Scrutiny in the Modern City: The domestic public and the Toronto Local Council of Women at the turn of the twentieth century

In this article I argue that late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century, 'white' Protestant bourgeois women acted publicly and engaged in the production of public space, while disregarding the moral geographies now associated with such women's mobility. Highlighting the urban/social reform activities of the Toronto Local Council of Women, this article argues that their unlimited use of public space combines with domestic ideology's dictate to protect the home. Requiring women to scrutinize public space for threats against their families, home-protection compelled domestic public women to discover, assess and correct city-hazards, irrespective of moral geographies.