Start Date
12-6-2011 9:30 AM
End Date
12-6-2011 12:00 PM
Subject Areas
North America, modern, activism, children, class, family, marriage, sexuality
Abstract
In 1925 social worker and marriage reformer Mary E. Richmond, of the Russell Sage Foundation, noted that in contrast to the work already accomplished in the realm of child labor, marriage reform was still “an unplowed field.” There was still much to be done to regulate marriage across state lines and at the federal level, particularly in terms of protecting minor girls from irresponsible marriages. Richmond and others across the country – social workers, social purity campaigners, and leagues of women voters – rallied around the cause of preventing girls from entering into exploitative or irresponsible marriages.
This paper has three goals. First, I investigate the scope of the problem as it was seen by Richmond and others. Second, I document these reformers’ efforts to control what they saw as this growing problem. Finally, I argue that these reform efforts were as much about attempts to shore up the reputation of the institution of marriage itself as they were about actually attempting to aid wayward children. In the face of rising divorce rates and what they perceived as a casual attitude toward marriage, these reformers had in mind a rescue of the institution they saw as the bulwark of the family and the middle class.
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“Marriage Reform Is Still an Unplowed Field”: Social Reformers and the Struggle to Regulate Child Marriage in the 1920s
In 1925 social worker and marriage reformer Mary E. Richmond, of the Russell Sage Foundation, noted that in contrast to the work already accomplished in the realm of child labor, marriage reform was still “an unplowed field.” There was still much to be done to regulate marriage across state lines and at the federal level, particularly in terms of protecting minor girls from irresponsible marriages. Richmond and others across the country – social workers, social purity campaigners, and leagues of women voters – rallied around the cause of preventing girls from entering into exploitative or irresponsible marriages.
This paper has three goals. First, I investigate the scope of the problem as it was seen by Richmond and others. Second, I document these reformers’ efforts to control what they saw as this growing problem. Finally, I argue that these reform efforts were as much about attempts to shore up the reputation of the institution of marriage itself as they were about actually attempting to aid wayward children. In the face of rising divorce rates and what they perceived as a casual attitude toward marriage, these reformers had in mind a rescue of the institution they saw as the bulwark of the family and the middle class.