When we use the term "Goody Two-Shoes" in everyday conversation, we are talking about someone who follows the rules to make themselves look good. But the original meaning of "Goody" was a shortened form of the title "Goodwife." In the 1765 novel The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes, the title character's name is Margery Meanwell, and got the nickname "Two-Shoes" when she was given a pair of shoes. She is an impoverished orphan who fights her way into a decent life by her own hard work and ambition. In other words, a progressive woman.
Over the course of the novel, Margery teaches herself to read, foils a major robbery, founds a school, earns her own living, stands up for animal rights and overcomes accusations of witchcraft. She was everything that 18th- and 19th-century British society thought women shouldn’t be: poor, well-educated, self-made and unmarried (at least until the last few pages).
Margery Meanwell was certainly "good," because she not only improved her lot but that of those around her. However, she did it by breaking the rules of social class and gender that were established at the time. The book was astoundingly popular among both boys and girls, and ushered in a whole new genre of literature- books aimed at child readers. Read up on The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes, the book -and the character- that started it all at Smithsonian.