Jewish Girls’ Street Peddling in Gilded Age Philadelphia: Ethnic Niche, Family Strategy, and Sexual Danger

Historians of US cities in the Gilded Age have treated children's street work as a boys' domain, but many girls worked in the streets as well. Drawing on the case records of the Philadelphia Society to Protect Children from Cruelty, this article focuses on Jewish girl street peddlers. Girls' street work was part of a family and ethnic economic strategy for immigrant girls and their families, but it was opposed by urban reformers. In 1901, Philadelphia banned girls under sixteen from working on the streets, signaling new limits on girls' autonomy and mobility.