol reveal the deviation from traditionally acceptable female behavior

(even the pink hue in her skin suggest that the drink in front of her was not the first one of the night). Such transgression was a threat to society as mogas asserted independence and further liberated themselves from the confines of convention.

Image 3.1: Kobayakawa Kiyoshi, “Tipsy” no. 1, Women’s Manners of Today (February 1930). Honolulu Museum of

Art.

28 In the 1930s the Toledo Museum of Art presented two exhibitions of modern Japanese woodblock prints, reflecting the level of cultural exchange in the 1930s of international art. The Toledo Museum was one of the first to publish Kiyoshi’s art after he had self-published in Japan. Christine Swanson, “Forward,” Modern Japanese Prints (Toledo: Toledo Museum of Modern Art, 1997), 168. See also Helen Merritt, Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: The Early Years (Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 1994), 95-96. 108

Such a display of promiscuity further positioned mogas on the periphery of acceptable definitions of feminine and, therefore, threated what it meant to be traditionally female versus traditionally male. With that said, modernity often allowed the expression of difference and an element of newness, as seen with New Women in print culture. This signifies that the modern girl had potential to be acceptable if her individual expression of difference did not threaten the state. While this appears opposite to what was argued above, it also suggests that perhaps the existence of the Modern Girl also served to further progressive patriarchy.29 In order for the state to remain relevant, it required its own modernization that, on occasion, tolerated women’s expressions of difference and then attempted to support those expressions within state sanctioned modern gender roles.

Representations of the moga in satirical magazines further broadened the definition of the

Modern Girl in Japan. The second image is from the magazine Tokyo Puck, founded by

Kitazawa Rakuten in 1905, which was based off the popular American Puck Magazine. By 1929, alongside the growing interest of the Modern Girl, Hekoten Shimokawa published “Walking

Through Ginza.” The use of the labels “Marx-boy” and “Engels-girl” maintain the image of the two revolutionary and modern personas.30 The text in the image reads “After moga - mobo

[modern boy], Marx-boy and Engels- girl.”

29 This speaks to the way in which Japan translated the Modern Girl concept within their particular context. For more on the “translational process” see Dipesh Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), 9. 30 The role of capitalism in the life of the moga must also be considered in this context. Especially important are the ways in which Marxist intellectuals pejoratively discussed and constructed the Modern Girl as “an expression of faddish mores.” The Marxist feminist Yamikawa Kikue wrote a critical response to the use of such terms for the Modern Girl, who she saw as a politically docile figure who “lay supine on a beach and afterwards strolled through town, still clad in her bathing suit.” Kikue deviated from more conservative reports that the Modern Girl (or boy) were part of a larger communist conspiracy theory. This ignorance of such Modern Girl militancy on behalf of Kikue further suggests that the Japanese moga remained ambiguously defined in Japan. For more on how Modern Girl discourse in Japan resulted in no clear definition see Miriam Silverberg, “The Modern Girl as Militant,” 261 and 248. Future projects will include a more in depth look into print and consumer capitalism, which will provide a fuller picture of the construction and complexity of the Modern Girl. 109

Image 3.2: Hekoten Shimokawa, “Walking Through Ginza,” Tokyo Puck, Vol. 18, No. 1 (January 1929).

The headline suggests that the threat was not only visual, but that such visual forms of transgression had potential to further radicalize young men and women - endangering ideal convention. For some, that girls could possess independence through activism also threatened idealized roles. Many politically conservative Japanese remained threatened that young women and men were being influenced by ideas that held potential to further destroy tradition. Not only were mogas visually distancing themselves from convention through fashion, but their alliances with proletarian movements additionally blurred the lines between masculine and feminine.31

This was also due to the continual reinforcement of masculinity as a patriarchal social and national prevalence.32 If the moga was at times militant and involved in political affairs, where

31 This becomes interesting because New Women decades before had also aligned themselves with socialist and communist ideologies. Communism represented a further threat to traditional familial structure, and since the family unit is a microcosm of the societal unit, it translated into a threat to the state. Perhaps the visual threat made it so these ideologies could not be ignored. 32 During the Meiji period (1868-1912) Japan struggled to understand their national culture as modern. This was further complicated as modern gender constructions became important aspects of a national identity. Jason Karlin states, “. . . representations of a ‘masculinized’ masculinity emphasized the spiritual domain of an essential national culture. This ideal of an essential masculinity sought to repress the ‘difference within’ that threatened the strength and vitality of the national community. In this way, the return to an essential masculinity was a construction arising out of the tensions of competing nationalisms in modern Japan.” For more on the Japanese nation as 110 did that leave men in the realm of politics or nation? Ultimately, if women became masculinized, did that in turn feminize men?

As the moga became increasingly involved in consumer culture, and as she bridged the connection between consumption and political activism, she began to endanger the modern ideal of ryosai kenbo that kept women subjugated.33 In turn, this linked the way Modern Girls dressed with political action, which held potential to dismantle ideal structures that maintained patriarchic control. This further reveals the extent to which the media, even if unknowingly, acted as a vehicle to reinforce the necessity for state sanctioned ideals masked in modern rhetoric. According to historian Miriam Silverberg, the Modern Girl in Japan was constructed differently than her counterparts in Europe and the United States. While a transnational consistency remained in the fact that Modern Girls represented a cultural shift from old customs, the Japanese version was not necessarily a total symbol of resistance; rather, some saw her as the

“‘mark of decadence’ of women still content to live by the actions and decisions of men.”34 This suggests that the Japanese Modern Girl, like the New Woman, remained debated with potential to be appropriated because her cultural interpretations were ambiguous.

Images of a militant moga further complicated gender roles in Japan and fueled the fire behind her social intrigue. Such attacks and reinforcements plagued the Modern Girl in Japan.

The male intellectual, Kitazawa Shuichi, argued that “young men prefer girls who walk side by side and are in step with them rather than girls who trail behind like sheep.”35 Yet, what is striking here is that it still positions girls to be desired by “young men,” and further patronizes

masculine see Jason G. Karlin’s chapter “Competing Masculinities in Meiji Japan,” in Gender and Nation in Meiji Japan: Modernity, Loss, and the Doing of History (Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 2014): 71. 33 For more on ryosai kenbo see Chapter One. 34 Miriam Silverberg, “The Modern Girl as Militant,” 244. 35 Barbara Sato, The New Japanese Woman: Modernity, Media, and Women in the Interwar Period (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003), 58 111 women’s abilities to be modern as women.36 Such concerns regarding these young women parallel the life of the Modern Girl with the life of the New Woman. For example, it suggests that Modern Girls were not solely predicated in superficiality, but encompassed a new avenue for modern womanhood. The complication within the emergence of the Modern Girl, however, has more significance with her label than her fashions or actions. If New Women had previously threatened the social order through their pursuits of knowledge and participation in print culture, and if the Modern Girl equally threatened societal norms with her appearance and political affiliations, then what was the significant difference in their personas? Was the Modern Girl less of a New Woman because she was seen and not read? Or, was it that the New Woman was now humbled to girlhood indicative of the structural patriarchy that superseded and delegitimized modern feminism?

MANIPULATION OF TRANSGRESSION

Much of this analysis relies on how others saw, and coped with, the emergence of the

Modern Girl, and less with how Modern Girls around the world saw themselves juxtaposed to these reactions. Foreign images of Modern Girls from Europe (especially Britain) infiltrated consumer culture in Japan and Mexico and fueled the debate regarding who these Modern Girls were in each society. It was the visual representation of fashion and activities that allowed image makers to maintain the modernity of Modern Girls while simultaneously undercutting their abilities to be considered women. 37 The extensive discourse and debate regarding the Modern

Girl ultimately rested on the fear of the masculine woman. Perhaps if masculine, then the

Modern Girl would not be able to engage in a monogamous relationship with a man. Or, did it

36 For more on Kitazawa see Barbara Sato, The New Japanese Woman, 58. 37Joanne Hershfield, Imagining la Chica Moderna: Women, Nation, and Visual Culture in Mexico, 1917- 1936, (Durham: Duke University Press, 2008). 112 relate back to a threat of marriage? Conceivably, it was the threat to the family system and thus society that the combination of these factors represented.

Modern female identities often intersected with the changing culture of the twentieth century. Understanding this expands the scope of the New Woman to potentially include the

Modern Girl. Furthermore, it allows “newness” to transcend fixed characteristics, making them compatible to, and parallel with, types of modern femininity that grew out of consumer culture.

In fact, it was through a rise in print culture and then consumerism, that all types of New Women created a distinct public perception of mass culture as women’s culture.38 This, in turn, functioned to visually broaden the New Woman concept. Discursive media topics on morality, marriage, and sexuality compelled a synchronization, old with new, that constructed new identities for modern women around the world. Yet, simultaneous attacks and reinforcements of female independence held significant effects on women’s abilities to assert their new and modern identities against a dominant patriarchic power. The respective states of Japan, Britain, and

Mexico often attempted to politicize and mythologize stories of masculine women to demonize female sexuality. The existence of an internal female transgression helped position modern women between two extremes: subversive and moral. This suggests that the New Woman of the twentieth century was so complicated because she included transgressive elements from the

Modern Girl.

Eventually, the patriarchal states of Mexico, Japan, and Britain had to adapt; they had to learn to simultaneously accept and reject enough of what was new and modern about women to maintain power. Such a possibility has led to two questions: What did it mean that the New

Woman symbol soon encompassed, or reverted to, girlhood? Was it freeing and a choice, or limiting and a prescribed characteristic? Silverberg questions the use of the term “Modern Girl”

38 The Modern Girl Around the World Research Group, The Modern Girl Around the World, 8. 113 in Japan as a robbery of power from the New Woman. Building on Silverberg’s conclusion, it was first the language and then the image of feminism that was manipulated by the modern patriarchic state: “by turning this ‘New Woman’ into a ‘girl’ and by implying that she was not indigenous by using the lone word ‘modern,’ the establishment media [and patriarchic state] could turn to the task of disempowering and displacing New Women.”39 Such realizations parallel the state’s modern management of approving and suppressing the language of feminism during times of significant interruption and chaos.

The first half of the twentieth century saw significant turmoil. In Mexico, the Revolution

(1910 – 1920), also known as the Mexican Civil War, considerably changed the cultural, social, and political climate. Women and men fought alongside their receptive groups in hopes of thwarting the interests of other factions. British women during World War I (1914 – 1918) offered similar support to their country’s plight, and the Japanese government during World War

II (1937 – 1945) also mobilized women in support of the war effort. Simultaneously, within these time frames, suffrage became an increasingly elevated issue. Mexican suffragist Hermila

Galindo sought not only female representation in government, but also wanted women to have a voice in political, social, and economic issues. During the same period British suffragette

Emmeline Pankhurst fought for the female vote. Japan’s Ichikawa Fusae, a well-known suffragist in the country, was no different in the years preceding World War II. Yet, for these women, the vote was often put on hold during their country’s time of conflict. The next chapter explores the culmination to this project, the attainment of the vote for women. Specifically, it will question the authority of the vote as either a step toward equality or as an appeasing victory.

Such an examination is not to reduce the efforts or successes of suffragist women, but to suggest the transnational connections between the modern countries that progressed convention.

39 Silverberg, “After the Grand Tour,” 359. 114

CHAPTER FIVE

THE PROMISE OF PATRIARCHY: “THE GREAT INTERRUPTION” AND (IN)EQUALITY THROUGH SUFFRAGE

Women must organize for themselves and in their own interests before they can fully think their way out of the patriarchy.1 Gerda Lerner

In 1987, historian Jo Vellacott analyzed the rise in feminist consciousness in Britain during the First World War. While much of her discussion focused on women who were pacifist suffragists, her research ended with a valuable question regarding women and their triumph of earning the vote: “Was the vote a Pyrrhic victory in that, ironically, women had indeed been accepted into the political system on male terms - in practice, on condition of conformity?”2

Such a question continues to be essential when comparing the transnational rise in feminist consciousness and success of the vote. Women in the countries of Britain, Japan, and Mexico all received the vote on different dates and with different criteria.3 In Britain, it was 1918. In Japan after World War II (1946), the Allied Occupation under SCAP – the Supreme Commander of the

Allied Powers – granted women the vote.4 Mexican women, however, were the last in this study to receive enfranchisement in 1953. Nevertheless, political change in female enfranchisement did not automatically tear down barriers to progress. This was because women, in effect, received the vote based on their “special” qualities as mothers and moral leaders.5 As mothers, women

1 Gerda Lerner, The Creation of a Feminist Consciousness: From the Middle Ages to Eighteen-Seventy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 246. 2 Jo Vellacott, “Feminist Consciousness and the First World War,” History Workshop, no. 23 (1987): 97. 3 While the qualifications for the female vote are not a focus of this section, questions as to why such discrepancies existed are important to consider. 4 This surrogate authority, however, still functioned to preserve patriarchal power as the maintenance of hierarchy served to benefit U.S. efforts to stabilize postwar Japan. 5 This emphasis on women’s “special” qualities was reinforced by mainstream and moderate suffrage organizations. These groups accentuated women’s motherly and social service roles. This allowed women to highlight that their prescribed social roles should include public and political responsibilities. According to Edith P. Mayo, “In creating a female political culture, women used materials rooted in traditions.” Edith P. Mayo, “Creating a Female Political Culture,” National Women’s History Museum, Smithsonian Institute, (January 1, 2017), https://www.womenshistory.org/exhibits/creating-female-political-culture. 115 had responsibility in the family, which shaped the opportunities available to them in the public sphere. But difference from men was not always the reason women had claimed their right to vote. When Mexican suffragist Margarita Robles de Mendoza wrote a letter to former President

Plutarco Elias Calles in 1932, she advocated on behalf of women’s full equality:

When we want to participate in public affairs, we are not allowed and we are told that “WE ARE STILL NOT READY.” And then arises within us an inferiority complex or a rebellion against the injustice. We are no more than the product of our environment. We have breathed the same air as our brothers, men. Why are they prepared to be citizens and we are not? We are made to pay taxes, to contribute in all aspects of national life, and lately, even to help economically to sustain the political party in power. We have even been soldiers on the battlefield. Why then, are we denied the rights that respond to these obligations?6

Robles de Mendoza impresses upon Calles the ways in which women are, and can be, equal to men. In Mexico, Robles de Mendoza’s equality-based argument attempted to rectify the decades of female subjugation based on the perception of women’s innate inferiority to men. Yet, in the

1930s and subsequent 1940s, enfranchisement for Mexican women did not succeed. This chapter seeks to uncover the unique historical contexts in which women in Mexico, Britain, and Japan received the vote. Central questions are as follows: was gaining the vote for women in Britain, and then Japan, a bargain with patriarchy that produced a façade of equality, but maintained the status quo? Does Mexico’s late enfranchisement suggest the same?

The particularities of feminist consciousness in Mexico, Britain, and Japan, and their connection with female enfranchisement and patriarchal power, are the focus of this chapter.

These separate governments promoted their own contextual and localized versions of control that

6 Margarita Robles de Mendoza to General Plutarco Elias Calles. This quote was taken from Sarah A. Buck, “The Meaning of the Women’s Vote in Mexico, 1917-1953,” The Women’s Revolution in Mexico, 1910-1953,” eds. Patience A. Schell and Stephanie Mitchell (New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, INC, 2007), 85. 116 preserved gender hierarchy.7 What is significant, then, is that each state was able to maintain control through different avenues that usurped feminist language in different ways based on national context. While Mexican women achieved suffrage relatively late, comparing their achievement with Britain and Japan remains essential in order to understand that the female vote was, in some ways, an appeasing move of (in)equality. This chapter begins by examining each country’s growing suffrage movements during times of war and revolution. Second, it analyzes the growth in feminist consciousness of individual suffragist women.8 Finally, a brief focus on

Mexico and its late enfranchisement compared with Japan and Britain will pose important queries about what the vote meant for gender equality. While this chapter explores the historical contexts of the attainment of the vote for women in Britain and Japan, it maintains a focus on

Mexican women’s path to enfranchisement in 1953. Putting Mexican women’s struggle for the vote into conversation with women in Japan and Britain will show how some male statesmen were able to maintain their power in a modernizing world by keeping patriarchal values relevant.

While modern women continued to promote their objectives, which sought the inclusion of women in political life and the nation, the way in which many fought for equality shifted. A split in feminist alliances occurred with those arguing for equality based on sameness with men versus those who argued for it based on difference.9 The split in rhetoric had significant effects on the fight of the vote in Mexico, Britain, and Japan. This was because, in each country, fragmentation provided the male political status quo with the opportunity to grant

7 This is not to suggest that all men in government reinforced the patriarchal structure; indeed, there were men who supported equality. Nevertheless, this chapter’s focus is on the ways in which the patriarchal structure was preserved even with the granting of the vote. 8 The particular women in this chapter are not necessarily representative of the entirety (or complexity) of suffrage movements. They do, however, present interesting corollaries when intersecting with formidable moments of patriarchal power. 9 This also existed early on in the twentieth century. For more on this in Britain see Chapter Three’s discussion of Dora Marsden. Also see Joan Scott, “Deconstructing Equality-Versus-Difference: Or, the Uses of Poststructuralist Theory for Feminism,” Feminist Studies 14, no. 1 (1988): 32-50. 117 enfranchisement based on difference that kept women in their “special” roles.10 This is especially apparent during times of conflict wherein suffragists had to choose to fight for nation or the vote.

The government’s ability to mobilize feminist women into making this choice reinforced the belief that women’s suffrage was never as important as the national agenda that affected all

[male] citizens. While some women chose to continue the fight for equality through enfranchisement, eventually the chaos of war informally sanctioned transformative power relations that preserved the value of men over women. 11 What becomes clear is that the governments of Japan, Mexico, and Britain were able to interfere with claims of equality by keeping paternalism legitimate despite dominant feminist and suffrage movements.12 As a result, war and revolution necessitated an ongoing façade of equality. This becomes more transparent when analyzing the (in)equality that was admitted through Constitutional representation (Mexico

1917), enfranchisement (Britain 1918), and equal national duty during wartime (Japan 1930s –

1940s). With the distraction of war, these respective states were able to manipulate the language of equality to maintain gender hierarchy.

In Mexico, Japan, and Britain, women who aligned themselves with feminism often came into contact with the fight for the female vote.13 In Mexico, women such as Hermila Galindo and

10 This “difference” was often reinforced in distinct ways in each country that pandered to their own cultures and historical contexts. For example, in Japan after the war (1945) an emphasis on women’s roles as housewives, it was argued, gave them economic and political power. 11 Leaderships have often emphasized warfare to dictate which fights are important to the national order and which are not. For example, during Ireland’s Home Rule Bill (1914), suffragist women were often forced to choose between fighting for Ireland (independence) and fighting for their vote. Similar choices affected other feminist women in colonized areas wherein their efforts for equality remained inferior compared to attaining equality for all who were colonized. Ironically, many women made the choice that deemed their suppression as secondary. Ireland and other colonized countries are not the subject of this thesis; however, recognizing that this trend existed in other countries and territories gives further credence to the idea that this did not exist in isolation. For more on Irish women’s fight for suffrage see Margaret Ward, “‘Suffrage First, Above All Else!’ An Account of the Irish Suffrage Movement,” Feminist Review no. 10 (1982): 21-36. 12 Using paternalism here is reference to the custom of governing individual freedom or autonomy. Often, paternalistic authority legitimized the patriarchal structures within these countries. 13 This project has attempted to distance feminist identity, in some ways, away from purely suffrage activism – offering insight into the ways in which feminist identity varied. Nevertheless, suffrage remains a 118

Margarita Robles de Mendoza embraced a feminist rhetoric that included female suffrage.

Historian Anna Macías’ 1982 book Against All Odds: The Feminist Movement in Mexico to 1940 argues that a significant feminist movement emerged in Mexico between 1890 and 1940. This movement included an increase in feminist consciousness pre-revolution and facilitated the subsequent growth of feminism in Yucatán and Mexico City between 1924 and 1940.14 Sarah A.

Buck’s “The Meaning of the Women’s Vote in Mexico, 1917-1953” builds on Macías’ work by analyzing Mexico’s suffrage movement and women’s eventual attainment of the vote in 1953.

Her arguments present important answers as to why Mexico was so late in enfranchising women.

Buck argues that a shift in emphasis on women’s domesticity and pronatalism were significant factors in gaining female enfranchisement in Mexico. Such emphasis on a difference based argument reveals further connections with Britain’s split suffrage movement and rhetoric.15

While Buck reveals that an equality-based stance had been previously used in Mexico during the

1920s and 1930s, it was ultimately a reference to women’s domestic duties that swayed the legislature as pro-vote in 1953. Buck’s argument is an important framework through which to compare attainment of the vote in Mexico, Japan, and Britain.

Further historiography on Mexico and Japan present the importance of this comparative work. Nikki Craske suggests that women who entered the political realm in the 1930s in Mexico significant signal of feminism during this period and in these three countries. This is apparent in the popular memory of this period as one of suffrage and first-wave feminism. 14 Anna Macias, Against All Odds: The Feminist Movement in Mexico to 1940 (England: Greenwood Press, 1982), 398. According to historian Shrilene Ann Soto, however, Macías does not include several important feminist groups, journals, and people that promoted the feminist cause in Mexico post-revolution. Soto recognizes that scholarship on women and gender in Mexico was scare in the 1980s, so she maintains the importance of Macías’ scholarship to the study of feminism in Mexico. This presents an essential foundation to the historiography on Mexican women because it reveals historiographical divergences regarding important feminist groups and figures, which help in analyzing the discrepancies in the wider historical feminist movement. Shrilene Ann Soto, Emergence of the Modern Mexican Woman: Her Participation in Revolution and Struggle for Equality, 1910-1940 (Denver: Arden Press, Inc., 1990). 15 The Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), for example, split from the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). While the NUWSS sought to work with Britain’s political parties for the vote, the WSPU remained much more militant and radical in the efforts. For more on this split before the war see Chapter Three and the brief discussion of suffrage groups. 119 were simultaneously encouraged to participate and extoll traditional gender roles.16 She argues that while women gained important rights during their fight for equality, it was the “romanticized imagery of the self-sacrificing mother that was mobilized to underpin change.” 17 Equally important to this discussion is Monica Rankin’s connection between European and Mexican women’s efforts in World War II. Rankin states that European stories often circulated in Mexico that emphasized the contributions of wives and mothers to the war effort. This created a “new,” albeit familiar, modern role for women in Mexico that was public and politicized, yet traditional in nature; furthermore, it shows that European emphasis on traditional womanhood paralleled and reinforced female identity and constructs in Mexico. In Japan, Article 5 of the Public Police

Peace Act (1894), which prohibited women from participating in political parties, became an early focus for feminist women in the 1920s.18 Notable women who sought to overturn Article 5 included Hiratsuka Raicho and suffragist Ichikawa Fusae. Yet, during World War II, an emphasis on women’s maternal roles within the nation-state took precedence. After Japanese women received the vote in 1946, however, women’s domestic roles remained an important aspect to nation re-building – mobilizing women as housewives, which promoted a “stable lifestyle.”19 Historian Vera Mackie reveals the paradox embedded within the removal of political obstacles for women directly after the war, while at the same time emphasizing the importance of woman as housewife in the political economy.20 The emphasis on domesticity in Mexico and

Japan both before and after women received the vote is important when discussing shifts in

16 Nikki Craske, “Ambiguities and Ambivalences in Making the Nation: Women and Politics in 20th Century Mexico,” Feminist Review (2005): 116-131. 17 Ibid, 116. 18 Article 5 traces its roots to the late nineteenth century and The Safety and Preservation Law of 1894. These laws sought to suppress public political speeches and meetings. For more on Meiji restrictive laws for women who participated in political speeches, see Chapter Two and its discussion of Kishida Toshiko. Vera Mackie, Feminism in Modern Japan: Citizenship, Embodiment, and Sexuality (New York:Cambridge University Press, 2003), 58. 19 Mackie, Feminism in Modern Japan, 123. 20 Ibid. 120 feminist rhetoric and organization compared to Britain. This is not to argue the absence of a maternal-driven rhetoric in Britain, but rather considers the implications of Japan and Mexico’s comparatively late female enfranchisement. Ultimately, this begs inquiry into how each country was able to employ the idea of progress to provide reform, yet conserve gender complementarity.

REVOLUTION AND SUFFRAGE

In Mexico, women involved themselves in several factions of the Mexican Revolution

(1910-1920). The Revolution started out as a revolt against the failed presidential succession of

Porfirio Diaz.21 Wanting representation, revolutionaries aimed to promote their agrarian interests through regional leaders. Emiliano Zapata, for example, sought land reform and inspired the peasant class to join in the fighting. By 1914, the Revolution soon turned into a civil war with many sides. The regionalism of the Revolution, however, offered women various avenues in which to explore their own ideologies. The women who followed Zapata surrounded themselves with an equality driven platform that sought to establish new laws regarding women: laws to allow divorce and “eliminate the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate children.”22

Therefore, social issues affecting women were at times part of broader Revolutionary goals. This suggests that democratic rhetoric of the Revolution kindled the fire for other feminist activism as is apparent in women who called for the vote as early as 1911.23

Despite the large mobilization of the rural and lower class, people from all statuses joined the Revolution. For example, some middle class, educated women found themselves

21 Porfirio Diaz had served multiple terms as president of Mexico. First from 1877-1880. Then from 1884- 1911. 22 Julia Tuñón Pablos, Women in Mexico: A Past Unveiled, trans. Alan Hynds (Austin: University of Texas: 1999), 92. 23 Anna Macias, “Women and the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920,” The Americas 37, no. 1 (1980): 67. 121 ideologically attuned with various factions that shared democratic values.24 Many women were camp followers. At times, however, Revolutionary assigned jobs remained gendered: giving women appropriate duties in tune with their feminine qualities. These women were often regulated to domestic roles which included cooking and caretaking; however, some women voluntarily fought as soldiers that forced them to work together and alongside men. In many ways, all of these positions assaulted previous marianismo-inspired values of morality and sexuality that idealized women as uncorrupted and chaste.25 As a result, the ideal model family unit, with the marianismo wife, was broken when women politically and physically entered

Revolutionary space. This was especially true with exceptional women who broached leadership roles. For example, Margarita Neri was so infamous for her tactics, and her ability to raise and lead her own unit of troops, that she was reported about in a U.S. newspaper with the headline,

“Mexican Rebels Have a Girl Leader.”26 In Mexico, women fighting and participating amid the chaos of the Revolution threatened conventional archetypes of womanhood that attempted to relegate them to the prescribed gender role. Even if, at times, old responsibilities of domesticity influenced new Revolutionary roles, women were endorsing democratic progress, which ultimately legitimized female activism in politics.

