2017 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities

June 01 - 04, 2017

The papers in this workshop address women’s reception and transformative experiences in different urban settings confronted by massive transformations, war, immigration, revolution, and radical social change: New York in the mid to late 1800s, Eastern Europe in the early twentieth century, Guadalajara, Mexico during the Mexican Revolution in 1910-1917, and Mexico City in the 1920s. Each paper focuses on distinct populations of female immigrants including Jews confronted with radical transformations and a relocation to urban spaces.  In this new, dynamic environment, they developed patterns to re-invent themselves and their roles in order to find solutions to the social and cultural challenges they were experiencing in their new settings. The session will address how urban environments have shaped the experiences and identities of immigrants, what specific challenges arose given the circumstances under which individuals and groups emigrated from their homes, and how immigration has influenced the culture and society of the cities that the immigrants moved to. It will also explore how and why the women’s experience differed from a male perspective. The overall goal of this workshop is to analyze and compare the challenges and opportunities created by urban migration specifically for women.