Shoppers' Paradise: How the Ladies of Chicago Claimed Power and Pleasure in the New Downtown

In the turn of the twentieth century, women in Chicago used their consumer power to challenge male domination of public spaces and stake their claim to downtown. Emily Remus' book "A Shoppers Paradise" chronicles this revolution, which reshaped the downtown environment and established women's new rights to consumption, mobility, and freedom.

Format: Hardback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 15 April 2019
Publisher: Harvard University Press

Introduction:
The turn of the twentieth century saw a significant revolution in women's rights, which took place not only at the ballot box but also in the streets and stores of America's downtowns. This revolution was largely unheralded, but Emily Remus turns to Chicago at this time to chronicle a largely unheralded revolution in women's rights that took place not at the ballot box but in the streets and stores of the business district.
The Rise of Chicago:
After the city's Great Fire, Chicago's downtown rose like a phoenix to become a center of urban capitalism. Moneyed women explored the newly built department stores, theaters, and restaurants that invited their patronage and encouraged them to indulge their fancies. However, their presence and purchasing power were not universally appreciated. City officials, clergymen, and influential industrialists condemned these women's conspicuous new habits as they took their place on crowded streets in a business district once dominated by men.
A Shoppers Paradise:
A Shoppers Paradise reveals crucial points of conflict as consuming women accessed the city center: the nature of urban commerce, the place of women, the morality of consumer pleasure. The social, economic, and legal clashes that ensued, and their outcome, reshaped the downtown environment for everyone and established women's new rights to consumption, mobility, and freedom.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, A Shoppers Paradise provides a fascinating insight into the ways in which women in turn-of-the-century Chicago used their consumer power to challenge male domination of public spaces and stake their own claim to downtown. By exploring the conflicts that arose as consuming women accessed the city center, the book sheds light on the social, economic, and legal clashes that ensued and established women's new rights to consumption, mobility, and freedom. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in women's history, urban history, and consumer culture.

Weight: 582g
Dimension: 238 x 168 x 26 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780674987272