History of Women in the United States. Volume 16 Women Together: Organizational Life [Reprint 2012 ed.] 9783110971118, 9783598414701

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HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES Historical Articles on Women's Lives and Activities

Edited by Nancy F. Cott Series ISBN 3-598-41454-4 1.

Theory and Method in W o m e n ' s History ISBN 3-598-41455-2 Part 1 ISBN 3-598-41477-3 Part 2

2.

Household Constitution and Family Relationships ISBN 3-598-41456-0 Domestic Relations and Law ISBN 3-598-41457-9

3.

4.

Domestic Ideology and Domestic Work ISBN 3-598-41458-7 Part 1 ISBN 3-598-41475-7 Part 2

11.

W o m e n ' s Bodies: Health and Childbirth ISBN 3-598-41465-X

12.

Education ISBN 3-598-41466-8

13.

Religion ISBN 3-598-41467-6

14.

Intercultural and Interracial Relations ISBN 3-598-41468-4

15.

Women and War ISBN 3-598-41469-2

16.

Women Together: Organizational Life ISBN 3-598-41470-6

17.

Social and Moral Reform ISBN 3-598-41471-4 Part 1 ISBN 3-598-41695-4 Part 2

5.

The Intersection of Work and Family Life ISBN 3-598-41459-5 Part 1 ISBN 3-598-41476-5 Part 2

6.

Working on the Land ISBN 3-598-41460-9

7.

Industrial Wage Work ISBN 3-598-41461-7 Part 1 ISBN 3-598-41693-8 Part 2

18.

Women and Politics ISBN 3-598-41472-2 Part 1 ISBN 3-598-41697-0 Part 2

8.

Professional and White-Collar Employments ISBN 3-598-41462-5 Part 1 ISBN 3-598-41694-6 Part 2

19.

Woman Suffrage ISBN 3-598-41473-0 Part 1 ISBN 3-598-41696-2 Part 2

20. 9.

Prostitution ISBN 3-598-41463-3

Feminist Struggles for Sex Equality ISBN 3-598-41474-9

10. Sexuality and Sexual Behavior ISBN 3-598-41464-1

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES Historical Articles on Women's Lives and Activities

•

Women Together: Organizational Life

Edited with an Introduction by

Nancy F. Cott Yale University

K G · Saur Munich · New Providence · London · Paris · 1994

Publisher's Note The articles and chapters which comprise this collection originally appeared in a wide variety of publications and are reproduced here in facsimile from the highest quality offprints and photocopies available. The reader will notice some occasional marginal shading and text-curl common to photocopying from tightly bound volumes. Every attempt has been made to either correct or minimize this effect. Copyright information for articles reproduced in this collection appears at the end of this volume. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data History of women in the United States : historical articles on women's lives and activities / edited with an introduction by Nancy F. Cott. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Contents: 1. Theory and method in women's history — 2. Household constitution and family relationships — 3. Domestic relations and law — 4. Domestic ideology and domestic work — 5. The intersection of work and family life — 6. Working on the land — 7. Industrial wage work -- 8. Professional and white-collar employments ~ 9. Prostitution --10. Sexuality and sexual behavior - 1 1 . Women's bodies - 12. Education — 13. Religion - 14. Intercultural and interracial relations - 15. Women and war — 16. Women together --17. Social and moral reform — 18. Women and politics 19. Woman suffrage - 20. Feminist struggles for sex equality. ISBN 3-598-41454-4 (set) 1. Women-United States-History. 2. Women-United States-Social conditions. I. Cott, Nancy F. HQ1410.H57 1992 305.4Ό973—dc20 92-16765 CIP

Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP - Einheitsaufnahme History of Women in the United States: historical articles on women's lives and activities / ed. with an introd. by Nancy F. Cott. - Munich ; New Providence ; London ; Paris : Saur. ISBN 3-598-41454-4 NE: Cott, Nancy F. (Hrsg.) Vol. 16. women together: organizational life - (1994) ISBN 3-598-41470-6

®

Printed on acid-free paper/Gedruckt auf säurefreiem Papier All Rights Strictly Reserved/Alle Rechte vorbehalten K.G. Saur Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Munich 1994 A Reed Reference Publishing Company Printed in the United States of America Printed/Bound by Edwards Brothers Incorporated, Ann Arbor ISBN 3-598-41470-6 (vol. 16) ISBN 3-598-41454-4 (series)

Contents Series Preface Introduction

ix xi

The "Benevolent Fair": A Study of Charitable Organization among American Women in the First Third of the Nineteenth Century MARY BOSWORTH TREUDLEY

3

Ladies Bountiful: Organized Women's Benevolence in Early 19th-century America KEITH MELDER

17

Women in Groups: An Analysis of Women's Benevolent Organizations in New York and Boston, 1797-1840 ANNE M. BOYLAN

41

Timid Girls, Venerable Widows and Dignified Matrons: Life Cycle Patterns among Organized Women in New York and Boston, 1797-1840 ANNE M. BOYLAN

66

Two "Kindred Spirits": Sorority and Family in New England, 1839-1846 WILLIAM R. TAYLOR and CHRISTOPHER LASCH

85

A "Pleasingly Oppressive" Burden: The Transformation of Domestic Service and Female Charity in Salem, 1800-1840 CAROL S. LASSER

