Ladies' ordinary

A ladies' ordinary was a women-only dining space which started to appear in North American hotels and restaurants in the early 19th century.^[1] At the time, women were not permitted to dine alone or unaccompanied by a male escort in restaurants and the public rooms of luxury, mainly urban hotels. A ladies' ordinary provided a socially acceptable venue where respectable women could dine alone or with other women. It also protected women from the unwanted gazes and advances of men, a common fear in the male-dominated environment of the restaurant.

The first hotel to have housed a ladies' ordinary is thought to be Tremont House, Boston.^[2] On November 2, 1833, a restaurant for women referred to as a ladies' ordinary opened in New York City, by the proprietors of a neighbouring establishment called the Clinton Lunch.^[3] Isabella Lucy Bird, while travelling in the United States in the mid-19th century, wrote that the American House, a hotel in Boston, had an upstairs room separate from the main dining room called 'The Ladies' Ordinary', "where families, ladies and their invited guests take their meals".^[4]