A single career woman in the South: a counterpoint to predominant images of women and domesticity
Cone briefly addresses the issue of having spent her life as a single woman. Cone expalins that never getting married was not a deliberate choice she had made. She does not fully address this issue at great length, nor does she entirely dismiss it. Nevertheless, the fact that her failure to marry and her success as a career woman offers an interesting counterpart and challenge to the typical depiction of women and domesticity during this time period.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Bonnie E. Cone, January 7, 1986. Interview C-0048. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- LYNN HAESSLY:
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You talk about knowing that you had to continue to have to work because you were a single woman. When did you realize that you were going to be a single woman for all your life?
- BONNIE E. CONE:
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Well, I'm not sure I'm going to be a single woman all my life.
- LYNN HAESSLY:
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Your life's not over yet.
- BONNIE E. CONE:
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I'm being facetious but that's okay, isn't it? Well, you know, I don't think one ever realizes one is going to be single. I didn't deliberately set to be a single woman. I have had some very strong and wonderful friends of both sexes. So I can't answer that. I didn't set out to be a single woman.
