Annotation 1

Maureen Flanagan. “Gender and Urban Political Reform: The City Club and the Woman’s City Club of Chicago in the Progressive Era,” in Who Were the Progressives?, ed. Glenda Gilmore. New York: Bedford Books, 2002. Print.

Flanagan presents the differences in goverment decision making between genders. He utilizes The City Club of Chicago, which is composed of only male figures, and The Woman's City Club of Chicago to compare and contrast the interests of each. He addresses the idea that the men tend to lean more to a business related view. Flanagan observes that the women withheld stronger interests of the general welfare of the people. In the issue of trash collection as addressed in this article, the men made their decisions based on economical standards and followed paths that would prove beneficial in their own personal and government interests. The women believed trash collection should be focused on the better of the people. It should be evolved out of the people's convenience, affordability, and health standards.

Flanagan hold's a bias in the aspect that he is a man and may therefore favor the male position. He presented legitimate facts to uphold his argument which, in turn, increases the validity of his argument. He presents both aspects of the issues at hand from both the men and women which suggests he recognized his personal bias and worked to erase this bias as best he could.

This article directly addresses my topic of gender differences in decision making. Flanagan presents both views and supplies me with definite differences in the mental processes of males and females. I can see here that men think more for providing for their own and take the upperhand in issues if possible. Women tend to think out of morality and the nature of life which is logical in the sense that they are the mothers of the race.