Sexual Labor, United States Immigration Law, and México's Emerging Feminist Consciousness, 1875-1925
Graduation Term
Spring 2025
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Department of History
Committee Chair
Andrew Hartman
Committee Member
Holly Kent
Committee Member
Maura Toro-Morn
Committee Member
Taylor Soja
Abstract
This thesis is an intellectual, cultural, women’s, and transnational history between México and the United States that outlines the arguments over sex workers. At the forefront is how stories of sex workers intersect with the histories of moral and hygiene reform movements, and United States laws on immigration and morality during the years of 1875 to 1925. This body of work is in conversation with scholars such as Kelly Lytle Hernández. Susie S. Porter, and Diana Montaño.
Sources include United States legislation, Spanish written newspapers and studies on sex work from México, the Elena Torres Cuéllar Archives, the Margaret Sanger Papers, the Rockefeller Archives, and the Julius Rosenwald Archives. Compiled together, these sources analyze prohibitive language used in United States immigration law, looks at the emerging feminist movement in México to see where sex workers fit within this new citizenship, and compares how reformers of the United States utilized their abundant resources to shape conversations on hygiene and morals.
Access Type
Thesis-Open Access
Recommended Citation
Ramirez, Narcedalia, "Sexual Labor, United States Immigration Law, and México's Emerging Feminist Consciousness, 1875-1925" (2025). Theses and Dissertations. 2104.
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/etd/2104
