In the Midst of Panic: Woman, Power and Economic Crisis in New York City (1815-1865)

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My doctoral research will explore the lives of poor women, both black and white, to understand how economic crisisaltered their ability to contest and reshape the economic and political ideologies that constrained their gender. Thisproject asks how poor women interacted with ideas of domesticity, dependency and patriarchy, and how they negotiatedthem when capitalism was at its weakest. It asks if poor women's power changes in times of capitalist crisis and if thesechanges did occur, did they last. This is not to erase the poverty and exploitation capitalism brought to women across theUnited States during this period, but to suggest that women were only victims of capitalism would be a gross historicalinaccuracy. This is a study of poor women's response to the accelerated development of a cash-based market economy,and the crisis that came with it, both through women's exploitation, and their opportunities.