E52 英文朗读 | The lost age of women-only hotels

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COURTESY OF BYRON COMPANY / MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK

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The lost age of women-only hotels

①For over a century, the same-sex hotels served as places of respite, relaxation, and full-time residence for women young and old. Born from Victorian-era fears about women's morality, the hotels housed thousands of ambitious women who helped redefine America’s idea of their place in society. 

②In early 19th-century America, the idea of unchaperoned travel was almost unthinkable for most women. Most public places didn't just frown on women—they forbade them. 

③But times were changing, and as lower-class women flocked to cities to find work, "moral homes", the women-only boardinghouses, sprung up in urban centers around the country.

④As social mores continued to change, thanks in part to the suffrage movement and women's participation in both world wars, women from the middle and upper classes began careers, too, and women-only hotels became common. 

⑤These hotels served new generations of women who, unlike their mothers, had access to college educations and intended to pursue careers before marriage. Most had stringent requirements for residents. 

⑥But as women's rights continued to expand, and the availability of legalized contraception transformed sexual values, the hotels fell out of favor.

⑦By the 1970s, most of the women's hotels were defunct.

⑧But while their heyday may be over, the feeling of freedom and camaraderie found in history's hotels for women are still worth claiming.

原文链接

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/lost-age-women-only-hotels