Saving Milk Through Masculinity: Public Health Officers and Pure Milk, 1880–1930

Abstract

In the early twentieth and late nineteenth centuries, milk was considered both the perfect food and a vector for many diseases. Given this dichotomy, the protection of the milk supply became one of the most important jobs of urban public health officers. In taking on this task, male public health officers took control of a substance that, because of its association with women and child-rearing, was considered feminine. This paper follows the promotion and protection of milk by public health departments and officials during the period 1880–1930 and the importance of masculinity in shaping this history. Masculinity affected milk protection in two major ways. First, male public health officers partially appropriated a task formerly often performed by women. Second, in order to protect milk, it was separated from its female origins through technology and regulation.