Author: Kathleen B. Casey

Kathleen B. Casey is the director of the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program at Furman University, where she is also a professor of history. She is the author of two books, The Things She Carried: A Cultural History of the Purse in America (Oxford University Press, August 2025) and The Prettiest Girl on Stage Is a Man (University of Tennessee Press, 2015). She has taught several courses on gender, women, sexuality and race in America at three universities and has also published in Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies, Gender and History, and the Journal of American Popular Culture.

The Purse Is More Than a Fashion Statement. It’s a Historical and Social Signifier.

Americans have long used items of apparel such as hats and shoes to express aspirations, amplify differences and alleviate anxieties, but only the purse—with its cavernous, pocketed interior—has also provided marginalized people with much-needed space, privacy and power.

The Things She Carried: A Cultural History of the Purse—out Aug. 4—examines how a variety of bags and purses became meaningful for Americans often ignored in studies of fashion and whose possessions are largely left out of museum artifact collections. It asks how one seemingly ordinary object became so ubiquitous, unpacking how and why it became almost exclusively linked to women.

Teaching Sex to Empower, Not to Control: Sex Ed in Sweden vs. South Carolina

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Sweden was the first country to mandate sex education in 1955 and now has a national sex ed curriculum integrated through all course subjects. Swedes divorce sex ed from discussions about religious morality. Their curriculum instead encourages students to ask questions and critically examine gender and sex norms, while teachers instruct students with medically accurate information. 

Swedes were shocked to learn that in our local South Carolina school district, sex ed teachers use a memorable acronym (H.A.M.) to remember what their districts won’t allow them to discuss with students. “H.A.M.” stands for homosexuality, abortion and masturbation—three topics which are forbidden. If students ask about these subjects, teachers are told to redirect their questions. 

Teaching the Deep Roots of Abortion in America

Having honest conversations about our nation’s history in and outside the classroom is as urgent as ever. Despite Alito’s protestations, abortion has been and will continue to be an integral part of our nation’s past, present and future.

A closer look at American women’s past and present—where nearly one in four women obtain an abortion by the age of 45—illustrates that abortion has deep roots, which began centuries before Roe v. Wade and will continue long after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.