Ragtime has its finger on the pulse of turn-of-the-century women's rights. And dang did things need fixing back then. From not being able to vote to being constricted into those strange metal torture devices known as corsets, women had it rough back in the day. But the times started a-changing around 1900, and Doctorow gives us front-row seats to the show.
We see Mother take over the family business while Father's gone and discover her sexuality (get it, gurl). We see Evelyn Nesbit, the first sex symbol in America, and Emma Goldman, the anarchist who wears free flowing clothes and likens marriage to prostitution. In all three characters Doctorow shows a type of woman who was unthinkable only decades before in the uber-stuffy Victorian era.
Questions About Women and Femininity
- What might have happened to Mother if Father hadn't taken his trip to the Arctic?
- Why does Emma Goldman think of marriage as a form of prostitution?
- Why does Evelyn Nesbit have an affair with Mother's Younger Brother, who has been stalking her?
- Why do you think Doctorow doesn't pay more attention to the tragedy of Mameh after Tateh throws her out for sleeping with her employer to pay their rent?
Chew on This
Had Mother's story occurred just a generation earlier, she would have stayed with Father and never remarried.
Evelyn Nesbit sets back the women's movement rather than advancing it.