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Susan Pecker Fowler, One Of The Original American Woman To Reguarly Wear Pants
A farmer, merchant, writer and activist, the petite woman was a tour de force who wasn’t always taken seriously during a remarkable life
In modern society, it’s often taken for granted that we wear what we want. This is in stark contrast to the social expectations that used to govern fashion, especially along gender lines. In fact, women wearing pants is still a relatively recent development. Although most certainly not the first American woman to regularly wear pants, Susan Pecker Fowler was an early pioneer of the style and gained a reputation as the original bloomer woman.
Born in 1823 in Salisbury, Massachusetts, Fowler grew up to be a teacher. She was also a critical thinker and a reformer. Around 1851, she began wearing self-designed bloomers, which were roomy pants that she typically had underneath a long coat or short skirt and made her feel “like a bird uncaged.” She not only wore them to make a political statement but also because she found them more comfortable and believed they were better from a health perspective.
Weighing less than 85 pounds, the petite woman began working as a merchant, ultimately buying a modest five-acre farm in Vineland, New Jersey in…
