Visitors to the United States during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were often appalled by the filthy conditions of American citizens and their cities. By the 1950's the United States was considered a nation "obsessed" with cleanliness. What Changed? Suellen Hoy examines the forces behind this transformation in her book Chasing Dirt: The American Pursuit of Cleanliness.
Suellen Hoy, a historian and Lifetime Achievement Award winner by the Conference of History of Women, portrays women as a driving force behind the change. Through the actions of women such as Ada Sweet and Caroline Bartlett, women's groups were able to further awareness for the need for sanitation. More importantly the cleanliness movement gave women a public voice and a presence in the community, laying the groundwork for the advances in women's rights that were yet to come.
One of the popular criticisms of Hoy's book was here failure to more fully explore the role class played the campaign to clean America. It is quickly evident that it was often the poor who suffered from the great outbreaks of Cholera and Yellow Fever while many of the improvements were concentrated in the wealthy homes and central business districts of the cities. However, Hoy also shows that many people felt empowered by the movement. It gave people a sense of control over their environment and hope that more overwhelming problems could also be overcome.
Suellen Hoy's work is fairly comprehensive and opens several avenues for discussion. In addition to these topics, other areas that could be explored include the implementation of sewers systems and the unforeseen problems they created, as well as the later inclusion of social sanitation as part of the cleanliness campaigns.
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City Cleansing Post.
ReplyDeleteBy James Blaise.
This article addresses the various problems that poor sanitary conditions caused in communities across the United States after the end of the Civil War. The various groups mentioned in the article that were advocates for change are used as symbolism for a progressive political and social reform movement. The articles primarily focus on three different aspects that included social reform, a socioeconomic struggle, and a cultural change resulting from industrialization.
A large portion of the article describes the role of several women in their attempt to improve sanitary conditions in their home towns. Eva Suite is a perfect example of a woman who championed this caused gets mentioned multiple times by the author throughout the article. She fought arduously to remove mock, trash, and stagnant water from the streets of New York. She also served in various political roles that had previously belonged to men. Her political connections made it possible for her to accomplish basic goals including removing manure from the streets. Suite managed to persuade the mayor of New York to allocate more funds for projects intended to improve the sanitary conditions of neighborhoods around New York City. Although sanitation may seem as a mundane subject this gave women an opportunity to gain some notoriety as key contributors of society. The author mentions that 19th century American culture still possessed stigmas in terms of gender roles in society. Women were expected to act as house keepers as well as nurturers. Their willingness to broaden their roles to sanitation experts earned them a greater appreciation from men. They were still expected to attend to all house keeping duties, but they now were the ones responsible from making sure that their homes and neighborhoods were clean and safe environments for men and children to live in. It’s possible to wonder if this occurrence made it possible for the women’s movement to gain momentum until it culminated in 1917 when the 19th Amendment was ratified by Congress.
How did the author’s depiction of women active role in sanitation campaigns impact the role of women in society? Did such a push for healthier conditions help American culture advance in other ways as well? What perception can a reader gain from the article’s description of the shady relationships that existed between several companies and local government officials?