WELFARE AND THE ROLE OF WOMEN - THE JUVENILE-COURT MOVEMENT

Only in recent years, largely as a consequence of developments in women's history, have scholars begun to explore the role of women in the building of the welfare state. By placing gender at the centre of their vision, these historians have questioned established certainties and undercut old paradigms. Analysis of the role of women in welfare has, moreover, influenced the wider history of women, bringing to light new facets of a major organizing concept for historians of women: the interaction between public and private spheres.1This paper, therefore, has two linked purposes: to review recent scholarship on women’s role in welfare and, through an analysis of the juvenile court movement, one of the major social welfare reforms of the Progressive Era, to identify issues of controversy and debate among historians of women and welfare. © 1994, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.