The Jilting of Granny Weatherall

Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980) lived during a period of rapidly changing gender roles. Though 1848—the year of the Seneca Falls Convention—is commonly cited as the “beginning” of first wave feminism in the United States, the movement was particularly active around the turn of the 20th century, culminating in the 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, which gave women the right to vote. Other key areas of concern to first wave feminists included the right to work outside the home (principally in middle-class professions like law, education, and medicine, as working-class women commonly labored for pay already) and the rights of women within marriage, including the right to own property and greater safeguards against domestic abuse.

Though Porter did not explicitly identify as a feminist, her life and works reflected the shifting norms of the era. Her first husband was physically abusive, and she divorced him in 1915. This was a scandalous thing to resort to in the early 20th century, but Porter went on to marry and divorce an additional three times; she also pursued at least one extramarital affair. Her professional life was similarly iconoclastic. In addition to writing fiction, Porter worked as a journalist—an unusual profession for women at the time.