Two Faces of the Victorian "True Woman"

In: Journal of policy history: JPH, Band 5, Heft 2, S. 296-301

Abstract

A review essay on books by: Barbara Meil Hobson, Uneasy Virtue: The Politics of Prostitution and the American Reform Tradition (Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1990); & Robyn Muncy, Creating a Female Dominion in American Reform, 1890-1935 (New York: Oxford U Press, 1991 [see listings in IRPS No. 71]). These books explore gender as an element in social policy creation & emphasize the Victorian ideal of womanhood. Hobson's book challenges the Victorian vision of prostitutes as passive victims, which was based on the assumption that women are purer than men by virtue of their asexuality. Given the choices available to poor women, prostitution was sometimes a rational economic decision. Hobson also examines the contemporary situation & questions legalization & other alternatives that consider prostitution as both sex & work, public & private. Muncy's book argues that the Progressive reform movement & the US welfare state were shaped by the experiences of white middle-class women in the 1890s. Jane Addams & the women connected to Hull House lobbied for the Children's Bureau & specific civil service jobs. These reformers worked within the boundaries set by the "cult of domesticity" & Victorian ideals of self-sacrifice. They defined social work as policy making, & child welfare reform was based on their assumptions into the 1930s. In many ways they dominated & set moral standards for other women. Power relations were not challenged. E. Blackwell