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Pan-American Women In the course of assembling this site, it has become clear that the Exposition was a magnet for all kinds of people, particularly women. As the Buffalo Evening News observed in August 1901, "Every railroad station in the city was crowded nearly to the limit yesterday...Many women were in the crowds. They exceeded the men by a large majority, probably because the latter could not leave their occupations to attend the Exposition. The women, it appears, cannot be kept away." The American scene in 1901 was one of great activity regarding women as business owners, growing members of the clerical workforce, suffrage activists, civil rights activists, social activists. Women in New York state could own real estate which their husbands had no rights to; this was not the case elsewhere. Women could vote in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho, but universal women's suffrage was another 16 years away. Social rules regarding manadatory marriage were being challenged by graduates of the women's colleges who found their education could bring them a living wage, freeing them of the necessity of marrying in order to have shelter and food. Those whose lives intersected with the Pan-American Exposition represent a fascinating survey of American women at the beginning of the 20th century. The Exposition women entertainers, exhibitors, or celebrity visitors have been forgotten by history, remembered continually as cultural icons or, in some cases, were forgotten and re-discovered in the last 30 years. But let Pan-American women illustrate history with their lives... Cora
Beckwith - "living, sleeping, and eating in the water"
Midway Concession National Association of Colored Women (NACW) [coming] National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) [coming]
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