Date of Award

8-2024

Degree Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

School

Humanities

Committee Chair

Dr. Rebecca Tuuri

Committee Chair School

Humanities

Committee Member 2

Dr. Heather Stur

Committee Member 2 School

Humanities

Committee Member 3

Dr. Andrew Haley

Committee Member 3 School

Humanities

Abstract

Second-Wave Feminism was largely responsible for transforming American society’s beliefs about gender roles. However, there is very little attention given to the impact that feminism had on cultural transformations in the South. Much of the historiography of feminism and women’s liberation only covers the most radical events and leaders of the 1970s, and it neglects to point out the smaller forms of resistance that ultimately made the movement successful. During this period, the South, and specifically southern campuses, had the reputation of being against women’s liberation because there was not much evidence of resistance comparable to that of northern campuses. However, the events that took place on the University of Southern Mississippi’s campus during the late 1960s to the 1980s illustrate that the impact of Second-Wave Feminism was felt nationwide, even in the Deep South.

I will argue that women at USM displayed acts of liberal feminism, demonstrating the impacts of the national movement. To make this argument, I will use the University of Southern Mississippi’s campus as a lens to analyze the complexities of Southern feminism, and how not all resistance during this period needed to be radical to be effective. I will use changes in ideas about dress codes, curfews, and the changes to the School of Home Economics on USM’s campus to reveal that feminist activism was not only experienced on the more radical campuses. Without analyzing smaller forms of resistance in the Deep South, the understanding of Second-Wave Feminism is largely incomplete.

Download

Share

COinS