![]() Women began educating one another on the task self defense manuals, some of which were attributed to a woman named Mademoiselle Gelas, advised a combination of jiu-jitsu, hatpin stabbing and umbrella work to fend off men while walking alone. Newspapers across the United States were dotted with stories of women who defended themselves or others with hatpins one woman prevented a train robbery, while a news bulletin from Chicago heralded a woman’s stabbing of a masher who “tried to put a chloroform rag over her nose.” On September 30, 1900, President Theodore Roosevelt remarked that he loved the “exhibition of strenuous life” by women who used their pins, saying that “no man, however courageous he may be, likes to face a resolute woman with a hatpin in her hand.” Hatpins grew larger as hats became more decorative, featuring false flowers, fruits and birds the pins that fastened these hats could be over ten inches long, and their needle-like points posed a considerable threat to anyone who got in its way. The jewels and feathers decorating the metal pins used to secure ornate hats obscured their injurious possibilities. “Any woman with courage and a hatpin can prove it,” the paper added.Īn illustration from the Chicago Daily Tribune, September 16, 1900. These lecherous men were known as “mashers,” and considered to be “low-down, cowardly cumberers of the earth,” as a 1904 blurb in the Los Angeles Herald put it. ![]() Foley was just one participant in a movement of women, armed against their male attackers with a popular fashion accessory of the time: hat pins.Īs women gained independence and started walking and traveling alone during the late 1800s and early 1900s, hatpins provided a quick line of defense from the unwanted touches and words of passing men. “Quick wit, feminine courage, and a hatpin put to flight a bold, daylight highwayman at Bleecker Street and Broadway,” the New York Times reported. In one swift movement she reached for her hatpin, jumped at the robber and aimed right for his face. ![]() The entire payroll for the staff was in his pocket.įoley, however, was not shaken. In a flash, the robber swung his arms high and smashed her male companion in the head. She had been walking home with a male colleague from the bank when someone came up behind them. It was a normal, rainy Tuesday in 1912 when 18-year-old Elizabeth Foley found herself in the midst of an armed robbery. ![]()
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