Reforming the Social Order

The experience of dramatic economic and social changes prompted artists and writers to focus on emerging social problems and inspired the creation of new organizations for social reform. Middle-class women often took the lead in establishing charitable organizations that tried to bring religious faith, educational uplift, and the reform of manners to the lower classes. The middle class, both men and women, expected women to soften the rigors of a rapidly changing society, but this expectation led to some confusion about women’s proper role: Should they devote themselves to social reform in the world or to their own domestic spaces? Many hoped to apply the same zeal for reform to the colonial peoples living in places administered by Europeans.