Fashion as Feminism: Pants as Literal and Symbolic Liberation as Described by Newspaper Fashion EditorsKimberly Voss, PhD, Associate Professor, Univ of Central FloridaAJHA, 2017 AbstractIn the late 1960s and into the 1970s, one fashion debate was whether women should wear pants in business and social situations. Dress reform had been an issue for decades, beginning with Amelia Bloomer and female suffrage. To some people, the wearing of pants symbolized a threat to gender distinctions at a changing time. For others, it was a form of liberation that was covered in the fashion pages. In 1957, The New York Times noted that physician Mary Walker was awarded the Medal of Honor…