American Catholic women rarely surface as protagonists in histories
of the United States. Offering a new perspective, Kathleen Sprows
Cummings places Catholic women at the forefront of two defining
developments of the Progressive Era: the emergence of the "New
Woman" and Catholics' struggle to define their place in American
culture. Cummings highlights four women: Chicago-based journalist
Margaret Buchanan Sullivan; Sister Julia McGroarty, SND, founder of
Trinity College in Washington, D.C., one of the first Catholic
women's colleges; Philadelphia educator Sister Assisium McEvoy,
SSJ; and Katherine Eleanor Conway, a Boston editor, public figure,
and antisuffragist. Cummings uses each woman's story to explore how
debates over Catholic identity were intertwined with the
renegotiation of American gender roles.