Abstract

The dress-reform movement, often misrepresented as a fad of women's rights leaders, was in fact a distinct movement with roots in nineteenth-century health reform. It represents a different brand of feminism from that of the women's rights movement and a “road not taken” by nineteenth-century feminism. Dress reformers were committed to an exemplary action model of social change that assumed that a few intrepid individuals who had the courage to live according to principle could inspire enough other people to transform the world. The women's rights leaders, on the other hand, were determined to build a movement capable of changing social, political, and economic institutions and believed compromises were necessary to do so. The debate between the two groups illustrates the tension between personal transformation and political change that has often appeared in feminist movements.