dressreform

Henrietta Rodman was a feminist and teacher in New York City, vice president of the League for the Civic Service of Women, who protested the ban on married women teachers by marrying a friend in 1914, SOLELY to challenge the law (her husband's girlfriend was cool with this plan). Friend Floyd Dell noted wryly, “she couldn’t even do so conventional a thing as get married, without creating a terrific sensation.” She was suspended for more than a year. The clothing above was typical of her dress-reform style -- heavy sack-like tunics and boots (linen sacks and sandals in the summertime). Sources on Henrietta Rodman include: Julie C. Laible, “Henrietta Rodman and Other Modern Feminists: Redefining the New Professional Teacher,” Journal of the Midwest History of Education Society 22(1995): 229-239; June Sochen, “Henrietta Rodman and the Feminist Alliance, 1914-1917,” Journal of Popular Culture 4(1)(Summer 1970): 57-65.

Thanks, pennylrichardsca, for the information and sources. 1914 seems to have been a big year for challenging the status quo in the New York City school system, given the information you and swanq also supplied about Mrs. Lora Wagner ( flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/6358159445 ).

Indeed! I ran into Henrietta Rodman in an earlier project on the married-women-teachers ban, so I was excited to see her come up, and it was easy to find my old sources on her to share here. She's quite a character, plenty of news stories about her doings. And she knew a lot of the 1910s bohemian set in Greenwich Village, so she turns up on the margins of a lot of biographies and memoirs covering that era. If I get a chance, I'll gin up a wikipedia entry for her soon.

American journalist, travel writer, lecturer: books.google.com/books?id=eloEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA49&d... This outfit seems to be an example of "Bifurcated Harleys," a trouser suit that Harley was promoting during WWI: query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00C11F63A5C1B728... books.google.com/books?id=nVoEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA44&o... "Skirts are a disgrace to our intelligence, a badge of inferiority. ... My costume consists of two pieces, an upper garment and a bifurcated lower garment which I always designate by the name harleys. The upper garment is always worn over the harleys and fitted at the shouders, falls in graceful and natural lines to a point between the hips and knees and does not define a waistline. The harleys fitting easy around the waist and about the hips, slightly taper to the ankles, and cover each leg separately. The corset is absolutely eliminated. Ridges and rigidity would spoil the whole thing."

Deze zit dubbel in de photostream.

Congrats on Explore! ⭐ March 24, 2021

✨🌟★❤✯♥♡✨ Very beautiful ✨♡♥✯❤★🌟✨

Nice

This is a wonderful photo. VERY few women were admitted to Med School or Grad School by this time. What a shame. Think about how many brainy women were kept at home, barefoot and pregnant.

Chicago physician Rosalie M. Ladova (check spelling), arrested in the July 1913 for refusing to swim in a skirted bathing costume. "Dr. Ladova is an expert swimmer and is accustomed to wear a heavy two-piece bathing suit with full bloomers. This morning, feeling hampered by the skirt, she laid it at the water's edge and swam out into the lake. She was followed by one of the life guards, who told her to put on the skirt or submit to arrest.... 'Men have absolutely no right to go around with their limbs bare and compel women to wear cumbersome suits,' she said. 'The system is wrong. Men and women should bathe separately, and women should not be persecuted when they dress as comfortably as men do.'" Apparently the judge dismissed the charge of disorderly conduct, ruling her outfit not indecent.

Here she is again:

LOC --- Your title should read "Ladova," not Ladoya.

pennylrichardsca: Thank you for providing Dr. Ladoya's full name and the details of such an interesting story! As you said, the charges were dropped and Judge Gemmill, who heard the case, stated in his ruling: "Dr. Ladova's suit was quite modest. No one but a prude could object to it." Source We will update the record with her full name.