By allowing women to join its ranks, males who dominated the Revolution sanctioned the practice of challenging the status quo of both class and gender hierarchy; therefore, those who benefitted from patriarchal customs soon had to adapt new, modern ways for men to continue to hold their authority. Still, the thriving machismo (aggressive masculinity) of the Mexican

24 Macias, “Women and the Mexican Revolution,”53. 25 These included ideals, as discussed previously, that compared women to the perfect mother of Jesus. For more on marianismo see Chapter One. 26 Note, the label of the girl instead of woman. “Mexican Rebels Have a Girl Leader,” Washington Herald, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Mexican Revolution newspaper clippings archive 1911-1913. Hispanic Division, Library of Congress, Washington D.C. 122

Revolution continued to overshadow any growing feminist movement of the early twentieth century. This has led scholars to question whether the event was really an attempted revolution for women that ultimately failed. Historian Katherine Elaine Bill recognizes the Mexican revolution as a “‘patriarchal event’ that largely consolidated male authority at all social levels.”27

Her argument is regularly justified because such a democratically driven event – one that reinforced women’s citizenship per the 1917 Constitution - still failed to enfranchise women.28

Yet, suffrage rhetoric was not totally lost during the ten year revolution. Hermila Galindo, the well-known editor of La Mujer Moderna, routinely argued the rational reasons as to why women should get the vote and be able to run for office. At the Second Feminist Congress in 1916,

Galindo addressed why the state should enfranchise women:

I, ladies and gentlemen, work for this thesis: the emancipation of women from the state of abjection . . . Women need the right to vote for the same reasons as men; that is, to defend their particular interests, the interests of their children, the interests of the fatherland and humanity, which often look quite differently than men. To those who accuse us of wanting to get out of our sphere, we answer that our sphere is in the world; because, what questions that refer to humanity, should not concern women, who is a human being, a woman who is a mother of women and men? . . . Women who suffer the laws must contribute to forming them.29

Galindo insisted that women and men share the same rights and have full equality with one another. For Galindo, the way to achieve this was to grant them the vote. In an effort to further her claims for equality, Galindo attempted to run for a political position, the Chamber of

Deputies. Her goal was not to win the seat but to “bring to the attention of the nation and its

27 Katherine Elaine Bill, Compromised Positions: Prostitution, Public Health, and Gender Politics in Revolutionary Mexico City (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001), 8. 28 For more on this historiography see John French, “Women in Postrevolutionary Mexico: The Emergence of a New Feminist Political History,” University of Miami, (2008). Heather Fowler-Salamini and Mary Kay Vaughan eds., Women of the Mexican Countryside, 1850-1990: Creating Spaces, Shaping Transition (Arizona: University of Arizona Press, 1994). 29 Hermila Galindo, “Words to the Second Feminist Congress of Yucatan,” November 1916. Text provided by Eulalia Eligio González, Ideas feministas de Nuestra America, The National Library of Mexico. Retrieved from https://ideasfem.wordpress.com/textos/f/f14/#_ftn1. Both the First and Second Feminist Congresses were held in 1916 and a few months apart. 123 leaders the large number of women who wanted to vote. The other was to set a precedent for the next generation.”30 Galindo’s feminism remained inspirational for others who came after her in the ensuing years.

To better recognize the significance of Galindo and the way feminism interacted with patriarchal power, it is necessary to shed light on her other connections. According to Anna

Macías, between the years 1915 and 1919 Galindo remained a strong ally to Venustiano

Carranza Garza – a well-known politician and the president of Mexico from 1917-1920. During the Revolution, Carranza rivaled other regional leaders Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa. In

1915, he enlisted Galindo to help raise his female constituency – an interesting tactic since women at this time could not vote.31 Nevertheless, perhaps Carranza’s effort to mobilize female support was to reduce their potential antagonism toward his anti-clerical positions.32 For Galindo, their mutual opposition toward the power of the Catholic Church solidified her support for him.33

Galindo gave speeches and rallied in favor of President Carranza, but by 1919 much of her public and political action had come to a halt.34 While her disappearance from the political scene did not deter from her earlier advocacy and its influence on feminism in Mexico, it does prompt questions: What made her political career end? Was her rise in activism, and its sudden fall into

30 La Voz de la Revoluci6n (Merida, Yucatan), March 15, 1917, in Anna Macias, “Women and the Mexican Revolution,” 67. 31 Galindo even published works in favor of Carranza. See Hermila Galindo, La doctrina Carranza y el acercamiento indo-latino (Mexico MCMXIX, 1919). Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/ ladoctrinacarran00gali/ page/n9. 32 It is conceivable that as president, Carranza should necessitate the backing of women since many had proven their political activism during the war. While the vote was still decades away for women, their abilities to influence popular opinion remained significant. This is apparent in Galindo’s increasingly politicized position as a suffragist. 33 According to Macías, however, Carranza was “conspicuously” anti-clerical. Still, some women remained against his challenge of the church, but Galindo (and her belief that the power of the Church hindered the growth of feminism) supported his stance. Carranza, therefore, felt that support from Galindo, ensured support from other women. Macías, “Women and the Mexican Revolution,” 62-64. 34 Galindo continued aspects of her activism until the mid-1920s - notably organizing women’s clubs. But after President Carranza’s assassination in 1920, and after her marriage in 1923, she retreated from political involvement. For more on Galindo’s life see Rosa María Valles Ruiz, “Hermila Galindo. Un Caso Feminismo Ilustrado en Los Abores Sel Siglo XX,” Revista de Historia de América, no. 142 (2010): 37-55. 124 silence, indication of the evolution in traditional social relations of power? Macías argues that

Galindo’s feminism was a “youthful fling.”35 Yet, while Galindo was young during her activist years, her retreat from the political stage, and the disappointment in the 1917 Constitution’s absence of female enfranchisement, are important considerations to her retreat from the political stage. What remains important to consider is that President Carranza was able to utilize

Galindo’s feminism to cultivate female support during his political career, while Galindo (and women generally) were not able to benefit from an allied president. Ultimately, this indicates that the machismo of war and politics strategically maintained complementary gender roles that benefitted male patronage at the expense of women.

This intersection between feminism and war forced women to work within the framework of conflict. What is different regarding Mexico is that while the Revolution marked a significant transition for women into political space, and while the 1917 Constitution technically gave women equal citizenship, it nevertheless failed to enfranchise women. 36 This is important because while citizenship does not equal voting, it does oblige women’s civic duties.37 In Mexico, this became further complicated with the ambiguity of Article 34 of the Constitution. Sarah Buck argues that the use of the term mexicanos in Article 34 left citizenship open to interpretation because the gender neutral term held potential to include women. 38 Such ambiguity was remedied in 1918 with Article 37, “which denied women the right to vote by explicitly stating

35 Macias, “Women and the Mexican Revolution,” 64. 36 Article 34 of the Constitution remained ambiguous until 1953; its vagueness remained a focal point for feminists and their equal-based arguments. The relationship between women’s fight for suffrage and war is an extensive topic and one that cannot fully be developed in this thesis; nevertheless, this brief discussion attempts to highlight the intersection of war and suffrage. Sarah A. Buck, “The Meaning of the Women’s Vote in Mexico,” 78. 37 This is also apparent in other historical contexts wherein women were considered citizens, but could not vote. For example, see Linda Kerber, No Constitutional Rights to be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship (New York: Hill and Wang, 1999). 38 Sarah A. Buck, “The Meaning of the Women’s Vote in Mexico,” 78. In Spanish, the term mexicanos means “a Mexican person.” This allowed women to highlight its use as an all-inclusive term. 125 that all Mexican men with the necessary age and civil status had the right to vote.” 39 The

Revolution and subsequent Constitution, therefore, show how the state kept paternalism relevant by solidifying the state’s modern patriarchy and marking a shift in its ability to remain influential in spite of growing feminism. The Revolution’s failure to achieve enfranchisement left women to continue to fight for suffrage through increased political activism and international communication.

WORLD WAR I AND SUFFRAGE

As in Mexico, the British suffrage movement intersected with conflict – World War I.

Such a significant moment of turmoil changed the context through which British women claimed equality. Women experienced an extended period of waiting for the war to be over, and while some responded with protest, others folded their claims into the war effort. While this exploration does not seek to represent a comprehensive analysis of the British suffrage movement during the war, a succinct overview will more clearly show that there existed a transnational female experience between suffrage and war. The split in British women’s movements during the war affected feminist language, which had a remarkable impact on feminist ideologies. For the first time, suffragist women who remained pacifists during the war strengthened their claim that government needed women to avoid the war’s innate destructiveness. Ironically, they claimed, it was men’s emotional instability that had led to war – the same reason that the state had rejected women’s demands for enfranchisement years earlier.40

39 Ibid, 78. 40 Sophia A. van Wingerden, The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain: 1866-1828 (Britain: Macmillan Press, 1999), 160 126

While some suffragist women in Britain upheld a pacifist identity in the face of World

War I, in others, nationalism prevailed.41 Shifts in identity and ideology often occur during significant chaotic events, and this was especially apparent in Britain with the onset of World

War I. The war complicated the situation for many modern women who identified as feminist.

Beatrice Webb, for example, saw her ideas of a socialist state as almost rudimentary compared to the “horrible Hell a few hundred miles away.”42 Webb’s ideals were shattered by the war; her belief in a perfect state and in “gradual social integration” between men and women were continuously questioned. The war also distorted the identity of the suffragists. Women who fought for the vote began to lay down their militancy against the state to help that state in the war effort. However, not all suffragists or suffragettes renounced their feminism. For example, Sylvia

Pankhurst and Emmeline Pankhurst, both famous suffragettes known for their militancy, split during wartime.43 This shows a broader significance to individual identity as it reveals how it can grow, change, and be shaped by great circumstance.

The rhetoric of war and patriotism was able to transform feminist identities to include support for a state in which they were not represented. In My Own Story (1914) Emmeline

Pankhurst states, “How mild, by comparison with the despatches [sic] in the daily newspapers, will seem this chronicle of women's militant struggle against political and social injustice in one

41 The initial outbreak of the war did not immediately further split the suffrage movement. In fact the NUWSS, with Millicent Garrett Fawcettt at its head, and the WSPU’s Christabel Pankhurst voiced early apprehension about the war. As discussed in Chapter Three, the NUWSS and the WSPU held differing tactics toward attaining the vote for women. van Wingerden, The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain,155. 42 Deborah Epstein Nord, The Apprenticeship of Beatrice Webb (London: The Macmillan Press LTD, 1985), 228-119. 43 Sylvia created the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS) to continue her vision of the suffrage campaign that was now aligned with the Independent Labor Party of Britain. Emmeline, on the other hand, remained more wavering in her militancy as the WSPU (along with NUWSS) suspended their suffrage campaigns. Suffragists’ responses to war were divergent. This discussion is only a glimpse into the intricacies of suffrage and war in Britain. For more see van Wingerden, The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain, 156. 127 small corner of Europe.”44 Much of her sentiment in this statement serves to justify her choice to support the war over suffrage. Even Cristabel Pankhurst, whose prewar militancy had marked her as strongly against the government, supported the war “because of her conviction that

German Kultur [culture] was more ‘masculine’ than the English Government, and consequently the worse enemy of the women’s movement.” 45 This does not suggest that Emmeline or

Cristabel fully neglected their suffragist past; rather, it suggests that wartime became more about being British than being a woman. Still, glimpses of the suffragist identity remained. Emmeline

Pankhurst states:

For the present at least our arms are grounded, for directly the threat of foreign war descended on our nation we declared a complete truce from militancy. What will come out of this European war--so terrible in its effects on the women who had no voice in averting it--so baneful in the suffering it must necessarily bring on innocent children--no human being can calculate.46

Despite that women had no choice in the conflict, Emmeline’s suppression of her own militancy remained worthy in the face of war. Yet, her sanction of duty to nation over duty to woman suggests the lingering habitual custom of female obedience to authority. If the state represented that authority, and that state symbolized patriarchal governance, then such a decision inadvertently maintained the power of patriarchy. By 1916, suffrage groups, such as the

NUWSS, folded their energies into helping the war effort, which proved that women were qualified and competent citizens.47 While the suffrage bill that eventually passed limited female suffrage to women who met specific age and property qualifications, 1918 still marks the year in which British women gained the vote.48 Scholars tend to agree that the decades long suffrage

44 Emmeline Pankhurst, My Own Story, London (1914). Retrieved from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34856/ 34856-h/34856-h.htm. 45 van Wingerden, The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain, 157. 46 Emmeline Pankhurtst, My Own Story, London (1914), 364. 47 For more on the NUWSS see Chapter Three. 48 Of course, the 1918 vote did not extend to all women in British colonies. While the Australian colonies granted women the right to vote in local elections as early as 1861, the question of suffrage in non-white settler 128 movement in Britain had significant power in vote victory - perhaps more so than women’s efforts during the war. Nevertheless, women’s war work justified government approval for women’s suffrage.

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND SUFFRAGE

Soon after British women received the vote, so did white women in the United States with the passing of the 19th amendment in 1920. Such victories spawned international communications for further female enfranchisement. This had significant effect on the way in which Mexican women continued to fight for their victory at home. One of the most noteworthy global influences and interactions during this time was amid Pan American women’s groups. The recognition of this exchange, while not an exclusive focus on Japan or Britain, suggests that

Mexican women were looking for ways to further substantiate their claims to enfranchisement.

