Been a long time

Been a while since ive actually posted anything, though there are numerous drafts I could revise and post. Instead you get another school paper. Enjoy!

Moral Reform

An outgrowth of evangelical Protestantism, the moral reform movement of the early 1800’s marked one of American women’s first entries into the field of politics and public social life. As an attempt to change morality, it may have ultimately failed, but the movement remains important for the changes it wrought for women as a whole.

The first female associations were primarily church based. As this was one of the few social outlets allowed women during the era, it should come as no surprise that they multiplied quickly and developed various goals. Activism rose within urban areas of the Northeast and Midwest. As the population became increasingly urbanized, the challenges faced by the associations became more immediate as poverty and vice increased. Intending to cure society’s ills, moral activists sought to combat these trends by running various institutions for the poor and propagating the idea of raising children to be pious and moral.

The moral reform movement was simultaneously a benevolent organization and a militant pressure group (Woloch, 2006, p.171).  Their primary goal was to establish a single standard of sexual morality upon all Americans, female and male. Teaching mores of behavior to children at home was fully within the women’s sphere of the time, the movement took their beliefs one-step further by putting their ideas into public action.

The moral activists sought to end prostitution and to punish seducers and adulterers (Woloch, p. 172). Activists would visit almshouses and jails to speak to the “fallen” women. Campaigns in which women would pray and sing hymns at brothels occurred. Reformers lobbied state legislatures. Homes and institutions were established were women could find refuge and support.

With its limited scope, the moral reform movement quickly fractured. The Utica society fell apart over the issue of whether or not it was “proper” to hold a public discussion regarding sexual matters (Woloch, p. 174). The societal limits placed upon women were not yet sufficiently loosened to allow for an open, public exchange of ideas on sexual topics.  Within a decade, the Moral Reform movement was losing steam, but another contemporary movement was gaining ground and putting women into leadership roles. The abolition of slavery quickly became the means by which women’s associations and women themselves would enter into public politics.

The double standard in regards to sexual behavior is still present in society today, though to a much lesser extent than the 19^th century. The criminal and social stigma attached to prostitution remains.  A recent article by the New York Times profiled Barbara Terry, a 52-year-old prostitute who has spent most of her adult life in the sex trade.  Ms. Terry has raised four children as a single mother. She has been arrested numerous times over her career, often-spending days in jail.  Her customers can be anyone: lawyers, city workers, husbands, and fathers. Ms. Terry has never worked for a pimp, noting that, “I never did drugs and never worked for a pimp for protection. What protection? If I’m in someone’s car, about to die, ain’t no pimp in there helping me” (Kilgannon).

Ms. Terry has shown younger workers the means of survival on the streets. She credits God for her own survival. Ms. Terry’s children, two of whom she put through college, beg her to get off the street, yet she admits she is addicted to the stimulation of street life. Ms. Terry began her career as a sex worker at the age of twenty-one, when her husband left her with two children to support. Ms. Terry’s knowledge about prostitution came from television. She knew about a local neighborhood where prostitutes gathered and went out on her own volition. In a profession often regarded as synonymous with abuse, drugs, and violence, Ms. Terry considers herself to be a survivor noting, “Most women don’t make it to my age out here” (Kilgannon).

Although the sexual customs of American society have changed considerably in the past 200 hundred years, it is safe to say that the moral reformers of the 1830’s would find Ms. Terry’s story eerily familiar. The moral reformers attempts at changing morality may have been unsuccessful, but it helped set the stage for the increasing role of women in public life.  

References

Kilgannon, C. (2011, December 30). At 52, still working the streets. The New York Times. Retrieved January 14, 2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/nyregion/at-52-a-prostitute-still-working-the-streets.html

Woloch,N.(2006). Women and the american experience: a concise history (5th ed). New York: McGraw-Hill