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Club Women and the Provision of Local Public Goods

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Public Choice Analyses of American Economic History

Part of the book series: Studies in Public Choice ((SIPC,volume 39))

Abstract

Despite the variety of legal, political, and social barriers facing women who sought to contribute to public life in the 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States, women’s clubs emerged as prominent contributors to local public goods within their communities. Club women constructed public walkways, managed beautification projects, coordinated fire-fighting services, offered medical and financial relief to poorer community members, advocated for local reforms, and facilitated a variety of educational opportunities for themselves and others. In this paper, we draw on the theory of local public goods as developed by Elinor Ostrom, and other contributors to the Bloomington school of institutional analysis, to explain women’s contributions to these various goods in the context of their organizational rules and the benefits of women’s club membership.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Thanks to Peter Boettke for providing us with this example.

  2. 2.

    Despite generally being an exceptional opportunity for women to exercise their voices, there were two subjects that many clubs explicitly discouraged discussing, out of fear of controversy: religion and women’s suffrage (Binkley 2002).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mercatus Center, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 22030, USA

    Jayme Lemke

  2. Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA, 90263, USA

    Julia R. Norgaard

Authors
  1. Jayme Lemke
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  2. Julia R. Norgaard
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Correspondence to Jayme Lemke .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA

    Joshua Hall

  2. Department of Economics, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA

    Marcus Witcher

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Lemke, J., Norgaard, J.R. (2019). Club Women and the Provision of Local Public Goods. In: Hall, J., Witcher, M. (eds) Public Choice Analyses of American Economic History. Studies in Public Choice, vol 39. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11313-1_1

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