New Women of the Old Faith: Gender and American Catholicism in the Progressive Era

American Catholic women rarely surface as protagonists in histories of the United States. Offering a new perspective, Kathleen Sprows Cummings places Catholic women at the forefront of two defining developments of the Progressive Era: the emergence of the "New Woman" and Catholics' struggle to define their place in American culture. Cummings highlights four women: Chicago-based journalist Margaret Buchanan Sullivan; Sister Julia McGroarty, SND, founder of Trinity College in Washington, D.C., one of the first Catholic women's colleges; Philadelphia educator Sister Assisium McEvoy, SSJ; and Katherine Eleanor Conway, a Boston editor, public figure, and antisuffragist. Cummings uses each woman's story to explore how debates over Catholic identity were intertwined with the renegotiation of American gender roles.

Author: Kathleen Sprows Cummings
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Published: 08/30/2010
Pages: 296
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.00w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9780807871522

About the Author
Cummings, Kathleen Sprows: - Kathleen Sprows Cummings is assistant professor of American studies and associate director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame.