THE NEW ERA AND THE NEW WOMAN

Abstract

Lou Henry Hoover, wife of Herbert Hoover, demonstrated the strengths and limitations of the expanded social de�nition of womanhood that had been won by reformers during the Progressive Era and World War I. As a leader of several business and women's social welfare organizations, she urged young women to follow her example in seeking professional education and careers as well as upholding traditional domestic roles. Protected by wealth and social status from the most burdensome aspects of domesticity, her public position emphasized the opportunities but understated problems faced by the "new women" in the 1920s and later generations.