Hearts All Aflame: Women and the Development of New Forms of Social Service Organizations, 1870-1930

In the late nineteenth century, thousands of American women participated in a dramatic shift in the distribution of social services. In the 1870s, most benevolent services were local, religious, and private; by 1930, however, social programs were city-wide, secular, and public. To demonstrate the importance of women's contribution to the reorganization of social services, this study examines Pittsburgh's service associations which middle-class women either founded or joined in large numbers. This analysis begins by exploring female roles in religious organizations including the Women's Christian Association, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and the Columbian Council of the National Council of Jewish Women. Equally central to the development of gendered social service work and to the progress of municipal reform were the nineteenth-century women's clubs such as the Woman's Club of Pittsburgh, the Twentieth Century Club, and the Civic Club of Allegheny County. Gradually, women's reform efforts turned to founding new social institutions including the Kingsley House, the Columbian Settlement, and the Pittsburgh Playground Association. Finally, the transformation of traditional social service work into two new female professions--nursing and social work--complete this study of gender roles.

In the early twentieth century, middle-class women slipped through the boundaries of proper nineteenth-century behavior and slowly made social service work and professional occupations more acceptable. Examining social service associations, it is possible to illustrate how women negotiated gender roles within single sex and mixed-gender organizations and thereby expanded their political authority. The women's suffrage movement offers an inadequate explanation for women's seizure of a greater public and political presence. By 1920 women had the vote but they also had earned the right to participate in the decision making process in private and public organizations that formulated social policy. I argue that women's social service work independently encouraged a greater female political presence. Middle-class women enhanced their political power and influence through voluntary social service work and new professional employment. Thus, the nonprofessional and professional contributions of women to social service associations were fundamental to the restructuring of American society and politics.