Christine Stansell
Examining Class and Gender in New York City
The article “Women, Children, and the Uses of the Streets: Class and Gender Conflict in New York City, 1850-1860,” Christine Stansell argues that during the nineteenth century the streets of New York were grounds of different outlooks toward children. The kids who wandered the city streets such as playing, huckstering, and committing theft or homeless, were an indication of the typical middle class moral failure due to their parents. Moralists often saw the home as a sanctified area that protected children from the harm of society. Parents whom worked, often their children worked too and did not receive the family support that social reformers claimed were essential to their spiritual and moral improvement. In New York City, the success of these reformers in safeguarding public areas indicated both the control of the middle class and the idea of women being encouraging role models in the home.
The article began with a children aid service worker whom found two children in search of wood to return to their mom to burn in order to stay warm. The article was dated back to the 1850-1860s when the city was occupied by the poor citizens and individuals whose …show more content…
She believes that the children whom were on the street were expected to make a living the best way they could. Not only did reformers see children as victims of a corrupt environment, but also as the ones adding to the problem. The children of this population spent majority of their time outside of the home, mainly in the streets. The reformers did not see this as an improvement; they were more so disturbed by them being in the public environment unsupervised. The streets gave children freedom and independence with no boundaries. The middle class thought just as the woman’s domain was in the home, the children should be there too. Middle class reformers saw these children whom were left in the streets as a form of
The article “Women, Children, and the Uses of the Streets: Class and Gender Conflict in New York City, 1850-1860,” Christine Stansell argues that during the nineteenth century the streets of New York were grounds of different outlooks toward children. The kids who wandered the city streets such as playing, huckstering, and committing theft or homeless, were an indication of the typical middle class moral failure due to their parents. Moralists often saw the home as a sanctified area that protected children from the harm of society. Parents whom worked, often their children worked too and did not receive the family support that social reformers claimed were essential to their spiritual and moral improvement. In New York City, the success of these reformers in safeguarding public areas indicated both the control of the middle class and the idea of women being encouraging role models in the home.
The article began with a children aid service worker whom found two children in search of wood to return to their mom to burn in order to stay warm. The article was dated back to the 1850-1860s when the city was occupied by the poor citizens and individuals whose …show more content…
She believes that the children whom were on the street were expected to make a living the best way they could. Not only did reformers see children as victims of a corrupt environment, but also as the ones adding to the problem. The children of this population spent majority of their time outside of the home, mainly in the streets. The reformers did not see this as an improvement; they were more so disturbed by them being in the public environment unsupervised. The streets gave children freedom and independence with no boundaries. The middle class thought just as the woman’s domain was in the home, the children should be there too. Middle class reformers saw these children whom were left in the streets as a form of