Women in Pants: Manly Maidens, Cowgirls, and Other Renegades [Hardcover]

Catherine Smith (Author), Cynthia Greig (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2003

Despite what most people may think, American women have always worn pants. Featuring an unusual collection of vintage photographs from the 1850s to the 1920s, Women in Pants documents an almost forgotten revolution in clothing. Defying convention, Victorian dress reformers as well as farmers, laborers, miners, cowgirls, and sportswomen openly wore trousers, while other women disguised themselves in men's attire to get good jobs, go to combat, engage in relationships with other women, or experiment with gender identity.

Candid, often humorous quotes from contemporary newspapers and magazines complement the photographs and enhance our understanding of the culture and time in which these women lived. For some, wearing pants was a necessity; for others, it was an act of defiance; for still others, it was just fun.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Catherine Smith is an artist, curator, and an Associate Professor of Art at Mott Community College in Flint, Michigan. She lives in Fenton, Michigan. Cynthia Greig is a fine-art photographer and independent curator. She lives in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 184 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; First edition. edition (March 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810945711
• ISBN-13: 978-0810945715
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 7.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #603,080 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating, must-read for all, November 9, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Women in Pants: Manly Maidens, Cowgirls, and Other Renegades (Hardcover)

Women in Pants is a wonderfully illustrated book chronicling the almost forgotten history of women who not only had the audacious pluck to dress like men but who demanded the same rights, freedoms and jobs as men during a time when society made sure women had few opportunities outside the home. The book is well written and amply illustrated with many beautiful reproductions of vintage photos showing not only notable 19th-century "bloomerites," cowgirls and cross-dressing actresses, but female farmers, soldiers, miners, lumberjacks and mountain climbers! Not to mention the amusing photos of school girls dressed up in tuxedos and top hats for a school play or to attend an all-girl dance where sometimes a same sex romance blossomed. This amazing book offers compelling proof that there were plenty of 19th-century women who didn't fit the stereotypical image of the wasp-waisted feeble Victorian (still perpetuated by Hollywood), and who instead assumed the symbolic power of men's trousers to lay claim to their own equality and self worth. There's something absolutely brilliant about seeing a group of late 19th-century ladies smiling, even laughing while decked out in men's suits and smoking cigars, acting decidely macho with almost reckless abandon (by Victorian standards at least). The photo illustrations and the text serve as powerful reminders of the many battles women have had to fight in order to gain the freedoms we now have and take for granted. An inspiring, must-read for all .

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real eye-opener, May 1, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Women in Pants: Manly Maidens, Cowgirls, and Other Renegades (Hardcover)

This is an incredibly compelling collection of photographs. It is exactly what it says it is: photographs of women wearing pants, starting from the beginnings of photography in the mid-1800s and ending about a hundred years later.

Intellectually, we all know that people have worn all sorts of clothing at all times in history. But in fact almost every image of women before the 1930s and '40s portrays women in skirts. It's as if women were shaped like bells until then.

You won't realize how deeply ingrained this assumption can be until you look at this collection. It's a real eye-opener.

Many of the pictures are matter-of-fact recordings of women in unusual situations for that time, like women doing tough jobs that demanded trousers. Others show women who would never wish to be caught dead wearing pants in public. Yet there they are, playacting with their sorority sisters, some shamefaced, others defiant, but all are bravely facing the camera.

The collection contains broad range of photographic technologies and a mix of amateur and professional work. This mixture lends an interesting touch of realism to the collection. In a way, this collection suggests a novel way of studying the past: collect the photographs and see what they really show.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars VOYA - Cynthia Winfield, November 11, 2004

By 

Catherine J. Smith (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Women in Pants: Manly Maidens, Cowgirls, and Other Renegades (Hardcover)

Could you add this review please (Catherine Smith, Author):

[T]his book provides an eloquent photo study of women wearing pants across the globe during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Using 150 period photographs . . . the authors document an oft-unexplored side of these women's lives. Harem pants . . . common wear outside U.S. society, are explored in the chapter "Multicultural Influences: 'Very Peculiar Garb.'" A chapter on "Working Women: 'Do me a mess o' work . . . jes like a man'" includes painters, carpenters, ranchers, fisherwomen, miners, lumberjacks, factory workers. . . . [C]hapters cover cyclists, actresses, cowgirls, and other adventurous women. High quality . . . photographs illustrate every page spread of the text. . . . Chapters on romantic women and college women reveal Victorian expectations allowed for passionate female relationships as different from today's. . . . From the reform costume of the late-nineteenth century through working women and mock weddings, this book explores the lot. This fascinating compilation should be useful for period studies and in history classrooms. It is recommended for library collections reaching secondary students and the general public. . . . (Hard to imagine it being any better written. . . .) . . . Ages 11-18.