For this week, I have a continuation of the column titled “The Women’s Department” published in the Feb 2, 1893 edition of the Ridgeway Journal:
This was an editorial on the trend of “short skirts”. “The Missouri and Kansas woman suffragists lately met at Kansas City and advocated skirt reform. Many ladies wore dresses three and four inches above the ground and surprised their friends by the youthful appearance the short skirt gave them.” The shorter skirts had been tried before “when women’s rights were first hinted at by a bold few”. Some, like Dr. Mary Walker, went so far as to change over to “the entire male garb.” Ultimately, “many who wore short skirts in the ‘forties’ after a few years put on longer and heavier skirts than before.’
The trouble was that the shorter skirts meant exposure. “The lower extremities must be clothed to the shoe the greater part of the year in our climate or disease and death ensue.” The editor advocated skirts just long enough to cover the top of the shoe. “Skirts not touching the ground and never showing the top of a high shoe are now worn by thousands of women who never think or say anything about it.” The tradition of girls wearing short skirts until age 16 then suddenly changing to long skirts” was also evolving so that the change to longer skirts was done gradually and “many never wore a really long skirt”.
“No working woman can move easily in a long skirt, especially going up steps. She usually has her hands full and her feet get on a long skirt...Women are too sensible to waste strength foolishly.”
