University of New England

Nexus

Saco
Bad Girls

English major and women’s studies minor Camille Smalley ’08 spent the fall semester researching societal expectations of women during the early twentieth-century and how the state of Maine chose to deal with those girls who didn’t conform.

Smalley’s work centers on a Saco girl, Margaret Bushey, who was charged in 1906 by her mother, Laura Bushey, with leading an “idle, vicious and licentious lifestyle.” According to research, Margaret’s mother felt that she was not upholding the virtues of a woman. Instead of acting as a “True Woman,” Margaret was considered a “New Woman” who believed in receiving an education, becoming a consumer and earning her own money.

At the turn of the century, the “New Woman” was feared for stepping out of the traditional female role. Margaret worked as a waitress at a former police officer’s restaurant in Saco, became friends with an older woman and consorted with members of the opposite sex.

“I think [Laura and Margaret’s conflict] was a result of the clash between the two systems, comparable to how immigrants and their first generation American children have rifts due to changing cultures, as well as new beliefs,” said Smalley. Margaret’s antics led to her subsequent arrest and placement in the Maine State Industrial School for Girls at Hallowell.

Smalley’s work has many layers to it. She not only focuses on Margaret Bushey’s biography, but she also comments on twentieth-century society’s expectations of women and the consequences when those expectations were not met. Smalley also looks at how and why the state chose to deal with girls that didn’t “fit the mold.”

The Maine State Industrial School was established for girls who had formal court proceedings like Margaret. Centered on promoting the virtues of domesticity, the school required the girls to live in dormitories set up like real houses and the curriculum consisted of sewing, cooking and kitchen work, academics, laundry and gardening. Girls who excelled in academics were allowed to attend high school in Augusta and earn a high school diploma. After all sections were passed, the girls were placed in actual homes to assist the lady of the house. Margaret was discharged at 21, but contracted pneumonia and stayed at the school until she got well, after which she was placed in another home. After that, nothing else is known of Margaret, other than that she eventually got married and changed her name to Doughtry.

Smalley’s exploration took her to the McArthur Library in Biddeford and the Augusta Archives where she read Margaret’s file from the Industrial School. Smalley also viewed 100-year-old logbooks of home visitors to get an idea of what Margaret’s work was like at the School.

Smalley’s passion for history and writing wasn’t always at the forefront of her life. Growing up in Washington State, she initially wanted to study athletic training, having worked as her high school baseball team’s student athletic trainer for two years. A friend living in Massachusetts was familiar with and recommended UNE. Wanting to “be as far away from home as possible,” Smalley was offered and accepted a scholarship to be an athletic training major.

By her sophomore year, Smalley realized she had done athletic training for so long that she wanted a change. Having always been good in English and history, and urged by her English Composition professor to try it out, Smalley switched majors.

Participation in a women’s studies class took Smalley in yet another direction. “I walked into that class with the feeling that it was just a 3-credit course full of girl power,” she says. “I have never been so wrong in my entire life.” Realizing the subject was realistic, a part of everyday life, and not just about traditional feminist stereotypes, she became a women’s studies minor.

Smalley already has another intriguing research subject in mind, a girl from Saco who was also sent to the School for Girls in Hallowell for hitting people with sticks as they walked down the street.

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