the Women's History Commons

Over the course of the past century, many historians have portrayed the Progressive Era as one of the most dynamic periods in American history, a time in which a vast series of reform movements constituted the urgent attempt of an entire country to recover from the wounds left by several decades of rapid and mostly unregulated industrialization.1 Indeed, the origins of reform-minded progressivism are so numerous and diverse as to appear bewildering at first glance. By the end of the nineteenth century, a disparate array of social groups in the United States – including western and southern farmers, impoverished inhabitants of sprawling urban slums, and even some members of the business elite2 – were clamoring for changes ranging from mandatory factory inspection to shorter workdays and the abolition of child labor.3 One particularly fascinating and significant transformation of the age came not as the result of any specific call for reform, but instead from a dramatic reconceptualization of the individual citizen’s role in stimulating national economic growth. In other words, it was during the Progressive Era that the lopsided perception of national commerce a