Between 1915 and 1923, several groups, including the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and the Pan American International Women’s Committee (PAIWC), sought to “establish contacts, [and] exchange information with Mexican women about their respective programs.”49 The goal was to hinder future conflicts and further cooperation. Most significant in this exchange was the U.S.’s League of Women Voters who sought international

colonies was slowly answered. According to historian Philippa Levine, many British feminists did not build “common threads of unity” with non-white women from the colonies. This was because British women often viewed women from the colonies as “enslaved and in need of help rather than as partners in a broader enterprise aimed at equality.” Still extension of the vote to white women in New Zealand and Australia were an effort to maintain that status quo. In 1919, the Government of India Act opened political participation in the colony to allow Indians a voice in provincial government. Indian women, however, did not receive the vote until 1935, but again this included strict qualifications. For more on this see Philippa Levine, The British Empire: Sunrise to Sunset (England: Pearson, 2007), 168-169, 179. See also Mrinallini Sinha, Specters of Mother India: The Global Restructuring of an Empire (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006). 49 Founded by Jane Addams in 1915, the WILPF sought to promote pacifism and an end to women’s oppression. Megan Threlkeld, Pan American Women: U.S. Internationalists and Revolutionary Mexico (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014), 19. 129 communication regarding attaining women’s equal status.50 This put suffrage at the forefront of international consciousness, and in 1923, Mexico hosted the Pan American Association for the

Advancement of Women’s (PAAW) First Feminist Congress of which over 100 women from the

Americas attended.51

While this interaction mobilized international activity regarding the fight for suffrage, not all Pan American organizations agreed in how to win the universal fights for enfranchisement.52

According to historian Megan Threlkeld, U.S. women’s organizations often mirrored their country’s own imperialistic attitudes toward Latin American women that adopted a distinct cultural hegemony of female equality.53 Threlkeld argues that while Carrie Chapman Catt, an

American suffrage leader and promoter of International Women’s Suffrage, believed the vote to equal full attainment of equality, “In fact women across Mexico had very different ideas about the relative importance of suffrage.” 54 Mexican women saw other gender issues of equal importance to the vote when fighting for gender equality; this positioned suffrage as a significant goal, but one of many. Furthermore, Threlkeld suggests that the eventual failure to establish significant international communication between the U.S. and Mexico rested within American women’s inabilities to understand the cultural and organizational differences between them and

Mexican women: “Mexican women did not have the same mass mobilization that so many U.S. women had gained from abolition, temperance, suffrage, and other movements.”55 This rings true for women in Britain as well, who saw decades of mobilization regarding temperance, education,

50 Ibid, 48. 51 Ann Towns, “The Inter-American Commission of Women and Women's Suffrage, 1920—1945,” Journal of Latin American Studies 2, no. 4 (2010), 788-789. 52 It is important to note here that while white American women had already acquired the right to vote in 1920, they were still heavily invested in the global enfranchisement of women. Ann Towns, “The Inter-American Commission of Women and Women’s Suffrage,” 789. 53 Threlkeld, Pan American Women, 77. 54 Ibid, 77. 55 Ibid, 160. In Mexico, such movements became more active in the 1920s and 1930s. 130 and other social issues. Historian Silvia Arrom asserts, “A feminist movement did not develop as fully in Mexico precisely because Mexican women enjoyed certain legal and social advantages

U.S. women did not.” 56 Such an argument differs from Anna Macías’ analysis of a strong feminist movement in the early twentieth century. Likely, this does not mean that Mexican women did not mobilize at all, since teachers were especially politicized in Mexico’s early twentieth century. Rather, it suggests that perhaps women’s participation in the political was often thwarted by other national issues deemed more important.

WORLD WAR II AND SUFFRAGE

International communication about suffrage dwindled with the onset of World War II.

While the conflicts discussed here are each different (Revolution, World War I, and World War

II), they are all significant in changing the feminist dynamic. Britain and Mexico saw shifts in feminist rhetoric and identity in the 1910s during World War I and the Mexican Revolution. In

Japan, however, feminism began to rise in the 1920s and by the 1930s shifted due to military expansion on the Asian continent. By 1920 in Japan, the feminist activist organization called The

New Woman’s Association campaigned for women’s full political and social participation. As leaders of this new organization, feminists Hiratsuka Raicho and Ichikawa Fusae aimed to enact significant change: “ . . . rights for women, mothers and children . . . to institute a movement for the achievement of women’s high education, co-education at all levels . . . women’s suffrage, abolition of laws which disadvantaged women, and the protection of motherhood.”57 Fusae’s feminism aligned her more with the fight for suffrage, while Raicho emphasized state protections for mothers. Still, both women remained interested in altering and progressing women’s political

56 Silvia Arrom, Mexican Women: Historical Perspectives (Brandeis University: Women’s Studies Program, 1993). 57 Vera Mackie, Feminism in Modern Japan, 59. 131 rights so that they could fight for these changes. In Japan, Christian women also began to show concern with women’s political status. Japan’s Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) garnered their support in favor of the vote. By 1922, the Japanese government passed amendments to Article 5, and allowed women to politically organize.58 Historian Vera Mackie suggests, however, that the modification of Article 5 was a tactical move on behalf of the government who found it “increasingly useful to mobilise women in public campaigns.”59 The

Japanese government, therefore, granted something feminist in order to control it. Efforts by women to amend Article 5 in the early 1900s were less successful because national suffrage had yet to be achieved in Britain or the United States. In 1922, however, both Western countries had given women the vote. Ichikawa Fusae posited that Britain and the U.S. had granted the vote because of women’s roles in the First World War. Vera Mackie suggests that conservative governments in the West granted the vote to garner female support. This further connects with

Mexican President Carranza’s use of Hermila Galindo to rally women to his cause. In an effort to build on Mackie, this section employs comparative analysis to indicate that conservative and patriarchal appropriation of feminist language was not a localized phenomenon. This gives further insight into why the Japanese government did not amend Article 5 in earlier decades, but did by 1922. It was not that the option of control twenty years later had significantly improved, but that the government had to marshal female support in face of growing feminist activism.

While feminist groups in Japan fought for women’s rights in many ways, suffrage still remained key.60 By 1925, the Universal Manhood Suffrage Act had passed, which allowed all men over the age of 25 the right to vote. This act eliminated previous property qualifications and

58 Still, Japanese women could not “join political parties, vote, or stand for public office.” Ibid, 60-61. 59 Ibid, 60. 60 Some of the other avenues of feminist activism in Japan were temperance, prostitution, and education; however, the focus of this chapter remains on suffrage. 132 allowed men in Japan and in its colonies (Taiwan and Korea) to vote as well.61 The integration of colonial male subjects into Japanese political jurisdiction reinforced patriarchal standards – the political rights of male subjects remained above those of Japanese women. 62 The government’s choice to advance the rights of subjects over women, ultimately, put patriarchal power over nationalistic pride.

Women’s suffrage remained a contended proposition in Japan. In 1925, Ichikawa Fusae founded The Women’s Suffrage League (WSL) (Fusen Kakutoku Doumei) and declared women’s suffrage as crucial to female emancipation. Membership in the WSL increased from around 200 in 1925 to 1,762 in 1932. 63 Such a significant rise in feminist mobilization is important to consider when discussing how women’s activism changed with the looming conflict of war. In the early 1930s, women from the WSL and the WCTU increased their international networks of feminism. Regular transnational meetings and communications fostered progressive thinking that included elements of socialism and communism.64 Still, by the 1930s Japan had continued its imperial aggression toward China and other parts of Asia. As Japan’s military aggression expanded, and as more men joined the war effort, women were called away from their organized politics to “mend the weakening family system.”65 Early on, Fusae and other women alike had reiterated pacifist views on international conflict. By the mid-1930s, however, the Japanese state had gradually rallied public support of national policies. In Japan, state

61 Japan had fully annexed Korea in 1910, and by the 1920s made efforts to further expand into Asia. In the 1920s, Japanese foreign policy promoted ideas of Pan-Asian self-determination. While self-determination was a rallying cry to promote unity against Western imperialism, the reality became much different. By the 1930s Japan had expanded into Asia under the pretense of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, which enacted strict imperial rule under the guise of Asian equality. For more on this see Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to Present (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 178 and 222. 62 Mackie, Feminism in Modern Japan, 60. 63 Ibid, 61. 64 Ibid, 100. 65 Yoshiko Miyake, “Doubling Expectations: Motherhood and Women’s Factory Work Under State Management in Japan in the 1930s and 1940s,” in Recreating Japanese Women, 1600-1945, ed. Gail Lee Bernstein (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 270. 133 mobilization remained gendered: “men were responsible for fighting for the women and children at home, while women supported those activities.”66

The loss of husbands, fathers, and sons disrupted the ideal family life in Japan with the father at the head of the household. Feminist socialist women in the 1930s sought to protect women and children who were affected by the loss of their male support. This reinforced the state as the patriarch of the family system in Japan – a position that many feminist women supported because mothers were often left to face economic depression alone. The replacement of one patriarch with another reinforced woman’s subjugated position in society and further upheld the need for idealized gender roles. By 1937, Japan was waging a total war in China. Just as in Britain, previous pacifist expressions began to fade away in support of the state. After all, it was a time of crisis. Ichikawa Fusae, for example, put her pacifism aside to work with the government in hopes that her support would legitimize the suffrage campaign. Fusae stated:

It goes without saying that it has become more difficult to achieve women’s suffrage. However, the reason for demanding women’s suffrage is so that we can co-operate with men and with the government in order to contribute to state and society from a women’s standpoint. If women devote their energies to overcoming this unprecedented national emergency, their achievements will be for the purpose of achieving the aims of female suffrage, and may be one step towards the attainment of suffrage for women in legal terms.67

Feminist women’s support of the war in 1937 soon impacted the fate of their political organizations by 1942. With the United States entering the war in 1941, the Japanese government and military prepared for full mobilization of its citizens. This meant that any and all organizations that had participated in public discourse in the 1920s and 1930s were now marshaled to specifically aid in the war effort. Women were especially organized as maternal

66 Ibid, 104. See also Louise Young, Chapter 3: “Imagined Empire: The Cultural Construction of Manchukuo” in Japan’s Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998). 67 Ichikawa Fusae, “Jikyoku ni taishite,” Josei Tenbou, September 1937, quoted in Vera Mackie, Feminism in Japan, 107-108. 134 figures of the national cause, which advanced nationalistic feminism.68 Yet, female reproductive labor was not the only way Japanese women aided the war effort. As in Mexico and Britain,

Japanese women replaced male workers in industry. Still, an emphasis on women’s motherly and nurturing duties prevailed. The Japanese government opted for single women to fill the industrialized workforce before married women with children. Historian Thomas R. H. Havens speculates that patriarchal attitudes amid the Japanese state limited women’s wartime labor outside the home. Compared to the U.S. during the same period, women in Japan made a relatively low rise in nonmilitary wartime labor.69

By 1945, with the dropping of nuclear weapons on to two major Japanese cities, the war ended. With little time to waste, due to encroaching threats of communism from Asia, the United

States occupied Japan to enact extensive economic, social, and political reform. The Allied

Occupation of Japan in 1945 under General Douglas MacArthur significantly changed Japanese civil society for women. Article 5 was completely dismantled and women could now participate in political parties, run for office, and vote. New women’s organizations formed and female entrance into political space was solidified. This was because the complete restructuring of the

Japanese Constitution under MacArthur’s jurisdiction supported women’s place in politics. The achievement of the vote on behalf of the United States, therefore, reinforced occupation as liberating.70 Through granting rights to women, the United States was able to propagate their imperial mission as emancipatory for women. Such endeavors of imperial nations to justify their

68 Ranjoo Seodu Herr, “The Possibility of Nationalist Feminism,” Hypatia 18, no. 3 (2003): 135-160. 69 Thomas R. H. Havens, “Women and War in Japan, 1937-45,” The American Historical Review 80, no. 4 (1975): 913-934. 70 Anthropologist Saba Mahmood has written on the use of feminism and women’s liberation to justify imperialism. She argues that we must remain critical of how feminism is practiced so as to uncover the potential “prejudices, impetuses, and proclivities internal to the feminist tradition that make it so pliable to colonial and imperial projects.” Saba Mahmood, “Retooling Democracy and Feminism in the Service of New Empire,” Qui Parle, Vol. 16, No. 1 (2006): 125. For more on this see Saba Mahmood, “Feminism Democracy, and Empire: Islam and the War on Terror,” Chapter 8 in Gendering Religion and Politics: Untangling Modernities, Hana Herzog and Ann Braude eds. (Harvard Divinity School: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). 135 intervention through granting rights to women further connected feminist and imperial rhetoric.

Moreover, it reinforces U.S. discourse on gender in Japan because of their ascendency on the world stage.

The complicated role that feminism played in legitimizing U.S. occupation was soon seized by Japanese women. However, their political role, in many ways, remained reinforced by their identities as housewives. Even prewar suffragists began to join new organizations that promoted the stability of the home as essential to economic growth. By 1948, suffragist Oku

Mumeo became the leader of the Housewives Association (Shufuren). This organization sought to influence state policies that affected women’s positions in the household economy. Women in the home, therefore, gained economic power through their domestic roles. 71 Paradoxically, stabilizing the country meant giving women access to previously blocked political space, while at the same time reinforcing their gendered role in the economy as consumer housewives. Thus, the postwar familial ideal was placed within the prewar suffragist agenda: mothers could vote and take care of the household.72 This established equality for men and women politically, but reinforced patriarchal idealized gender norms of women in their prescribed gender roles.

