'Save our shores': Gender, race, and class politics in grassroots environmental activism

After World War II, Midwestern housewives and mothers discussed land use and pollution in coffee klatches, during club meetings, and at social gatherings. When commercial expansion threatened their residential qualities of life, some environmentally-minded women even created organizations geared toward the preservation of natural spaces near their homes. In doing so, they made preservation efforts an extension of traditionally feminine responsibilities. Their activism also became a vehicle for personal growth. Taking a closer look at these organizations, however, it becomes clear that members of the newly emerging environmental movement were not as environmentally-motivated as one might expect. This project uses the Save the Dunes Council, a women's group based in northwestern Indiana, as a lens to reveal how middle-class housewives used grassroots activism to challenge, and in some instances reinforce, traditional gender roles, racial inequalities, and class divides that characterized the post-World War II suburban ideal.