“‘Look like a girl, think like a man, act like a lady, and work like a dog’: homemaking and American women state legislators, 1945-1965”

In the postwar period (roughly the years 1945-1965), American society looked to the home –and women’s place in it – for security and strength. As the Cold War developed, women’s domesticity was central to the American way of life. However, many women considered their roles as homemakers to be intertwined with their citizenship; to be good women, citizens, and homemakers, they must be active participants in their communities. A strong America depended on strong communities, so women became involved through their women’s clubs in “civic housekeeping” – engaging in community improvement, beautification, and organization as an extension of their homemaking, tending to the community as they did their homes, as their roles as citizens demanded.

Some of those women who became well-known in their clubs and communities would come to the attention of local political parties, who asked them to run for state legislatures on the strength of their civic housekeeping. Using the skills and connections they had developed through their women’s clubs, these homemakers ran frugal, personal campaigns that emphasized their domesticity. Though women were largely excluded from electoral politics at this time, by embracing their status as homemakers, these women were able to strategically run for and serve in office without compromising themselves, continuing to serve their communities from the state legislature.