MEXICO: STILL NO SUFFRAGE

As in Japan in the 1920s and 1930s, Mexican feminist activism grew in alignment with the demand for the vote. Language emphasizing equality based on sameness with men began to

71 For more on this transition see Narita Ryuichi, “Women in the Motherland: Oku Mumeo through Wartime and Postwar,” in Total War and ‘Modernization’, ed. J. Victor Koschmann (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), 154-155. Or Sheldon Garon, Molding Japanese Minds: The State in Everyday Life (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997). 72 What is more is that this new and empowering economic role resembled elements of ryosai kenbo (good wife, wise mother). This nineteenth century ideal had previously been a way for the state to sanction new roles for women within the home. 136 surface. 73 The equality based argument was apparent in the work of Margarita Robles de

Mendoza – an important figure in Mexican women’s fight for suffrage. Robles de Mendoza was educated in the United States and was undoubtedly influenced by American suffragists. Like

Ichikawa Fusae in Japan, Robles de Mendoza helped the Mexican women’s movement gain momentum as she believed enfranchisement was the key to women’s emancipation.74 In 1932,

Robles sent a powerful letter to former President Plutarco Elias Calles to explain why women deserved the right to vote in Mexico:

From childhood, as we learn our first letters we are taught to sing the National Hymn, and in our soul, the feeling that we are soldiers of our Nation is penetrated powerfully. We feel that we are also the caretakers of our native soil, and that we must offer our lives to defend its integrity. In our schools, we use the same textbooks as our male brothers, and our soul is forged over the same anvil. Upon receiving the lessons of civic instruction, it is said that the form of our government is Democratic Republic; it teaches us article upon article of our constitution, without preparing us, so that when they call the children of Mexico citizens, we are not included in that number. Because of this, we believe that arriving at the necessary age, we should also be citizens of a free country.75

This message signifies the culmination of the equality-based argument that developed as

Mexican women fought in the Revolution, participated in politics, and interacted with the international scene. This sentiment grew and succeeded in making it all the way up to the highest governmental courts in 1937 when then President Lázaro Cardenas proposed female enfranchisement.76 After decades of organization, communication abroad, and growth in feminist consciousness, a common goal of suffrage in 1937 was finally backed by the upper echelons of

73 Buck, “The Meaning of the Women’s Vote in Mexico,” 76. 74 Threlkeld, Pan American Women: U.S. Internationalists and Revolutionary Mexico, 166-167. 75 Margarita Robles de Mendoza quoted in Sarah A. Buck, “The Meaning of the Women’s Vote in Mexico,” 85. By 1932, Plutarco Elias Calles was no longer president of Mexico, but held the title of Jefe Máximo. The years 1928-1934 were known as the Maximoto period. The presidents of Mexico during this period held power through title only; Calles was truly the one making important decisions, which is reinforced as Robles de Mendoza wrote to him and not then President Pascual Ortiz Rubio in 1932. For more on this see William H. Beezley and Collin M. Maclachlan, Chapter Title “Reflection and Contested Suffrage,” Mexicans in Revolution, 1910-1946: An Introduction (Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2009). 76 Ibid, 80. 137 the Mexican government. Nevertheless, 1937 was not the year for Mexican female enfranchisement. According to Sarah Buck, despite its ratification, the fact that congress failed to publish the initiative led to a total “abandonment” of the reform.77 Suffrage was, therefore, neither conquered by women nor fully granted by men.78 In effect, the Mexican government in the 1930s exemplified a token modernism - one that did not accept the synchronization of modernity with gender equality. That suffrage was supported and approved, but never enforced, solidified the government’s modernity without having to relinquish its patriarchy. This was especially true given that by 1937 women were still excluded from voting.

Failure to gain the vote in 1937 was a tremendous upset for Mexican women. As in Japan,

World War II acted as another interruption, and as Sarah Buck points out, “the suffrage debate was set aside for more peaceful times.”79 The trend that women’s struggle for equality did not fit within the national agenda was again used to subvert feminist consciousness. This is apparent in

Mexico during the late 1930s and 1940s with the rise in modern conservative women’s groups who politically organized but expressed maternalistic, conservative, and religious views. This

“counterfeminism” significantly influenced the debate in Mexico regarding women’s rights.80

With World War II now in the backdrop, a new conservative faction was able to position itself within a sphere of feminism that not only advocated women’s participation at the national level, but justified participation due to women’s innate maternalism.81 The “focus on pronatalism (the glorification of childbirth and maternity)” was reinforced with women’s roles in World War II; advocates of this rhetoric demanded that women deserved equality because of their natural and

77 Ibid, 80. 78 See this idea of “conquered or granted” in Adam Prezworski, “Conquered or Granted? A History of Suffrage Extensions,” The British Journal of Political Science 39, no. 2, (2009). 79 Buck, “The Meaning of the Women’s Vote in Mexico,” 80. 80 Monica Rankin, “Mexicanas en guerra: World War II and the Discourse of Mexican Female Identity,” Journal of Women’s Studies 32, no. 2 (2011): 101. 81 This does not suggest that equality driven feminists disappeared from the national scene, but rather reveals a division separating women that negatively impacted feminist movements in Mexico. 138 reproductive female characteristics.82 According to Monica Rankin, “Images of the nurturing and caring maternal figure engaging in self-sacrifice, placing the interests of others above her own” appeared in national discourse on women’s participation in the war effort.83 She continues to argue that U.S. wartime propaganda of an Allied victory bringing the modern kitchen to the international middle-class housewife facilitated economic equality amid the sexes.84 This image of middle-class consumer culture, propagated by the U.S., prompted Mexican feminist Esthela

Jiménez Esponda to advertise these new time-saving technologies for the modern kitchen as tools for the modern housewife.85 According to Esponda, if women saved time working in the home, then they could spend more time trying to achieve equality in the workforce. Yet, while

Esponda identified as a leftist feminist, this idea remained rooted in the fact that women’s primary position in society was bonded with her maternalism. This presents further similarities with feminist women in Japan after the war - especially those connecting the modern housewife role with economic empowerment. It also reveals that women were beginning to discuss various ways in which they could continue their maternal roles, which were reinforced during wartime, while at the same time achieving equality – a discourse that preserved the paternalistic ideals within a modern setting.

In Mexico, after World War II, an increase in Catholic women’s activism also continued to grow. These women reproduced their own version of feminism that was public, dynamic, and reinforcing of women’s vital position as organizers for their cause. 86 Catholic women often

82 Sarah A. Buck, “The Meaning of the Women’s Vote in Mexico,” 74. 83 Rankin, “Mexicanas en guerra,” 102. 84 Ibid, 103. 85 Ibid, 103. Such influence of the U.S. in this way further reinforces its role of ascendency in the international stage. This presents important correlations between U.S. imperialism, power, and gender dynamics – inclusion of the U.S. during this period will be beneficial in future research. 86 Kristina A. Boylan, “Gendering the Faith and Altering the Nation: Mexican Catholic Women’s Activism, 1917-1940,” in Sex in Revolution: Gender, Politics, and Power in Modern Mexico, eds. Jocelyn Olcott, Mary Kay Vaughan, and Gabriella Cano (London: Duke University Press, 2006), 209. 139 organized to promote conventional notions of womanhood juxtaposed against liberal feminist ideals; women remained a symbol for conservative “progress” as they marched and protested in public spaces advocating their own idea of female modernity.87 Even though these women were reinforcing Church ideals, they did so through agentive avenues: running their own magazines and protesting. Such agency is not indicative of equality, but rather reinforces individual resistance to oppression. For Catholic women, their resistance included progressing female education, but did not, for example, include sexual education – something that split conservative and liberal feminists significantly.88 In Britain, a similar split in female political organization materialized. According to Eileen McDonough, “The radical premise of the woman suffrage movement explains why it was temperance and prohibition - with emphasis on women's traditional role as caretaker of the home - and not suffrage that drew a broader base of support from which to influence the suffrage issue.”89 This shows that conservative feminist rhetoric influenced suffrage movements as the two were not always mutually exclusive. In Mexico, female conservative activism not only paralleled the Church’s aim for modernizing women’s roles, but also fit perfectly within the boundaries of state paternalism. It remains significant, then, that a conservative co-opt of feminism prevailed over a radical feminism in aligning itself with

87 This presents differences with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in Japan in the 1920s who supported leftist feminists like Ichikawa Fusae. Of course, rhetoric after the war was much more inclined to possess conventionalism than that of the 1920s. But what can be suggestive here is that religion had potential to change depending on historical context. Many Catholic women even organized their own magazines to represent their own interpretations of modern female roles in Mexican society. La Mujer Catholica Mexicana addressed Catholic women’s social and cultural concerns. Kristina A. Boylan, “Gendering the Faith and Altering the Nation: Mexican Catholic Women’s Activism, 1917-1940,” 204. 88 Melanie Huska, “Sex Education Battleground in Mexico,” Latin American Sexualities, Notches, (2016), http://notchesblog.com/2016/10/27/battleground-sex-education-a-struggle-for-moral-jurisdiction-in-mexico/. 89 Eileen L. McDonagh and H. Douglas Price, “Women Suffrage in the Progressive Era: Patterns of Oppositions and Support in Referenda Voting, 1910-1918,” The American Political Science Review 79, no. 2 (1985): 420. 140 both the Church and the anti-clerical state.90 This reveals a modernization of patriarchy that transcended religion.

WHAT DID SUFFRAGE MEAN FOR GENDER EQUALITY?

In Mexico, male political rhetoric in the decades during women’s fight for enfranchisement remained rooted in the idea that granting women the vote would “be against revolutionary policies and undermine change.”91 The anti-clerical state in the 1930s remained challenged in their efforts to appear modern, while at the same time preventing reforms of equality. In 1937, the failure to enfranchise based on gender equality was a risk on behalf of the modern, democratic government – one that proved worthy to take. This was because if women could not get the vote, even for a faux reason such as being “too conservative,” then paternalism won because it kept women unequal and subjugated. Alternatively, by 1953, if the state granted women the vote because of their innate feminine qualities (a view that was clearly prioritized amid men and women in the 1940s), then paternalism triumphed again with its maintenance of a role for women that kept them subjected to domesticity.

There were important changes in feminist spaces and rhetoric that both helped and hindered the realization of suffrage for women in Mexico and Japan. Yet, these same changes had meaning for British women post-vote as well. Conservative elements permeated feminist rhetoric; at the same time, male authorities exploited feminist language to maintain patriarchal values. This thesis has been an effort to show not only the increase in various women who

90 By the 1930s, the Mexican government had promoted anti-clericalism. President Calles (1924-1928) sought to enforce an atheist state; he feared that the conservativism of the Church would dismantle Revolutionary efforts. Still, anti-clerical ideologies did not eliminate his machismo. See Julia G. Young, “The Calles Government and Catholic Dissidents: Mexico's Transnational Projects of Repression, 1926–1929,” The Americas 70, no. 1 (2013): 63-91. 91 Nikki Craske, “Ambiguities and Ambivalences in Making the Nation,” 122. With the backlash against the Church during the Cristero War (1924-1929), Mexican political leaders revealed a fear in conservatism that, they believed, would stalemate the progress of the Revolution. Even after the Revolution, with the rise in equality-based arguments for the vote, male statesmen feared that the female vote would promote the interests of the Church. Sarah Buck, “The Meaning of the Women’s Vote in Mexico,” 82. 141 considered themselves modern and new, but also the growth in the structural power of patriarchy that was often supported by the state. Usually, but not always, many of these modern women operated within a range in feminism. The realization of this spectrum is apparent in women who early on advocated for female education while simultaneously upholding traditionally valued gender roles.

By the twentieth century, and with the growth in print culture, feminist women continued to exercise their own visions of what a feminist identity looked like. In Chapter Three this became clear when some Japanese feminist women opposed ideals rooted in chastity while at the same time supporting state-sanctioned anti-abortion laws.92 These details reveal that individual feminisms, and modern female identity, were multilayered and often fragmented. It is necessary to understand, however, that history and its actors are “neither the whole nor even all that remains of the past. . . . there is a living history that perpetuates and renews itself through time.”93 The selected actors discussed in the first few chapters are not necessarily representative of all modern men and women during this time period. They are, however, important examples of how individuals charted their own lives and identities within an exceptionally changing context. The comparative aspect of this discussion reveals the parallels that existed between modern women in different historical contexts. That feminism grew alongside, and often with, a powerful patriarchy reinterprets any narrative that positions them as eternally opposite philosophies.94 After all, the demand for suffrage was an effort to enter and change the existing

92 What becomes ironic with these varying areas of support is that feminist women could at times distance themselves from state-sanctioned conventionalism in one area, while simultaneously validating it in another. 93 I learned of Maurice Halbawch’s quote in Mariko Asano Tamanoi’s book Under the Shadow of Nationalism: Politics and Poetics of Rural Japanese Women (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1998), 205. 94 This is not to position feminism and patriarchy as similar ideas, but to re-examine the ways in which they may have intersected and influenced one another. Such an idea is pulled from more contemporary notions that feminism includes the effort to tear down the patriarchy. While such a characterization is, and was, an aspect of feminist theory, I hope that this project has shown the ways in which patriarchal devotees employed feminist language. Alternatively, at times, feminist identity employed traditional values that upheld patriarchal ideals. 142 political order that so often emphasized patriarchal principles. Nevertheless, these principles, and moreover those who wielded them, proved their adaptability during times of conflict wherein the state empowered women through wartime participation and maternal values. Such opportunities of female empowerment were a sophisticated disguise that also preserved patriarchal principles and structures. The granting of suffrage after this polar empowerment is indicative of the

“pernicious promise of patriarchy” - that female enfranchisement signified equality.95

95 Taken from Julianne Malveaux, “The Pernicious Power of Patriarchy,” The Philadelphia Tribune, September 30, 2018. Accessed March 23, 2019. https://www.phillytrib.com/commentary/the-pernicious-power-of- patriarchy/article_49b88616-18cd-5d4b-99fc-6e2866f9db11 html 143

EPILOGUE

THE MYTH OF SUFFRAGE

The struggle has never been a fight of woman against man, but always of broad-minded men and women on the one side against narrow-minded men and women on the other.1 Alice Stone Blackwell, 1914

The way we remember suffrage is different from its history. In my early academic career,

I saw, perhaps naively, women’s enfranchisement as the epitome of success regarding women’s historical progress toward equality. While I knew that suffrage did not, and does not equate equality, it is remembered as a quintessential achievement in feminist history; indeed, it is a myth that has been propagated since its victory a century ago.2 And perhaps this is an extremely

Western (and white) way of looking at suffrage – do women in Mexico or in Japan see their enfranchisement as a triumph over patriarchy? Do African American women see it that way? As we reflect on the centennial of women’s suffrage in the West, it is important to question just how far “equality” has come, and just as importantly, how past fights for equality are remembered in collective historical memory. We have let the memory of the past fuel its truth in the present; consequently, memory plays a significant role in the way suffrage is evoked as a champion of equality.

