Home Work: Gender, Child Labor, and Education for Girls in Urban America, 1870-1930

Home Work

Hardcover
$115.00
Sale price  $115.00 Regular price 
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Home Work: Gender, Child Labor, and Education for Girls in Urban America, 1870-1930

Home Work

$115.00
Sale price  $115.00 Regular price 
Unit price $115.00 each
Binding
How reforms to girlhood education in the Progressive Era cemented inequalities of gender, race, and class in urban school systems.

In Home Work, historian Ruby Oram tells the story of how middle-class, white women reformers lobbied the state to implement various public education reforms to shape the lives of girls and women in industrial cities between 1870 and 1930. Women such as Jane Addams and Florence Kelley used education reform to target working-class communities and advocate for their middle-class ideals of girlhood and femininity, which could vary depending on the racial or socio-economic backgrounds of the girls. For example, reformers generally encouraged white girls to care for their future families, while pushing Black girls toward becoming domestic workers in others' homes. Using Chicago as a case study, Oram also explores how many of the reforms sought by white women were in response to evolving anxieties about immigration, health, and sexual delinquency.

An illuminating addition to the history of urban education in America, Home Work enriches our understanding of educational inequality in twentieth-century schools.

Book Details

ISBN
9780226844312
Binding
Hardcover
Authors
Ruby Oram
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Published Date
November 12, 2025
Language
English
Pages
272
Physical Info
0.88 in H x 9.14 in L x 6.07 in W (0.95 lb)

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