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85 4 mothers฀of฀urban฀skies e n v i r o n m e n ta l฀e d u c at i o n฀a n d฀t h e฀r h e t o r i c฀ ฀ o f฀w o m e n ’s฀a c t i v i s m After all, the chief purpose of all gasp’s volunteer effort is to make our community a healthier place for our kids to live and breathe. —gasp press release, 1975 In the early 1970s, the Group Against Smog and Pollution published this description of their mission: “gasp works within the system in a responsible manner— prodding or supporting as necessary. gasp does not ask the impossible—but does demand compliance at the earliest possible moment within the state of the art of pollution control.” This is a nuanced political statement, balancing claims to mainstream legitimacy with references to scientific and technical knowledge. Listen to the careful choice of language: “working within the system” describes the members as thoughtful, well-meaning, and progressive-minded citizens in a successful democracy; they’re “responsible,” and do “not ask the impossible,” thus forestalling criticism concerning the realities of workplace economics and the importance of industrial jobs in Pittsburgh; they are “prodding or supporting” as watchdogs that might assist the current regime rather than overthrow it, and in any case would only “prod” regulators and regulated alike, presumably in the direction in which those institutions had already chosen to proceed. They are so reasonable, flexible, and free of dogma that they can bring their support or stimulus “as necessary .” Their only demand is “compliance” with existing laws, and that of course is tempered by knowledge of what is possible “within the state of the art of pollution control.” This text is an outstanding example of strategy, political triangulation, and carefully chosen rhetoric—and it appeared in the opening pages of a cookbook titled Party Cookies Only.1 In fact, much of gasp’s fund-raising, organizing, and educational activities took place in what might be termed women’s social space, through cookbooks, garden clubs, schools, and a network of women’s social and civic groups. Although women provided the organizational backbone of gasp, often served as leaders, and steered the organization into educational missions and rhetorical expressions reflective of 86฀•฀c i t i z e n฀e n v i r o n m e n ta l i s t s their goals, gasp did not identify itself specifically as a gender-segregated organization . Professional men appeared in leadership roles just as often as women. As a result, historians and political scientists have written about gasp only in terms of its apparently gender-neutral environmental politics, without prying beneath the surface and observing the explicitly maternalist rhetoric and female organizational base of the organization. Noted political scientist Charles O. Jones wrote an entire book on the politics of air pollution control in Pittsburgh during his time there in the 1970s, and his contemporaneous account describes gasp as a civic organization with scientific expertise without mentioning gasp’s gendered rhetoric or educational mission at all.2 Many historians of the modern environmental movement—that is, the groundswell of environmental concern and activism marked by the first Earth Day in 1970 but with philosophical and organizational roots throughout the postwar era—have overlooked the importance of the gendered rhetoric of that movement. This oversight exists despite the extensive histories of civic and urban reformers of previous time periods, in particular the Progressive Era. These studies have demonstrated the importance of women’s groups and activism. Maureen Flanagan, Sueellen Hoy, and Andrea Kornbluh have all explored what Kornbluh calls the “unique relationship between women and the city” evident in Progressive Era women’s civic organizations.3 Many environmental historians have examined the gendered logic underlying American history, from Virginia Scharff’s edited volume Seeing Nature through Gender to Carolyn Merchant’s groundbreaking work in The Death of Nature and elsewhere. And historian Adam Rome has specifically urged additional exploration of the role of women’s activism within his appeal for history that places environmentalism within the context of the 1960s.4 But most historians of the modern environmental movement have not spent as much time identifying the gendered roots of activism in the 1960s and 1970s, preferring to link the rise of environmentalism with increasing concerns over population pressure, scientific and technological change, and evolving aesthetics of the leisure class...

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