The plan of this volume demands a few words of explanation. It was originally intended to be a collection of readings illustrating the varied phases of women’s work in municipalities, but an examination of the available literature failed to reveal succinct, up-to-date summaries of the several important branches of that work. It was therefore necessary to search the records of hundreds of organizations and societies in order to obtain a just view of the extent and character of the labors of women for civic improvement of all kinds. Accordingly the volume as finally drafted combines both readings and original surveys.

The method followed has been dominated by a fourfold purpose: (1) to give something like an adequate notion of the extent and variety of women’s interests and activities in cities and towns without attempting a statistical summary or evaluation; (2) to indicate, in their own words, the spirit in which women have approached some of their most important problems; (3) to show to women already at work and those just becoming interested in civic matters, the interrelation of each particular effort with larger social problems; and (4) to reflect the general tendencies of modern social work as they appear under the guidance of men and women alike.

The task has been difficult owing to the immense amount of material which months of research accumulated and the limitations of space which made necessary the compression of important narrative and descriptive accounts within a narrow compass. This difficulty has been further increased by the desire to escape the danger of overemphasizing women’s activities in great cities and of omitting the no less important and significant work of women in smaller towns. Even at the risk of distorting the perspective by giving much space to minor cities and to local club activities, it has seemed worth while to make the book truly representative of American urban life as a whole. All city dwellers do not live in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia.

Limited as are the purposes of the book and serious as its shortcomings may be, it certainly contains the material and suggestions which warrant a new interpretation of that age-worn slogan, “Cherchez la femme,” so long the final suggestion to those who would do detective work into the causes of waywardness in men.

One who accepts the challenge of this slogan and attempts an investigation into the activities of modern women, as here imperfectly outlined, may come to the conclusion that, instead of being the source of all evil, woman comes quite as near to being the source of all good. This does not interfere with the belief that she might be the source of more good.

The “female of the species” may still be pictured as “more deadly than the male” but her attack, we find, is not upon man but upon the common enemies of man and woman. If this new evaluation of woman’s work in civilization seems to err on the side of woman, we shall be satisfied if it helps to bring about a re-evaluation which shall include women not in an incidental way but as people of flesh and blood and brain—feeling, seeing, judging and directing, equally with men, all the great social forces which mold character and determine general comfort, well-being and happiness.

Whichever evaluation is ultimately accepted, the following data are offered not for the purpose of imparting an inflated sense of woman’s importance. Indeed, in spite of what she has done, woman must still feel humble in the presence of the work outlined for the future and of the human problems that appeal to her for solution. Instead, therefore, of seeking to inspire an exaggerated ego by means of this story of woman’s achievements and visions, it is told in the hope that, by the assembling of hitherto disconnected threads and an attempt at the classification of civic efforts, more women may be induced to participate in the social movements that are changing the modes of living and working and playing, and that those who have watched their own threads too closely, may perhaps lift their eyes long enough to look at the whole social fabric which they are helping to weave.

Finally the story is told in the hope that more men may realize that women have contributions of value to make to public welfare in all its forms and phases, and come to regard the entrance of women into public life with confidence and cordiality, accepting in their coÖperation, if not in their leadership, a situation full of promise and good cheer.