In Japan today, women have greater choice than ever before. Women can vote, they can hold office, they can or cannot marry. The paradox, however, is that this freedom to choose has not eliminated inequality. In Japan, many women revere General Douglas MacArthur for granting women the right to vote after World War II. Female enfranchisement is often considered a highpoint of equality, even though women knowingly experience inequality on a daily basis.

1 Quoted in Joe C. Miller, “Never a Fight of Woman Against Man: What Textbooks Don’t Say About Women’s Suffrage,” The History Teacher 48, no. 3 (2018): 437. 2 Of course, this is reference to suffrage in the United States. 2 Lisa Tetrault, The Myth of Seneca Falls: Memory and the Women’s Suffrage Movement, 1848-1898 (North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 2014). 144

During my four years living and teaching in Japan, I often discussed such experiences and memories with my adult, female students. The majority of these women were of retirement age, but most of them were housewives. Some of my lessons were one on one, others were in groups of only women, and some had a mixture of women and men. Each week I would sit down with my students and we would often discuss what I called, “hot topics.” These topics ranged from political, cultural, social, and even historical events. One week, admittedly influenced by the

2016 election, the “hot topic” was women voting. We briefly discussed suffrage in the West, and soon moved on to women voting in Japan. While this is, of course, filtered through my own memory, many of my female students saw the achievement of women’s vote in Japan as a victory for equality. For most of them, their mothers, for the first time under U.S. occupation, voted.

I asked my students if they could recall any important Japanese feminist or suffragist figures that fought for the vote in Japan in the years before the war. While they all recognized the name Hiratsuka Raicho, the name they explicitly equated with the female vote was General

Douglas MacArthur. Obviously, these female students are not representative of all women in

Japan today. However, for them, the figurehead of female suffrage in Japan, the victor for the woman’s vote, was man and, moreover, not a Japanese citizen. I was actually quite shocked.

What about Ichikawa Fusae? Surely, she would be remembered the same way suffragist Alice

Paul is remembered in the U.S. My astonishment prompted me to search for some historical context. I discovered that, SCAP (Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers) had expelled

Fusae from political life because of her support for the Japanese government during wartime.3

While Fusae did not leave politics all together, much of her post-war activism reinforced women’s political participation; she is less known for her suffrage than her advocacy for “clean

3 Vera Mackie, Feminism in Modern Japan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 126. 145 elections” in the 1970s.4 This does not suggest that a man cannot be supportive of, or recognized for his efforts in aiding suffrage, but it does reflect the lingering paternalism in Japan today – as a male leader is revered as the model “suffragist” who achieved the female vote.

As in Japan, collective memory of suffrage has almost romanticized the victory in

Mexico as well. In Mexico, success of the vote had inspired many women to further engage in politics. Since 1953, many Mexican women have held both local and regional political positions.

Nevertheless, pre-1953 views that “women lacked political acumen” continued to emerge well into the 1990s.5 Many male politicians mocked women’s participation in politics and often referred to their constituency as “whores or lesbians.”6 While the recent political climate has continued to progress since the 1990s, what remains relevant is that contemporary rhetoric in

Mexico often equates politics with masculinity. If the vote in 1953 reinforced women’s ideal femininity (reinforcing their domesticity) then it is certainly conceivable how granting the vote reinforced complementarity while perpetuating a myth of equality.

While the venerated success of suffrage has not deterred the growth of feminism, it has constructed the story of an inclusive feminist movement and experience that many believe as truth. This is not to say that the victory of the vote was unimportant; nevertheless, we need to consider ways in which memory has altered its legitimacy. Historian Lisa Tetrault states that the story of female enfranchisement (at least in the United States) has become a “venerated and celebrated story,” which was crafted by a particular narrative of success with specific leaders at the top.7 Perhaps this is why the names of suffrage leaders Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady

4 Ibid, 127. 5 Sonia Hernandez, “Women in Mexican Politics Since 1953,” Oxford Research Encyclopedias (2018), http://oxfordre.com/latinamericanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.001.0001/acrefore- 9780199366439-e-454. 6 Ibid. 7 Lisa Tetrault, The Myth of Seneca Falls: Memory and the Women’s Suffrage Movement, 1848-1898. 146

Stanton are often ingrained in popular memory while Frances Ellen Watkins Harper or Sarah

Parker Remond are often missing, or at the very least, less explored. If we honor suffrage women that represent a specific constituency, and if we choose to, or unknowingly, forget others, then we slowly alter our knowledge of what the vote actually meant and did.

Recent articles about the disheartening victory of the vote have appeared; many of these articles have successfully shown the ways in which the suffrage movement in the United States

“sold out to white supremacy.” In an opinion piece for the New York Times, Bret Staples argues that the suffrage movement in the U.S. is a “cherished lie” of equality because it had disenfranchised African American women who were significant members of the cause. He states,

“The lie holds that the amendment ended a century-long struggle by guaranteeing women the right to vote. The truth is that it barred states from denying voting rights based on gender but

‘guaranteed’ nothing.”8 This is not only true of women of color in the United States, but this

“guarantee” of equality was often a farce in other parts of the world. This veneer of equality was also strengthened by particular women whose feminist activism reinforced the hierarchical structures of social, racial, and economic class; intersectionality was not popular to say the least.9

Today, many women are beginning to understand the importance of re-conceptualizing feminism. Nevertheless, divisions amid women still influence the way feminism is used. Some women remain conservative and espouse empowerment through idealized conventions. Others are fixed in their declarations to “smash the patriarchy.” Still, there remains a necessary effort to

8 Bret Staples, “When the Suffrage Movement Sold Out to White Supremacy,” The New York Times, February 2, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/opinion/sunday/women-voting-19th-amendment-white- supremacy.html. See also Martha Jones, “How the Daughters and Granddaughters of Former Slaves Secured Voting Rights for All,” Smithsonian.com, March 8, 2019. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how- daughters-and-granddaughters-former-slaves-secured-voting-rights-all-180971660/. 9Amanda Hess, “The Dream – and the Myth – of the ‘Women’s Vote,’” The New York Times, (2016), https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/magazine/the-dream-and-the-myth-of-the-womens-vote html. 147 include the identity politics of race and gender to practices of feminism.10 But what remains significant is that not all women look back into history and see their reflections in the celebrated suffragist women who fought, moreover who gained the vote.11 We do not always consider the ways in which suffrage, in all countries, had potential to be an appeasement of power for only a select few women who could wield that power because of their status or race. Moreover, it is not just this myth of who has the vote that matters, but also how women attained it. The achievement of the vote did not eliminate the problem if inequality. Recognizing this idea, and further examining suffrage and feminist movements, is a step toward indicating ways in which women

(all women) are still disenfranchised. This is not to focus on the shortcomings of past feminist activism, but to shift the focus on the inequality that persisted post-vote.

The history of suffrage and feminism is often reflected in our collective memories. This is especially apparent with considering the 2016 election. On November 8, 2016, American women placed their “I voted” stickers on to Susan B. Anthony’s grave as an imaginable reverence to the fact that, for the first time in U.S. history, a woman held the Democratic party’s nomination. Still, this gesture continued to propagate the myth; it romanticized not only the suffrage movement, but its leader Susan B. Anthony, who represented the success of the white female vote. The ratification of the 19th Amendment in the United States further drove a wedge between (white) women who “deserved” the vote and those who did not. For many African

American women in the United States, the celebration of the vote was nothing more than a cover-up of what remained unequal: “Thousands of torches lightened by her hand will yet blaze

10 Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color,” Martha Albertson Fineman, Rixanne Mykitiuk, eds. The Public Nature of Private Violence (New York: Routledge, 1994). 11 Amanda Hess, “The Dream – and the Myth – of the ‘Women’s Vote.’” 148 the way to freedom for women.”12 This begs for further study into the objective truth of suffrage and how it was fought and won. Perhaps if we begin to understand why and how it has been romanticized, then we can truly represent its history.

The prevailing revolutionary myth of suffrage has tended to pollute the truth behind its achievement. There may have been ways in which modern and suffragist women radically, and profoundly, asserted their feminism, but they have not always been impartial. During fights for suffrage, many women considered themselves feminists, and sometimes not all of these women politically or socially aligned in their ways to achieve equality. Imaginably, this flexibility, or that being feminist has been expressed in many ways, is indicative of how it was often appropriated to uphold the very thing it sought to destroy: inequality. Such potential does not demean feminist legacies or fights against oppression as futile; rather, it suggests recognition in the adaptability of the power of patriarchy. Perhaps if we begin to question the mythic memories of feminist victories, then we can begin adapt the way we are feminist as well.13

I would like to say to the men and women of the generations which will come after us: you will look back at us with astonishment. You will wonder at passionate struggles that accomplished so little, at the, to you, obvious paths to attain our ends which we did not take. At the intolerable evils before which it will seem to you we sat down passive. At the great truths staring us in the face which we failed to see, at the great truths we grasped at but could not get our fingers quite 'round. You will marvel at the labour that ended in so little. But what you will never know that it was how we were thinking of you and for you that we struggled as we did and accomplished the little that we have done. That it was in the thought of your larger realization and fuller life that we have found consolation for the futilities of our own. All I aspire to be and was not, comforts me.14 Olive Schreiner – Women and Labor

12 As quoted in Bret Staples, “When the Suffrage Movement Sold Out to White Supremacy,” The New York Times, February 2, 2019. 13 Ashleigh Harris, “From Suffragist to Apologist: The Loss of Feminist Politics and Politically Correct Patriarchy,” Journal of International Women’s Studies 4 (2003): 98. 14 Olive Schreiner, Women and Labor (1911) (London: Virago Press, 1978), xvii. BIBLIOGRAPHY

PRIMARY SOURCES

Anthony, Susan B. and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. “The Kansas Campaign, 1867” in The Complete History of Women’s Suffrage: All 6 Volumes in One Addition. Musaicum Books, 2017.

Arinori, Mori. Meiroku zasshi. no. 32 (1875). Translated by Ivan Parker Hall in Mori Arinori. Cambride, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1973.

“Bondwomen.” The Freewoman. Vol. 1, No. 1 November 23, 1911. The Modernist Journal’s Project. Brown University and The University of Tulsa. https://library.brown.edu/pdfs/ 1300808039203129.pdf.

Clement, Ernest W. “The New Woman in Japan.” American Journal of Sociology 8, no. 5 (1903): 693-698.

Cobb, Frances Power. “What Shall We Do With Our Old Maids?” in Essays on the Pursuits of Women. London: Emily Faithful, 1863.

Ekiken, Kaibara. “Onna Daigaku (The Greater Learning for Women).” Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. Women in World History: Primary Sources. Accessed 15 October 2018, http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/p/84.html.

Fusae, Ichikawa. “Jikyoku ni taishite.” Josei Tenbou. September 1937. Vera Mackie, Feminism in Japan: Citizenship, Embodiment, and Sexuality. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Galindo, Hermila. La doctrina Carranza y el acercamiento indo-latino. Mexico MCMXIX, 1919. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/ladoctrinacarran00gali/page/n9.

Galindo, Hermila. “Words to the Second Feminist Congress of Yucatan.” November 1916. Text provided by Eulalia Eligio González. Ideas feministas de Nuestra America. The National Library of Mexico. Retrieved from https://ideasfem.wordpress.com/textos/f/f14/#_ftn1

García, Genaro. Apuntes sobre la condicion de la mujer. Mexico, 1891. http://cdigital.dgb.uanl.mx/la/1080013519/ 1080013519.PDF

Geneva Daily Times. “Progress of the Fair Sex: Mme. Hatoyama Tells of Conditions in Japan.” 25 November 1901. Rochester Regional Library Council. http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn84035773/1901-11-25/ed-1/seq-2.pdf

Grand, Sarah. “The New Aspect of the Woman Question.” The North American Review 158, no. 448 (1894): 660-666.

Gutierrez, Rita Cetina. “A nuestro sexo,” La Siempreviva. Número 1. Mérida, Yucatán. 7 de mayo de 1870. Translated by Piedad Peniche Rivero in Rita Cetina, La Siempreviva y el Instituto Literario de Nias: una cuna del feminismo mexicano 1846-1908: Orígenes de la educacin femenina en Yucatán. Mexico: INEHRM, 2015.

H.G. Wells, Ann Veronica, (1909). House of Status: 2002.

Hideko, Fukuda. “The Solution to the Woman Question.” Seito 3.2. February 1913.

Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll’s House, translated by William Archer. Boston: Walter H. Baker & CO. 1890.

Kiyoshi, Kobayakawa. “Tipsy” no. 1, Women’s Manners of Today. February 1930. Honolulu Museum of Art.

La Mujer Moderna, No. 62 February 4, 1917. La Voz de la Revolucin. Mérida, Yucatán, (November 25, 1916): 5-24 in Rosa Maria Valles Ruiz. “Segundo Congreso Feminista en México: una historia olvidada.” Accessed 12 January 2019. https://www.academia.edu/3758278/SEGUNDO_CONGRESO_FEMINISTA_EN_M%C 3%89XICO_UNA_HISTORIA_OLVIDADA

Leech, John. Punch. (1853). Accessed 9 December 2018. https://punch.photoshelter.com/image/I0000WRT9bYDKRWc.

Maurier, George du. Punch. (1874). Accessed 9 December 2018. https://punch.photoshelter.com/image/I0000snpOODwY0fY.

“Mexican Rebels Have a Girl Leader,” Washington Herald, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mexican Revolution newspaper clippings archive 1911-1913. Hispanic Division, Library of Congress, Washington D.C.

Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty. London: Longman, Roberts & Green. 1869.

