Journey Stories

During the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, a number of unconventional women defied stereotypical gender roles and expectations to travel boldly into lands and cultures, some quite hostile to women, to experience for themselves the challenges and the appeal of the foreign and exotic. Often enduring hardships, sometimes risking their lives, and always defying conventions, these wayward women travelers refused to be limited by their sex and sought for themselves authentic experience. "Wayward Women Travelers" will relate the history of some of these unconventional women, placing their endeavors within the cultural context of the cult of domesticity that should have defined and confined their lives.

Our guest speaker is Dr. Linda De Roche. A Professor of English and American Studies at Wesley College in Dover, she teaches courses in American literature, Gender Studies, and American Studies. A former Fulbright Scholar, she holds the doctorate from the University of Notre Dame and has published books on F. Scott Fitzgerald, Willa Cather, the Jazz Age, and Mary Higgins Clark. She is currently editing a four-volume reference work on twentieth and twenty-first century American literature and conducting research for a biography of Mrs. Victor Bruce, a contemporary of Amelia Earhart who, in the 1920s and 1930s, held air, land, and sea speed and distance records.