Creating a Female Dominion in American Reform, 1890-1935 [Paperback]

In this book, Muncy explains the continuity of white, middle-class, American female reform activity between the Progressive era and the New Deal. She argues that during the Progressive era, female reformers built an interlocking set of organizations that attempted to control child welfare policy. Within this policymaking body, female progressives professionalized their values, bureaucratized their methods, and institutionalized their reforming networks. To refer to the organizational structure embodying these processes, the book develops the original concept of a female dominion in the otherwise male empire of policymaking. At the head of this dominion stood the Children's Bureau in the federal Department of Labor. Muncy investigates the development of the dominion and its particular characteristics, such as its monopoly over child welfare and its commitment to public welfare, and shows how it was dependent on a peculiarly female professionalism. By exploring that process, this book illuminates the relationship between professionalization and reform, the origins and meaning of Progressive reform, and the role of gender in creating the American welfare state.

A finely crafted study....Muncy's book is a fine example of recent works that critically document women's political activism and their influence on the making of the welfare system. --The Nation

An important contribution to the literature on Progressivism, feminism, and reform. --American Historical Review

Offers a powerful and provocative synthesis of women's reform activities and demonstrates conclusively their key role in building the welfare state. --History of Education Quarterly

In the burgeoning literature on women and welfare in the first three decades of the century, Muncy's study of the female dominion opens new territory. It is a must read. --Journal of American History

The argument is original and illuminatinl£5