Mill, John Stuart. The Subjection of Women. London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1869.

Morse, Edward Sylvester. Japan Day by Day 187, 1878-79, 1882-83, Volume I. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1917.

Motoi, Fukamauchi. “Miru danjo dōken ron” (1878) in The Emergence of the Modern Sino- Japanese Lexicon. Translated by Joshua A. Fogal. Boston: Brill, 2015.

Noe, Ito. “Shinshin: Nogami Yae-Sama e.” (Private Message to Ms. Nogami Yae). Seito 5.6 (June 1915): 75 in Jan Bardsely, The Bluestockings of Japan: New Woman Essays and Fiction from Seito, 1911-16. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan, Center for Japanese Studies, 2007.

Noe, Ito. “The Path of the New Woman.” Seto 3.1. 1913.

Ouida. “The New Woman.” (1894). The North American Review 272, no. 3 (1987): 61-65.

Pankhurst, Emmeline. “My Own Story.” London: 1914. Accessed 20 November 2018. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34856/34856-h/34856-h.htm.

Parliamentary Archives GB-06. “Appendix to the Report of the House of Commons Select Committee of Public Petitions.” HC/CL/JO/6/416 (1866). Parliamentary Archives. Living Heritage Women and the Vote: Collections Signature of the 1866 Petition. https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/ womenvote/parliamentary-collections/ 1866-suffrage-petition/collecting-the-signatures/.

Raicho, Hiratsuka. “In the Beginning Woman Was the Sun.” Seito Manifesto, Seito 1.1 (September 1911) in Jan Bardsley, The Bluestockings of Japan: New Woman Essays and Fiction from Seito, 1911-16. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan, Center for Japanese Studies, 2007.

Raicho, Hiratsuka. In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun: The Autobiography of a Japanese Feminist. Translated by Teruko Craig. New York: Colombia University Press, 2006.

Robles de Mendoza Margarita to Sr. General Don Plutarco Elias Calles, March 6, 1932, in Sarah A. Buck. “The Meaning of the Women’s Vote in Mexico, 1917-1953.” The Women’s Revolution in Mexico, 1910-1953.” Edited by Patience A. Schell and Stephanie Mitchell New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, INC, 2007.

Schreiner, Olive. Women and Labor (1911). London: Virago Press, 1978.

Shimokawa, Hekoten. “Walking Through Ginza.” Tokyo Puck, Vol. 18, No. 1 (January 1929). University of Delaware History Department. Pop Culture in Urban Japan. Accessed January 26, 2019. http://www1.udel.edu/History-old/figal/Hist372/Text/ps4-10.html

Shiroshi, Sakatani. “Pivitol Times of Change.” Meiroku zasshi 38. (1 May 1875). Accessed 15 October 2018.

Starchey, John Loe. “A Poisonous Book.” Spectator. (November 20, 1909) in H. G. Wells: The Critical Heritage. Edited by Patrick Parrinder. London: Routledge, 1972.

Sugako, Kanno. “Reflections on the Way to the Gallows,” January 18, 1911. Translated by Mikaso Hane, Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan. University of California Press and Pantheon Books, 1988. . Swiney, Frances. The Bar of Isis. The Law of the Mother. Open Road Publishing Co., 1907. https://archive.org/details/barofisisorlawof00swin/page/n4.

The Diary of Beatrice Webb. (1905-24). 4 vols, edited by Norman and Jeanne Mackenzie. London: Virago; London School of Economics and Political Sciences, 1984.

Webb, Beatrice. “Poor, Weak Woman.” Edited by Juliet Gardiner in Women’s Voices 1880­ 1918: The New Woman. Collins and Brown: Great Britain, 1993.

West, Rebecca. (1913). The Young Rebecca West: Writings of Rebecca West, 1911-1917. Edited by Jane Marcus. London: Macmillan Press, 1982.

Woolf, Virginia. “Professions for Women.” The Death of the Moth and Other Essays. 27 March 2016, Accessed 15 October 2018, https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/w91d/ chapter27.html.

Wright de Kleinhans, Laureana. “La Educacion.” Translated by Cristina D. Ramírez. “Forging a Mestiza Rhetoric: Mexican Women Journalists' Role in the Construction of a National Identity.” College English 71, no. 6 (July 2009): 606-629.

Yukichi, Fukuzawa. “Critique of Greater Learning for Women.” Translated by Eiichi Kiyooka in Fukuzawa Yukichi on Japanese Women. Japan: University of Tokyo Press, 1988.

Yukichi, Fukuzawa. “Nihon Fujinron” in Juji Shinpo. (1885). http://iiif.lib.keio.ac.jp/FKZ/F7- A41/pdf/F7-A41.pdf.

Yukichi, Fukuzawa. “On Japanese Women.” Edited and translated by Eiichi Kiyooka in The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa (1899). Japan: University of Tokyo Press, 1988.

Yukichi, Fukuzawa. “The New Greater Learning for Women.” Translated by Eiichi Kiyooka in Fukuzawa Yukichi on Japanese Women. Japan: University of Tokyo Press, 1988.

SECONDARY SOURCES

Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso, 1991.

Anderson, Marnie S. A Place in Public: Women’s Rights in Meiji Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2010.

Andreadis, Harriet. “The Sapphic-Platonics of Katherine Philips, 1632-1664.” Signs. 15 (1989): 34-60.

Ardis, Ann L. New Women, New Novels: Feminism and Early Modernism. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press 1990.

Arnstein, Walter L. Britain Yesterday and Today: 1830 to the Present. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001.

Asano Tamanoi, Mariko. Under the Shadow of Nationalism: Politics and Poetics of Rural Japanese Women. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1998.

Arrom, Silvia. “Teaching the History of Hispanic-American Women.” The History Teacher 13, no 4 (1980).

Arrom, Silvia. Mexican Women: Historical Perspectives. Brandeis University: Women’s Studies Program, 1993.

Bardsley, Jan. The Bluestockings of Japan: New Woman Essays and Fiction from Seito, 1911-16. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan, Center for Japanese Studies, 2007.

Barragan, Elisa Garcia and Clementina Diaz y de Ovando. La Escuela Nacional Preparatoria: Los Afanes y Los Dias 1867-1910. Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 2006.

Beezley William H. and Collin M. Maclachlan, Chapter Title “Reflection and Contested Suffrage.” Mexicans in Revolution, 1910-1946: An Introduction. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2009.

Beisel, Nicola and Tamara Kay. “Abortion, Race, and Gender in Nineteenth-Century America.” American Sociological Review 69, no. 4 (2004): 498-518.

Bernstein, Gail Lee editor. Recreating Japanese Women, 1600-1945. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

Bill, Katina. “Attitudes Towards Women’s Trousers: Britain in the 1930s.” Journal of Design History 6, no. 1 (1993): 45-54.

Bill, Katherine Elaine. Compromised Positions: Prostitution, Public Health, and Gender Politics in Revolutionary Mexico City. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001.

Blacker, Carmen. The Japanese Enlightenment: A Study of Writings of Fukuzawa Yukichi.” London: Cambridge University Press, 1969.

Bohata, Kristi. “‘For Wales, See England? Suffrage and the New Woman in Wales.” Women’s History Review 11, no. 4 (2006): 643-656.

Botting, Eileen Hunt. “Human Stories: Wollstonecraft, Mill, and the Literature of Human Rights.” Wollstonecraft, Mill, and Women’s Human Rights. Yale University press, 2016.

Bowen Raddeker, Helen. Treacherous Women of Imperial Japan: Patriarchal Fictions Patricidal Fantasies. Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies, 1997.

Boydston, Jeanne. “Gender as a Question of Historical Analysis.” Gender and History 20, no. 3 (2008): 558-583.

Boylan, Kristina A. “Gendering the Faith and Altering the Nation: Mexican Catholic Women’s Activism, 1917-1940.” in Sex In Revolution: Gender, Politics, and Power in Modern Mexico. Edited by Jocelyn Olcott, Mary Kay Vaughan, and Gabriella Cano. London: Duke University Press, 2006.

Brookes, Barbara. Abortion in England, 1900-1967. New York: Routledge, 1988.

Buck. Sarah A. “The Meaning of the Women’s Vote in Mexico, 1917-1953.” The Women’s Revolution in Mexico, 1910-1953.” Edited by Patience A. Schell and Stephanie Mitchell. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, INC, 2007.

Buntrock, Dana. “Without Modernity: Japan’s Challenging Modernization.” University of Illinois at Chicago 5, no. 3 (1996): 1-5.

Butler, Judith. “Further Reflections on Conversations of Our Time.” Diacritics 27, no. 1 (1997): 13-15.

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1999.

Cano, Gabriela. “Unconcealable Realities of Desire: Amelio Robles’s (Transgender) Masculinity in the Mexican Revolution.” Sex in Revolution: Gender, Politics, and Power in Modern Mexico. Edited by Jocelyn Olcott, Mary Kay Vaughan, and Gabriela Cano. Durham: Duke University Press, 2006.

Chakrabarty, Dipesh. Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference.. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.

Cleves, Rachel Hope. Charity and Sylvia: Same-Sex Marriage in Early America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Confino, Alon. Germany as a Culture of Remembrance: Promises and Limits of Writing History. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006.

Craske, Nikki. “Ambiguities and Ambivalences in Making the Nation: Women and Politics in 20th Century Mexico.” Feminist Review. (2005), 116-131.

Crenshaw, Kimberlé Williams. “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color.” Edited by Martha Albertson Fineman, Rixanne Mykitiuk. The Public Nature of Private Violence. New York: Routledge, 1994.

Cunningham, Gail. “‘He-Notes’: Reconstructing Masculinity.” Edited by Chris Willis and Angelique Richardson. The New Woman in Fiction and in Fact: Fin De Siècle Feminisms. London: Palgrave, 2001.

Davis, Rebecca L. “‘Not Marriage at All, but Simple Harlotry’: The Companionate Marriage Controversy.” The Journal of American History 94, no. 4 (2008): 1137-1163.

Delap, Lucy. “‘Philosophical Vacuity and Political Ineptitude’: The Freewoman’s critique of the Suffrage Movement.” Women’s History Review 11, no. 4 (2006): 613-630.

Dower, John W. Ways of Forgetting, Ways of Remembering: Japan in the Modern World. New York: The New Press, 2012.

Episale, Frank. “Gender, Tradition, and Culture in Translation: Reading the ‘Onnagata’ in English.” Asian Theatre Journal 29, no. 1 (2012): 97-98.

Escobedo, Elizabeth. From Coveralls to Zoot Suits: The Lives of Mexican American Women on the World War II Home Front. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2013.

Fowler-Salamini Heather and Mary Kay Vaughan eds., Women of the Mexican Countryside, 1850-1990: Creating Spaces, Shaping Transition. Arizona: University of Arizona Press, 1994.

French, John. “Women in Postrevolutionary Mexico: The Emergence of a New Feminist Political History.” University of Miami (2008).

French, Katherine L. and Allyson M. Poska editors. Women and Gender in the Western Past. Volume Two: Since 1500. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007.

Fujuwara, Ryoichi. “‘Japanese Intellectuals’ Perceptions of Gender Issues and the Utilization of Western Knowledge in the 1870s.” Asian Thought and Society 19 (1994).

Gardiner, Juliet editor. Women’s Voices 1880-1918: The New Woman. London: Collins and Brown, 1993.

Garon, Sheldon. Molding Japanese Minds: The State in Everyday Life. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.

Garon, Sheldon. “Rethinking Modernization and Modernity in Japanese History: A Focus on State-Society Relations.” The Journal of Asian Studies 53, no. 2 (1994): 346-366.

González, Vid. R. Derecho eclesiástico mexicano (Mexican Ecclesiastical Law). J. G. Navarro (coord.). “Estado, Derecho y Religión en América Latina” (“State, Law and Religion in Latin America”). Marcial Madrid, 2009. Alberto Patino Reyes “Religion and the Secular State in Mexico,” https://www.iclrs.org/content/blurb/files/Mexico.pdf.

Gordon, Andrew. A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Hall, Ivan Parker. Mori Arinori. Cambride, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1973.

Hane, Mikaso. Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan (University of California Press and Pantheon Books, 1988).

Harrell, Paula. “The Meiji ‘New Woman’ and China.” In Late Qing China and Meiji Japan: Political and Cultural Aspects. Edited by Joshua A. Fogel. Connecticut: EastBridge, 2004).

Harris, Ashleigh. “From Suffragist to Apologist: The Loss of Feminist Politics and Politically Correct Patriarchy.” Journal of International Women’s Studies 4 (2003).

Hasegawa, Seiichi. “‘Saisho-ron’: Divorce on Wives and Mistresses By Mori Arinori.” Lifelong Education and Libraries 1. Accessed 12 September 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/2433/43583.

Hastings, Sally Ann. “A Dinner Part.y is Not a Revolution: Space, Gender, and Hierarchy in Meiji Japan.” U.S. –Japan Women’s Journal 18 (2000): 107-132.

Havens, Thomas R. H. “Women and War in Japan, 1937-45.” The American Historical Review 80, no. 4 (1975): 913-934.

Hernandez, Sonia. “Women in Mexican Politics Since 1953.” Oxford Research Encyclopedias (2018). http://oxfordre.com/latinamericanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/ 9780199366439.001.0001/acrefore-9780199366439-e-454.

Herr, Ranjoo Seodu. “The Possibility of Nationalist Feminism.” Hypatia 18, no. 3 (2003): 135- 160.

Hershfiel, Joanne. Imagining la Chica Moderna: Women, Nation, and Visual Culture in Mexico, 1917-1936. London: Duke University Press, 2008.

Hess, Amanda. “The Dream – and the Myth – of the ‘Women’s Vote.’” The New York Times. (2016) https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/magazine/the-dream-and-the-myth-of-the- womens-vote.html.

