Perhaps this phenomenon is a survival from Reconstruction days and after.

Since certain attitudes toward the negro, for example, were defended on the ground of the necessity of protecting womanhood, a certain standard must be demanded from women, and every man claimed a sort of prescriptive right to assist in laying down rules for such conduct on her part.

For a long time the women of the South, consciously or unconsciously, were subject to these unwritten rules.

Today in increasing numbers the women, particularly the younger women, are declaring their independence by their conduct.

It has not become a feminist revolt, for many have not thought out the situation and have not recognized the source of their restrictions.