American urban parks were a nineteenth-century attempt to right the imbalances of industrialization and urbanization. Unlike their European predecessors, American public parks have been intimately linked with urban problems. Park advocates have offered various types and styles of parks at different times as ways to solve those social difficulties and redress those imbalances. Each model has had implications for women's place in public life. Because "women" as a category have not been perceived as an urban problem, park policymakers have used females primarily to help ameliorate other problems which disrupted social order, such as alcoholism, prostitution, psychological anonymity, loss of community, physical degeneration due to lack of exercise, disease, delinquency, and the absence of a shared civic order. The deployment of women has changed with specific historical perceptions of what was wrong with society and the city. The pleasure ground (1850-1900) was an antidote to the ills of the rapidly industrializing city, visually and programmatically its antithesis, with a curving, picturesque landscape and emphasis on mental refreshment. The standards of order, for both the physical environment and social intercourse, would help set common values for the diverse population. Women played a key role in that scenario. The reform park (1900-1930) accepted industrial life and attempted to rationalize it by siting the park near working-class tenements and by stressing physical exercise, supervision, and organization, while minimizing the significance of fine art and nature appreciation. Physical degeneration and juvenile delinquency were prominent urban issues which the playground would help solve. Focus on these problems diverted attention to boys more than to girls. The recreation facility (1930-65) rested on the claim that recreation