Huska, Melanie. “Sex Education Battleground in Mexico.” Latin American Sexualities. Notches (2016). http://notchesblog.com/2016/10/27/battleground-sex-education-a-struggle-for- moral-jurisdiction-in-mexico/.

Jiménez, Rosa María González. “The Normal School for Women and Liberal Feminism in Mexico City, Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century.” Resources for Feminist Research 34, no. 1 (2012): 33-55. Jones, Martha. “How the Daughters and Granddaughters of Former Slaves Secured Voting Rights for All.” Smithsonian.com, March 8, 2019. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/ smithsonian-institution/how-daughters-and-granddaughters-former-slaves-secured- voting-rights-all-180971660/.

Juster, Susan. Disorderly Women: Sexual Politics & Evangelicalism in Revolutionary New England. London: Cornell University Press, 1994.

Karlin, Jason G. “Competing Masculinities in Meiji Japan.” Gender and Nation in Meiji Japan: Modernity, Loss, and the Doing of History. Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 2014.

Kelley, Mary. Private Woman, Public Stage: Literary Domesticity in Nineteenth Century America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.

Kelly, Joan. Women, History, and Theory: The Essays of Joan Kelly. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1984.

Kennard, Jean E. “Lesbianism and the Censoring of ‘Wuthering Heights’.” NWSA Journal 8, no. 2 (1996): 31-32.

Kerber, Linda. No Constitutional Rights to be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship. New York: Hill and Wang, 1999.

Kerber, Linda. “Separate Spheres, Female Worlds, Woman’s Place: The Rhetoric of Women’s History.” The Journal of American History 75, no. 1 (1988): 9-39.

LeGates, Marlene. In Their Time: A History of Feminism in Western Society. New York: Routledge, 2001.

LaGreca, Nancy. Rewriting Womanhood: Feminism, Subjectivity, and the Angel of the House in the Latin American Novel, 1887-1903. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2009.

Lerner, Gerda. The Creation of a Feminist Consciousness: From the Middle Ages to Eighteen- Seventy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Levine Philippa. The British Empire: Sunrise to Sunset. England: Pearson, 2007.

Lewis, Jane. “Intimate Relations between Men and Women: The Case of H. G. Wells and Amber Pember Reeves.” History Workshop. 37 (1994).

Lock, Margaret. “Restoring Order to the House of Japan.” The Wilson Quarterly 14, no. 4 (1990).

Lowy, Dina. “Nora and the ‘New Woman’: Visions of Gender and Modernity in Early Twentieth Century Japan.” U.S. – Japan Women’s Journal, no. 26 (2004): 75-97.

Lowy, Dina. The Japanese “New Woman”: Images of Gender and Modernity. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2007.

Macias, Anna. Against All Odds: The Feminist Movement in Mexico to 1940. England: Greenwood Press, 1982.

Macias, Anna. “Women and the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920.” The Americas. 37, no. 1 (1980): 53-82.

Mack, Phyllis. Visionary Women: Ecstatic Prophecy in Seventeenth-Century England. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.

Mackie, Vera. Feminism in Modern Japan: Citizenship, Embodiment, and Sexuality. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Mahmood, Saba. “Feminism Democracy, and Empire: Islam and the War on Terror.” Chapter 8 Gendering Religion and Politics: Untangling Modernities. Edited by Hana Herzog and Ann Braude. Harvard Divinity School: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Mahmood, Saba. “Retooling Democracy and Feminism in the Service of New Empire.” Qui Parle 16, no. 1 (2006): 117-143.

Malveaux, Julianne. “The Pernicious Power of Patriarchy.” The Philadelphia Tribune. September 30, 2018. Accessed March 23, 2019. https://www.phillytrib.com/commentary/the-pernicious-power-of- patriarchy/article_49b88616-18cd-5d4b-99fc-6e2866f9db11.html

Marcus, Sharon. Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.

Martín Orozco, Marita. “La Mujer Mexicana (1904 a 1906), una revista de época,” no. 33 (2005): 68-87.

Mayo, Edith P. “Creating a Female Political Culture.” National Women’s History Museum. Smithsonian Institute (January 1, 2017). https://www.womenshistory.org/exhibits/creating-female-political-culture.

McDonagh, Eileen L. and H. Douglas Price. “Women Suffrage in the Progressive Era: Patterns of Oppositions and Support in Referenda Voting, 1910-1918. The American Political Science Review 79, no. 2 (1985): 415-435.

McLain, James L. “Mr. Ito’s Dance Party” Historian 5 (1987): 154-160.

Merritt, Helen. Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: The Early Years. Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 1994.

Miller, Joe C. “Never a Fight of Woman Against Man: What Textbooks Don’t Say About Women’s Suffrage.” The History Teacher 48, no. 3 (2018): 437-482.

Miyake, Yoshiko. “Doubling Expectations: Motherhood and Women’s Factory Work Under State Management in Japan in the 1930s and 1940s.” Recreating Japanese Women, 1600­ 1945, Edited by Gail Lee Bernstein. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

Murphy, Patricia. “Reevaluating Female ‘Inferiority’: Sarah Grand Versus Charles Darwin.” Victorian Literature and Culture 26, no. 2 (1998): 221-236.

Nelson, Heather Lea. “The Law and the Lady: Consent and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century British Literature.” Purdue University. Open access dissertations (2015).

Nord, Deborah Epstein. The Apprenticeship of Beatrice Webb. New York: Cornell University Press, 1985.

Noguez, Oliva Noguez. “Hermila Galindo y ‘La mujer moderna’ (1915-1916). Abriendo espacios: entre la domesticidad y los derechos por la igualdad.” Historia 2.0. 2, no. 4 (2012): 60-78.

Noriko, Sugano. “Kishida Toshiko and the Career of a Public-Speaking Woman in Meiji Japan.” The Female as Subject: Reading and Writing in Early Modern Japan. University of Michigan Press, U of M Center for Japanese Studies, 2010.

Notle, Sharon H. and Sally Ann Hastings. “The Meiji State’s Policy Toward Women, 1890- 1910.” Recreating Japanese Women, 1600-1945. Edited by Gail Lee Bernstein. Berkeley: University California Press, 1991.

Olcott, Jocelyn H. and Mary Kay Vaughan eds. Sex in Revolution: Gender, Politics, and Power in Modern Mexico. Duke University Press, 2006.

Ono, Sokyo. Shinto: The Kami Way. Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing, 1962.

Pablos, Julia Tuñón. Women in Mexico: A Past Unveiled. Translated by Alan Hynds. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999.

Patessio, Mara. “The Creation of Public Spaces by Women in the Early Meiji Period and the Tokyo Fujin Kyofukai.” International Journal of Asian Studies. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, (2006): 155-182.

Prezworski, Adam. “Conquered or Granted? A History of Suffrage Extensions.” The British Journal of Political Science 39, no. 2 (2009): 291-321.

Purvis, June. Emmeline Pankhurst: A Biography. London: Routledge, 2002.

Purvis, June. Women’s History: Britain, 1850-1945. New York: University of Portsmouth, 1995.

Racel, Masako. “Shimoda Utako’s Ryosai Kenbo: A Patriotic Japanese Women’s View of the West.” Southeast Review of Asian Studies 39 (2017): 30-47.

Radway’s, Janice. Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1984.

Ramírez, Cristina D. “Forging a Mestiza Rhetoric: Mexican Women Journalists' Role in the Construction of a National Identity.” College English 71, no. 6 (July 2009): 606-629.

Rankin, Monica. “Mexicanas en guerra: World War II and the Discourse of Mexican Female Identity.” Journal of Women’s Studies 32, no. 2 (2011): 83-110.

Ray, Gordon N. H.G. Wells and Rebecca West. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974.

Rivero, Piedad Peniche. Rita Cetina, La Siempreviva y el Instituto Literario de Nias: una cuna del feminismo mexicano 1846-1908: Orígenes de la educacin femenina en Yucatán. Mexico: INEHRM, 2015.

Rodd, Laurel Rasplica. “Yosano Akiki and the Taisho Debate over the ‘New Woman’.” Recreating Japanese Women, 1600-1945. Edited by Gail Lee Bernstein. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

Rodenas, Adriana Mendez. Transatlantic Travel in Nineteenth-Century Latin America: European Women Pilgrims. Pennsylvania: Bucknell University Press, 2013.

Ruiz-Alfaro, Sofia. “A Threat to the Nation: "México marimacho" and Female Masculinities in Postrevolutionary Mexico.” Hispanic Review 81, no. 1 (2013): 41-62.

Rupp, Leila J. “Feminism and the Sexual Revolution in the Early Twentieth Century: The Case of Doris Stevens.” Feminist Studies 15, no. 2 (1989): 289-309.

Ryuichi, Narita. “Women in the Motherland: Oku Mumeo through Wartime and Postwar.” Total War and ‘Modernization’. Edited by J. Victor Koschmann (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998).

Sato, Barbara. The New Japanese Woman: Modernity, Media, and Women in Interwar Japan. Durham: Duke University Press, 2003.

Schaffer, Talia. “‘Nothing but Foolscap and Ink:’ Inventing the New Woman.” Edited by Angelique Richardson and Chris Willis in The New Woman Fiction and Fact: Fin de Siècle Feminisms. United Kingdom: Pelgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Scott, Joan. “Deconstructing Equality-Versus-Difference: Or, the Uses of Poststructuralist Theory for Feminism.” Feminist Studies 14, no. 1 (1988): 32-50.

Scott, Joan. Gender and the Politics of History. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.

Scott, Joan. “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis.” The American Historical Review, Vol. 91, No. 5 (1986): 1053-1075.

Serna, Laura Isabell. Making Cinlandia: American Films and Mexican Film Culture Before the Golden Age. Durham: Duke University Press, 2014.

Seymour-Jones, Carole. Beatrice Webb: A Life. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1992.

Sievers, Sharon. Flowers in Salt: The Beginnings of Feminist Consciousness in Modern Japan. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1983.

Silverberg, Miriam. “After the Grand Tour: The Modern Girl, the New Woman, and the Colonial Maiden.” The Modern Girl Around the World: Consumption, Modernity, and Globalization. Edited by Alys Eve Weinbaum, Lynn M. Thomas, et al. Durham: Duke University Press, 2008.

Silverberg, Miriam. “The Modern Girl as Militant.” Recreating Japanese Women, 1600-1945. Edited by Gail Lee Bernstein. Berkeley: University of California, Press, 1991.

Sinha, Mrinalini. “Refashioning Mother India: Feminism and Nationalism in Late-Colonial India.” Feminist Studies 26, no. 3 (2000): 623-644.

Sinha, Mrinalini. Specters of Mother India: The Global Restructuring of an Empire. Durham: Duke University Press, 2006.

Smith-Rosenberg, Carroll. "The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relationships Between Women in Nineteenth Century America.” Signs 1, no. 1 (1975): 1-29.

Soto, Shrilene Ann. Emergence of the Modern Mexican Woman: Her Participation in Revolution and Struggle for Equality, 1910-1940. Denver: Arden Press, Inc., 1990.

Staples, Bret. “When the Suffrage Movement Sold Out to White Supremacy.” The New York Times. February 2, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/opinion/sunday/women- voting-19th-amendment-white-supremacy.html.

Stubbs, Patricia. Women and Fiction Feminism and the Novel 1880-1920. London: Methuen, 1981.

Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. “Intertwined Histories: Cronica and Tarikh in the Sixteenth -Century Indian Ocean World.” History and Theory, Theme Issue 49 (2010): 118-145.

Swanson, Christine. “Forward,” Modern Japanese Prints. Toledo: Toledo Museum of Modern Art, 1997.

Tetrault, Lisa. The Myth of Seneca Falls: Memory and the Women’s Suffrage Movement, 1848­ 1898. North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 2014.

Threlkeld, Megan. Pan American Women: U.S. Internationalists and Revolutionary Mexico. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014.

Towns, Ann. “The Inter-American Commission of Women and Women's Suffrage, 1920—1945.” Journal of Latin American Studies 2, no. 4, (2010): 779-807.

Towns, Ann. “The Status of Women as a Standard of ‘Civilization,’” European Journal of International Relations 15, no. 4 (2009): 681-706.

Tusan, Michelle Elizabeth. “Inventing the New Woman: Print Culture and Identity Politics during the Fin-de-Siecle.” Victorian Periodicals Review 31, no. 2 (1998): 168-182.

Valles Ruiz, Rosa María. “Hermila Galindo. Un Caso Feminismo Ilustrado en Los Abores Sel Siglo XX.” Revista de Historia de América, no. 142 (2010): 37-55. van Wingerden, Sophia A. The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain, 1866-1928. London: Macmillan Press, LTD, 1999.

Vellacott, Jo. “Feminist Consciousness and the First World War.” History Workshop, no. 23 (1987).

Vickery, Amanda. ”Golden Age to Separate Spheres? A Review of the Categories and Chronology of English Women’s History.” The Historical Journal 36, no. 2 (1993): 383- 414.

Ward, Margaret. “‘Suffrage First, Above All Else!’ An Account of the Irish Suffrage Movement.” Feminist Review no. 10 (1982): 21-36.

Weinbaum, Alys Eve, Lynn M. Thomas, et. al eds. The Modern Girl Around the World: Consumption, Modernity, and Globalization. Durham: Duke University Press, 2008.

Welter, Barbara. “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860.” American Quarterly 18, no. 2 (1966): 151-174.

Young, Louise. “Imagined Empire: The Cultural Construction of Manchukuo.” Chapter 3. Japan’s Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998.

Young, Julia G. “The Calles Government and Catholic Dissidents: Mexico's Transnational Projects of Repression, 1926–1929.” The Americas 70, no. 1 (2013): 63-91.