Municipal Housekeeping
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Especially from the higher classes, women actively participated in city life, declaring it their obligation as mothers to provide for the common good of everyone. In turn, slums were scoured, parks were expanded, and schools were bolstered. Meanwhile, females helped Prohibition gain momentum.
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"At the end of the nineteenth century, women were considered the "moral guardians" and protectors of the home. During the Progressive Era, female reformers used this ideology to argue that in order to protect the home, women should move into the public sphere where they could exercise their moral authority over issues such as public sanitation and education, which ultimately affected the home."
- National Women's History Museum |
There were a lot of issues that were politically women's issues, but there were lots of issues in which women were active that were not at all women's issues. - Interview with Professor Kathryn Sklar