Two Women Who Were Arrested for Wearing Pants, 80 Years Apart
“If he orders me to change into a dress I won’t do it”
In 1852, Emma Snodgrass was arrested for “donning the breeches.” Over eighty years later, Helen Hulik was sent to jail for the same reason. A closer look at these two women and the history of pants in the United States reveals how clothing restriction was used as a tool to assert dominance and power over women.
Boston, Massachusetts, 1852
17-year-old Emma Snodgrass got national attention for wearing pants and trousers in the mid-Nineteenth Century. The Boston Herald dubbed her the “wanderer in men’s apparel,” the Daily Alta California detailed her “violent attempts to talk ‘horse,’ and do other things for which ‘fast’ boys are noted,” and the New York Daily Times reported her scandalously “donning the breeches.”
Snodgrass often defied the rules. In Boston, she worked as a clerk at a clothing company under the male name George Green. And even with the numerous newspaper articles fixated on her clothing choices, she continued wearing those “pantaloons.”
“What her motive may be for thus obstinately rejecting the habiliments of her own sex, is not known.” — New York Daily Times.
