FEMALE RITUALS AND THE POLITICS OF THE NEW-YORK MARRIAGE MARKET IN THE LATE 19TH-CENTURY

This article reevaluates the role of society women in the late ninetee nth century in the formalization of New York's high society and in sha ping class identity. In doing so, it takes issue with studies that hav e regarded this period in New York's social history as aberrational an d, instead evaluates women's involvement in the marriage market as a d etermined attempt to modulate the merger of rival elites and bring sta bility to a metropolitan society disrupted by urbanization, industrial ization, and demographic growth. it argues that female social leaders complied with, and reinforced, the dominant male class structure while at the same time expanding their participation in a public social lif e and enhancing their status within the family.