ABSTRACT
The most prominent feature of these voluntary associations was the local nature of the groups. Early nineteenth-century groups like the NEW YORK FEMALE MORAL REFORM SOCIETY or the Female Labor Reform Association in Lowell, Massachusetts, worked locally, but on national is-
sues. Within communities women sometimes came together in diverse and multicultural groups that fostered connections across class and race lines. Voluntary associations began as church or charitable societies, but by mid-century expanded into temperance, abolition, women’s rights, and other moral reforms. In the late nineteenth century reform-minded women increasingly embraced “social housekeeping,” or the idea that women were responsible for developing social work, urban development, immigrant education, labor reform, and other issues of social welfare.
