Overview
This lecture examines the social purity movement in antebellum America, focusing on changing attitudes toward prostitution, gender roles, and women's collective reform efforts.
The Social Purity Movement
- Social purity was a movement aiming to combat commercialized sex (prostitution) in 19th-century America.
- Early reformers viewed women in the sex trade as "fallen women" who had lost their purity.
- Organizations like the Magdalen Society and Penitent Females Refuge were created to "save" these women.
- Over time, focus shifted to criticizing male clients and those who recruited women into prostitution.
Female Moral Reform Societies
- The New York Female Moral Reform Society (founded 1834) became the American Female Moral Reform Society in 1840.
- The society led a network of over 500 auxiliary groups across both urban and rural areas.
- Published the Advocate of Moral Reform newspaper, which had about 20,000 subscribers.
Changing Ideology and Activities
- The Advocate criticized the sexual double standard, holding men equally or more responsible for prostitution.
- Promoted "sisterhood"—a sense of shared identity among women, including those in the sex trade.
- Activities included visiting and praying with sex workers, exposing clients' names, holding vigils outside brothels, and disrupting brothel business.
- Efforts to create homes for former sex workers failed due to higher earnings in prostitution compared to other available jobs.
- The society established an employment bureau for poor women, but job options were limited and poorly paid.
Critique of Gendered Poverty and Labor
- The movement evolved to critique the broader economic system that limited women's employment options.
- Reformers blamed businessmen and industrialists for suppressing female wages, which pushed women into the sex trade.
- These critiques laid groundwork for broader challenges to male privilege.
Key Terms & Definitions
- Social purity movement — Campaign to end commercialized sex and prostitution, originally focused on women's morality.
- Fallen women — Term used for women believed to have lost their sexual purity by engaging in prostitution.
- Sexual double standard — Ideology that judges men and women by different standards regarding sexual behavior.
- Sisterhood — Solidarity and shared identity among women, crossing class lines.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Prepare for the next lecture, which will examine the temperance movement and its role in women's reform activities.