Is Woman’s Sphere the Home When Man Has Surrounded Her Children With Evil
“Is Woman’s Sphere the Home When Man Has Surrounded Her Children With Evil?,” Life Magazine, 1913. New-York Historical Society Library.
Background
At the turn of the 1900s, middle-class progressives were concerned with the social impact caused by urbanization. They feared that corruption, crime, sexual exploitation, and other “evils” were a direct threat to American society. This growing concern created a new opportunity for American women in the shape of the social housekeeping movement. Although middle-class women were for the most part expected to focus on caring for their homes and families, the social housekeeping movement encouraged them to apply their caretaking skills to public issues. Supporters of social housekeeping argued that in order to raise healthy families, women needed to have a say in the education, health, sanitation, and public safety policies that shaped family life. Social housekeeping allowed women activists to legitimize their roles in social and political activism. While the idea of women engaging in public life was not new, social housekeeping vastly expanded the general public’s acceptance of women activists.
About the Resources
This illustration appeared in Life, a national magazine that catered to a middle-class audience. The right side of the image shows the “evils” of modern urban life. The illustration suggests that men enable many of these dangerous situations and that children and young women are their victims. The left side shows a woman lost in thought. Presumably she is worrying over the images shown on the right. The caption asks the viewer to consider the threat of public ills to private life and how women might protect their own homes by becoming involved in matters of public policy.
Vocabulary
- corruption: Dishonest and often illegal behavior.
- exploitation: Taking advantage of people.
- social housekeeping: A sociopolitical movement at the turn of the 1900s that viewed community engagement as an extension of women’s work in the home.
Discussion Questions
- What is the message of this cartoon? How has the artist conveyed that message? Do you think it is effective? Why or why not?
- How does this cartoon reinforce stereotypes about race and class?
- What does this cartoon say about the differences between men and women?
- How does this cartoon promote the concept of social housekeeping? What does it imply about the possible effectiveness of women versus men in reforming public behaviors?
Suggested Activities
- Compare this document with the suffrage broadside “Women in the Home.” How do these two pieces present a case for women taking more active roles in social and political issues?
- Connect the public evils presented in this illustration to the work of Elizabeth Cochrane and other muckrakers who brought attention to inequalities and often motivated others to take action through journalism.
- Social housekeeping was an evolution of the role of women in the public sphere. To learn more about what came before, see Benevolent Societies.
Themes
DOMESTICITY AND FAMILY; ACTIVISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE
