Suffragists emerged primarily out of this group of middle-class women who had been educated and had a family whose income could support their voluntary labor. Although a number of clubwomen became advocates for woman’s suffrage, these elite clubwomen were also the primary members of the highly organized antisuffrage movement as well. While the connection to reform and suffrage is very significant, the two ideas are entirely distinct. Women reformers had a very specific vision of gendered citizenship, which developed largely out of existing gender norms and the new problem of professionalizing newly educated women. Many new political avenues that afforded women access to positions involving child welfare and regulations for female workers emerged. Many such reformers wanted to find a place for women in politics outside of the electoral process. 

The reform efforts of Progressive Era women have often been referred to by both historians and contemporaries as “municipal housekeeping.” The term developed as part of the longstanding values of the Cult of True Womanhood. Municipal housekeeping argued that the welfare of a city directly influenced the welfare of their own homes – the private sphere over which women had domain. In order to help preserve the health and welfare of their own families, municipal housekeepers implored that they must maintain the health and welfare of the wider public. Through activism like sanitation, food safety, and poverty, women were not only affecting positive change for their community, but also for their own homes. Margaret Flanagan suggested that by situating city hall as a part of their own homes, women could easily justify extending their influence into the political arena. The term, she claimed “enabled women to become involved in every facet of urban affairs without arousing opposition from those who believed woman’s only place was in the home.”
If women could extend their influence into politics on behalf of reform, suffragists argued that women required the vote as a tool for protecting their families, their homes, and their communities. Many clubwomen wanted to actively participate in politics to elicit their specific brands of reform. And although a number of clubwomen, municipal housekeepers, and other reformers rejected the claims by suffragists that women wanted and needed the vote, suffragists, themselves, promoted this idea heavily in their own media.
Progressive Era women have often been referred to by both historians and contemporaries as “municipal housekeeping.” The term developed as part of the longstanding values of the Cult of True Womanhood. Municipal housekeeping argued that the welfare of a city directly influenced the welfare of their own homes – the private sphere over which women had domain. In order to help preserve the health and welfare of their own families, municipal housekeepers implored that they must maintain the health and welfare of the wider public. Through activism like sanitation, food safety, and poverty, women were not only affecting positive change for their community, but also for their own homes. Margaret Flanagan suggested that by situating city hall as a part of their own homes, women could easily justify extending their influence into the political arena. The term,
she claimed “enabled women to become involved in every facet of urban affairs without arousing opposition from those who believed woman’s only place was in the home.”^[3]

If women could extend their influence into politics on behalf of reform, suffragists argued that women required the vote as a tool for protecting their families, their homes, and their communities. Many clubwomen wanted to actively participate in politics to elicit their specific brands of reform. And although a number of clubwomen, municipal housekeepers, and other reformers rejected the claims by suffragists that women wanted and needed the vote, suffragists, themselves, promoted this idea heavily in their own media.