Editing Tomboy (section)

==== 19th century ====

Before the mid-19th century, femininity was equated with emotional fragility, physical vulnerability, hesitation, and domestic submissiveness, commonly known as the "[[Cult of True Womanhood]]". Under the influence of this ideal of femininity, women did not engage in strenuous sports or any physical activity. This paradigm remained stagnant until the mid-nineteenth century. During the [[Long Depression]] of the late 1800s, the US's increasing economic instability made fragile femininity no longer desirable. Young women joined the workforce to support their families and learn practical job skills, and thus a more robust physique was needed to support the physical demands of job practices. This led to the paradigm shift in people's expectations of young women from languishing, decorative beauty to vigorously healthy, thus laying the groundwork for tomboyism.<ref name="Abate-2008">{{Cite book |last=Abate |first=Michelle Ann |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pYdrZNd7B1sC |title=Tomboys: A Literary and Cultural History |date=2008-06-28 |publisher=Temple University Press |isbn=978-1-59213-724-4 |location=Philadelphia |pages=4–6 |language=en}}</ref>

In Charlotte Perkin Gilman's 1898 book, ''Women and Economics'', the author lauds the health benefits of being a tomboy, that girls should be "not feminine till it is time to be".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gilman |first1=Charlotte Perkins |url=https://archive.org/details/womenandeconomi01gilmgoog |title=Women and Economics |date=1898 |publisher=Small, Maynard & Company |location=Boston |page=[https://archive.org/details/womenandeconomi01gilmgoog/page/n69 56]}}</ref> Joseph Lee, a playground advocate, wrote in 1915 that a "tomboy phase" was crucial to physical development of young girls between the ages of 8 and 13.<ref name="Lee-1915">{{Cite book |last=Lee |first=Joseph |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924032551826 |title=Play in Education |year=1915 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924032551826/page/n419 392]–393}}</ref> Coupled with the birth of first wave feminism and the US's depressed economy, tomboyism amongst young girls emerged because the young girls' parents permitted or even promoted the tomboy upbringing due to the decaying economy and the American turbulent political climate.<ref name="Abate-2008" />