Seeking the Highest Good: Social Service and Gender at the University of Toronto, 1888-1937

Abstract By examining forms of social thought articulated by members of the University of Toronto between 1888 and 1910, this paper argues that the University's first response to urban poverty was shaped by a combination of assumptions derived from British idealism and empiricism. Although many women at Toronto were pursuing a new interest in professional social work, the University's dominant assumptions conveyed the view that social service was the particular responsibility of educated young men, who were believed to be uniquely suited by their gender and class to address the problems of the city. This study maintains that during this period the construction of gender roles in social service segregated the reform activities of men and women on campus, and, by 1910, had the effect of excluding female undergraduates from participating in the creation of University Settlement, the social agency officially sanctioned by their University.

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Seeking the highest good: social service at the University of Toronto, 1888-1937.

10.22215/etd/1994-02617 ◽

1994 ◽

Author(s):

Sara Burke

Keyword(s):

Social Service ◽

Highest Good ◽

University Of Toronto ◽

The University

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Defining Whiteness: Race, Class, and Gender Perspectives in North American History

International Labor and Working-Class History ◽

10.1017/s0147547901214525 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 60 ◽

pp. 203-206 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Catherine Carstairs

Keyword(s):

North American ◽

American History ◽

The United States ◽

University Of Toronto ◽

International Labor ◽

Working Class History ◽

Long Time ◽

Gender Perspectives ◽

And Gender ◽

The University

African-American writers such as W. E. B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, and Ida B. Wells have regarded “whiteness” as a problem for a long time. However, it is only fairly recently that white historians have taken seriously the importance of de-naturalizing “whiteness,” and critically examining its privileges. “Defining Whiteness: Race, Class, and Gender Perspectives in North American History,” was sponsored by the University of Toronto and York History Departments, the Centre for the Study of the United States, and the Centre for Ethnic and Pluralism Studies at the University of Toronto, with the cooperation of International Labor and Working-Class History and the Canadian Committee on Labour History and its journal Labour/Le Travail. Conference organizers invited several leading American scholars of “whiteness” to Toronto, where they, along with a number of Canadian scholars, presented papers on the ways that whiteness has been constructed in North America. The conference contained much to interest labor historians and those interested in class/race/gender analytical frameworks.

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On the 32C(ulture) of Eglington

Caribbean Quilt ◽

10.33137/caribbeanquilt.v1i0.19041 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

pp. 21

Author(s):

Savitri Persaud

Keyword(s):

Gender Studies ◽

Gender Violence ◽

Women And Gender ◽

University Of Toronto ◽

Women And Gender Studies ◽

And Gender ◽

The University

Savitri Persaud is currently a master’s student at the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto. Her research analyzes the intersections between gender, violence, disability, and modernity in Guyana.

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