Creating a Female Dominion in American Reform, 1890-1935

In "Creating a Female Dominion in American Reform," Robyn Muncy described a "continuity of reform activities among America's middle-class, [Protestant] women" between the Progressive era and the New Deal. Muncy explained that, by reconciling traditional female roles with professionalization, these women reformers were able to create a "female dominion" in the filed of child welfare. Interestingly, this "dominion" was dismantled after the child welfare movement achieved its far-reaching success in New Deal legislation.Muncy presented an innovative and fair account of female participation in the Progressive movement. Unlike many historians who concluded the Progresive era with the end of the First World War, Muncy traced the activities of women reformers to the New Deal. Muncy also recognized the existence of class, ethnic, and racial tensions between reformers and the women they attempted to assist. Muncy, however, failed to cite any conflicts between the demands of the female patrons and the goals of the professional social workers. The laywomen who funded the work of the "female dominion" must have had significant influence over the acitivities of the reformers. Muncy expressed disappointment that the reformers did not open doors to other women, particularly to women who were mothers. Muncy, however, may be analyzing the social worker's Victorian ideas regarding motherhood and child-rearing from a post-World War II perspective. The "working mother" concept is a fairly recent phenomenon which, most likely, was not considered during the Progressive period. Finally, Muncy's account of the female reform movement may be too narrow. She followed the careers of a specific coterie of women while possibly ignoring female reform movements which operated outside the realm of Muncy's model of female Progressives. Otherwise, Muncy's work offered a convincing argument that continuity between the Progressive era and the New Deal existed through the "female dominion" in child welfare.