Women and the Day Nursery Movement

The Day Nursery Movement
In her article “‘Of Women, by Women, and for Women’: The Day Nursery Movement in the Progressive-Era,” Anne Durst describes the Day Nursery Movement that got underway in the early 20th century as a result of progressive-minded women looking to help single mothers who needed someone to watch their young children while they went to work to earn a living for their families. The purpose of Durst in writing the article was to highlight Day Nursery Movement in America and show how women worked together to help one another at a critical time in Progressive America. Durst’s article is well-researched and information and sheds light on a subject that is usually off people’s radar. Durst’s main thesis is that the Day Nursery Movement held women come together for one of the first times in American history and create a real social movement designed to be by and for women.
The article shows the struggles of ordinary women in the early 20th century to make it on their own while supporting a small family by themselves. It shows how some women turned to family for help and how others moved across the country to find opportunities for themselves only to realize they still needed help looking after their young. The Day Nursery Movement is shown to have sprung up as part of the recognition among women that they needed to look out for one another and for the young children because no one else was going to do it for them.
The author challenges the historical viewpoint that women were always dependent upon men in the early 20th century. It shows that this historical viewpoint is actually not rooted in the facts: women were very much capable of acting independently, as the Day Nursery Movement showed. The evidence utilized by the author included primary sources like newspapers and the articles of the National Federation of Day Nurseries to paint the picture of the times.
I personally liked the article because it focused on something I did not know about and convinced me that women in the early 20th century were quite capable of taking charge and working to make a difference. There was not anything that I did not like about the article. It was easy to read and interesting all the way through. I did think the author could have made the work stronger by incorporating some longer personal narrative pieces to really bring out the human touch.
The recommended audience for this article is anyone interested in 20th century America, the Progressive Movement, Women’s Movement, or general history. This article contributes to understanding the history of the United States by showing that this country has been more than just a business run by a patriarchy—it has also been a community in which people do indeed try to help each other while at the same time having to fight for their rights in other ways. This article does a good job of showing how even an issue like nursery care is complex, which is how it supports Foner’s Give Me Liberty: issues are not just black and white in America.
The importance of this work is that it focuses on a real life American issue that most people are likely to take for granted today—but 100 years ago there was a real struggle that single mothers faced, and this article tells that story. A suggest reading that could accompany this article would be The Other Women’s Movement: Workplace Justice and Social Rights in Modern America by Dorothy Sue Cobble, which looks at the struggles women faced throughout the 20th century and would complement Durst’s article very well.
Works Cited
Durst, Anne. “‘Of Women, By Women, and For Women’: The Day Nursery Movement in the Progressive-era United States.” Journal of Social History 39.1 (2005): 141-159.