I expected that my reference to the Practical Conservative’s post arguing that homeschooling undermined conservative political advocacy would generate quite a bit of discussion. And it did. There are a lot of substantive comments on the thread that are well worth reading.
I think one point of confusing is that while I used the term “activism” in the title, she refers to “organizing,” with a broader implication. She refers to things like the founding of La Leche League in addition to just pure politics like opposing the ERA.
To shed more light on the social organizing function women played in communities prior to the mass entry of married women into the workforce and the homeschooling movement, I’ll share an excerpt from Brian Alexander’s book Glass House: The 1% Economy and the Shattering of the All-American Town.
Glass House is about the destructive role of private equity in undermining communities. It will tell you more about how the economy really works today than any conservative writings will. It’s very much on my recommended reading list.
Alexander is definitely a liberal, but his keen journalistic observations make any number of perhaps unintended conservative points.
Here’s what he wrote about the role women used to play in his subject community of Lancaster, Ohio:
Through it all, Nancy threw herself into civic life. She was invited to join Twig 1 (of several Twigs), a women’s group with a mission to raise funds for the hospital. She volunteered as a “gray lady” in the hospital, working in a gray uniform at the reception desk, distributing newspapers to rooms, selling snacks.
She campaigned for school levies. When Nancy came to town, there were four main elementary schools, dating from the 1920s and 1930s and prosaically named West, North, East, and South. They were the result of a series…
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