Were these things (details in post) socially acceptable for unmarried American women circa 1900?

by qiba

Hello, I'm working on a piece of fiction set in Chicago circa 1905 and would like to know whether certain things would be socially 'possible' in that context.

In particular, I'm writing about a community of people on the Vaudeville scene. I'm operating on the understanding (possibly false?) that the theatre world has always tended to be slightly more permissive and subversive than normal society, so I'm assuming my characters can bend the rules a little, but it would be very useful to get a sense of how society at large would have regarded the following acts by unmarried women:

  • Walking around the city alone, unchaperoned
  • Using public transport alone
  • Drinking or being drunk in public
  • 'Dating' and/or kissing unmarried men
  • Being alone with men to whom they aren't married or related
  • Living alone
  • Sharing accommodation with other unmarried women (without supervision by, e.g., an older woman)
  • Living as a lodger in the home of a widower who's a stranger
  • Living as a lodger in the home of a widower who's an acquaintance of her father

Thank you very much for your help, and apologies that the last two are pretty specific. I couldn't see anything close to these topics in the FAQ.

YuritheDestroyer

During that period there was a strong association between vaudeville and sex work. So in a sense, any vaudevillian actress would not have been seen as truly respectable in the eyes of the middle class, though the working class would probably have been more forgiving, depending on the particular ethnic community she lived in. Most of the behavior you are asking about might have painted a single woman as immoral, especially the drinking and lodging with a widower. However, working-class women did live with other women and typically a working-class woman would not earn enough to live alone, unless she was a sex worker. Women of all classes traversed cities on foot and on public transportation. They faced street harassment, making hat pins very useful weapons. However, women walking alone at night in certain neighborhoods would have imperiled their reputations. You may want to check out Kathy Peiss's famous article, "'Charity Girls' and City Pleasures: Historical Notes on Working-Class Sexuality, 1880 - 1920," and Elizabeth Clement's Love for Sale: Courting, Treating, and Prostitution in New York City, 1900-1945. For a general background see John D'Emilio and Estelle Freedman's Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America and perhaps a general women's history textbook. PM if you want more precise answers.