Woman's work in municipalities

by Mary Ritter Beard

Value of Civic Improvement

From this cursory and necessarily imperfect review of women’s work in civic improvement, it is evident that whoever labors for the city or town or village beautiful in the United States may find intelligent and hearty support on the part of women’s associations, even though they are, in many places, merely organized for literary or “cultural” purposes. Thousands of men may loaf around clubs without ever showing the slightest concern about the great battle for decent living conditions that is now going on in our cities; but it is a rare woman’s club that long remains indifferent to such momentous matters. Nor, as we have seen, is this movement for civic betterment confined to the greater cities. In thousands of out-of-the-way places which hardly appear on the map, unknown women with large visions are bent on improving their minds for no mere selfish advancement, but for the purpose of equipping themselves to serve their little communities. They form local associations. These local associations are federated into state and national associations. The best thought and experience of one community soon become the common possession of all. Thus we see in the making, before our very eyes, a conscious national womanhood. Here is a power that will soon disturb others than the village politicians.

CHAPTER XI
GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION

The kind of work the government undertakes and the way in which it does its work depend, in the ordinary course of events, almost entirely upon public opinion; that is, upon what the people think about political matters. This obvious truth will be readily admitted, and the inevitable deduction is that women, in the wide range of their interests and activities, are valuable factors in government.

By means of lectures, study clubs, and leagues for political and civic education, women now seek to educate themselves in public affairs, and learn to coöperate with men in the extension of civic enlightenment. City Clubs exist for women, like those for men, as forums of free discussion of public questions, in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston, while the Twentieth Century Club of Boston is an organization of men and women.

Women also seek to arouse public opinion by explaining problems of government to the people. By printing and circulating ordinances, discussing charters, asking citizens what they need, and helping to show them how their needs may be met, the development of fundamental democracy is being aided by women, slowly, perhaps, but none the less positively.

Bulletins and other publications on civic matters, issued by women as individuals and associated in clubs, are as creditable as any in the field. Their studies of city budgets and budget-making are beginning to prove that even the hard technique of government now interests them as it does men. That their attitude toward some of the technique is still the woman’s attitude, however, may perhaps be shown at times; for example, when Martha Bensley Bruère and others suggest that one prime function of public utilities should be to serve the home in order that science may supplant excessive drudgery there.

Chambers of Commerce and similar bodies of men have been prominent as volunteer associations initiating or supporting public activities. In this connection a curious fact lies in the selection of a woman as secretary of the Chamber of Commerce in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her first task was to straighten out the funds so that there might be a basis for work of any kind. Women serve in auxiliary groups to Chambers of Commerce and the main group often relies for the success of an enterprise upon the hard work of its auxiliary members. In Santa Fé the women have their own Board of Trade.

It is not alone in the advancement of “general enlightenment” on civic matters that women are interested. Often, through their clubs and associations, they join actively in municipal campaigns for specific reforms. Indeed, it may be said that in every recent effort to “clean-up a city’s politics” in the United States, the enlistment of the women, as individuals and in organizations, has been a voluntary or requested factor. Sometimes we find forceful women, single-handed and alone, leading a fight for the betterment of municipal politics. Such a contest was waged by Virginia Brooks, in the town of Hammond, Indiana, and it may well be told here in her own words, taken from the National Municipal Review:

According to your request I will tell you a few of my activities in West Hammond. You have probably read of my long fight, extending over a year and a half, to rid West Hammond of a graft ring that has been assessing the Poles out of house and home for rotten improvements, which represented about 25 cents on the dollar. I might run over the incidents briefly. I was a musician by profession and knew little of business or property, when I was confronted with $20,000 worth of assessments on a little piece of property left to my mother by my father upon his death.