A good social work: women's clubs, libraries, and the construction of a secular society in Utah, 1890-1920.

Publisher: University of Texas Press Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 101289358 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Print ISSN: 1932-4855 (Print) Linking ISSN: 19324855 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Libr Cult Rec

Original Publication: Austin, TX : University of Texas Press, c2006-

Education*/economics ; Education*/history ; Libraries*/economics ; Libraries*/history ; Social Change*/history ; Social Responsibility* ; Women, Working*/education ; Women, Working*/history ; Women, Working*/legislation & jurisprudence ; Women, Working*/psychology; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints/history ; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints/psychology ; History, 19th Century ; History, 20th Century ; Organizations/economics ; Organizations/history ; Secularism/history ; Utah/ethnology ; Women's Rights/economics ; Women's Rights/education ; Women's Rights/history ; Women's Rights/legislation & jurisprudence

After the renunciation of polygamy, Mormon women formed secular women's clubs as a means of collaborating with non-Mormon women in the construction of a shared secular society. Their common goal was the establishment and maintenance of the mainstream American social order. Activity in these clubs extended women's sphere into the public realm through socially acceptable public activities such as the temperance cause, civic improvements, political reform movements, and child welfare. The women campaigned for public support of libraries as institutions that would construct, preserve, and transmit American culture, educate the young, strengthen the home and family, and reform society.

Date Created: 20110915 Date Completed: 20110930 Latest Revision: 20191027

20240628

10.1353/lac.2011.0012

21913366