104

Business Heads and Sympathizing Hearts: The Women of the Providence Employment Society, 1837-1858 SUSAN PORTER BENSON

124

"True Philanthropy" and the Limits of the Female Sphere: Poor Relief and Labor Organizations in Ante-Bellum Cleveland MICHAEL J. McTIGHE

135

The Silent Charity: A History of the Cincinnati Maternity Society KRISTE LINDENMEYER DICK

165

ν

CONTENTS

The 1893 Congress of Jewish Women: Evolution or Revolution in American Jewish Women's History? DEBORAH GRAND GOLOMB

178

Organized Mother Love: The Buffalo Women's Educational and Industrial Union, 1885-1915 BRENDA K. SHELTON

194

"Our Sister's Keepers": The Minneapolis Woman's Christian Association and Housing for Working Women LYNN WEINER

217

Civilizing Kansas: Women's Organizations, 1880-1920 JUNE O. UNDERWOOD

247

Jewish Women of the Club: The Changing Public Role of Atlanta's Jewish Women (1870-1930) BETH S. WENGER

284

Mary Church Terrell and the National Association of Colored Women, 1896 to 1901 BEVERLY W. JONES

307

Toward a Broader Angle of Vision in Uncovering Women's History: Black Women's Clubs Revisited LYNDA F. DICKSON

.321

Beyond the Classroom: The Organizational Lives of Black Female Educators in the District of Columbia, 1890-1930 SHARON HARLEY

338

Women, Consumerism, and the National Consumers' League in the Progressive Era, 1900-1923 ALLIS ROSENBERG WOLFE

350

"Limited Ohly by Earth and Sky": The Louisville Woman's Club and Progressive Reform, 1900-1910 NANCY FORDERHASE

365

vi

CONTENTS

Kansas Federation of Colored W o m e n ' s Clubs, 1900-1930 MARILYN D E L L B R A D Y

382

Working Girls Unite J O A N N E REITANO

409

"Sisterhood and Sociability": The Utah W o m e n ' s Press Club, 1891-1928 LINDA T H A T C H E R and JOHN R. SILLITO

432

Separatism as Strategy: Female Institution Building and American Feminism, 1870-1930 ESTELLE F R E E D M A N

445

Copyright Information

463

Index

467

vii

Series Preface In the space of one generation, women's history has become the fastest-growing area of scholarship in U.S. history. Since the resurgence of feminism in the late 1960s and 1970s, insistent questions about the historical meanings of "woman's place" have sowed and reaped a garden of scholarship. Where scholarly works used to be bare of mention of women, academic enterprise has now produced a vigorous growth of books and articles, bringing to light diverse women of every region, race, class and age. This research is marked by a renovating intent that refuses to accept as "human" history a history of men. Interest is lively and debate is stimulating and sought after attendance at the Berkshire Conference on the History of Women rivals the size of the annual convention of the American Historical Association. While books in women's history are daily increasing in numbers and strength, as in any fast-developing field the scholarly literature in the form of articles is most expansive and up-to-the-minute. All the history journals now publish articles on women's work, domestic settings, family relations, household matters, female politics and organizations and so forth, and new journals have sprung into being to concentrate on such topics. Women's historians publish in numerous regional and thematic history journals as well as in feminist outlets and in journals of other social science disciplines. This series brings together a collection of outstanding articles from the field, almost all written in the past twenty years and more than half published during the 1980s. It brings together, in volumes organized by topic, essays otherwise widely dispersed. These volumes reprint only articles that originally appeared in journals, not chapters of books; review articles are not included. Articles have been chosen for overall quality and for range. Each one was chosen for one or more of the following reasons: because it is the standard authority on its subject matter; represents an important statement on a topic by a recognized scholar; presages an important book to come; provides a first look at new evidence or new methods; or opens an untapped area or new controversy. Older articles have been reprinted if their data or interpretation have not been surpassed or if they marked an important stage in the historiography, even if since superseded. The historical coverage of the series extends from the Revolutionary era to the 1960s. The articles themselves are dated from the 1940s through 1988. Volumes are organized by topic rather than time period. Within each volume, the

ix

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SERIES PREFACE

articles are ordered chronologically (with respect to substance), so that the whole can be read as an historical overview. The only exception to this ordering principle is Volume One, on Theory and Method, in which the contents are arranged in order of publication. Within each volume there is an attempt to include articles on as diverse kinds of women as possible. None of the volume topics is regionally or racially defined; rather, all volumes are topically designed so as to afford views of women's work, family lives, and public activities which cut across races and regions. Any volume in the series stands on its own, supplying as full a treatment of a designated subject matter as the scholarly literature will provide. Several groupings of volumes also make sense; that is, volumes two through five all center around domestic and family matters; volumes five through nine consider other varieties of women's work; volumes nine through eleven concern uses and abuses of women's bodies; volumes twelve through fourteen look at major aspects of socialization; and volumes fifteen through twenty include organizational and political efforts of many sorts. As a whole, the series displays in all its range the vitality of the field of women's history. Aside from imbuing U.S. history with new vision, scholarship in this area has informed, and should continue to inform, current public debate on issues from parental leave to the nuclear freeze. By bringing historical articles together under topical headings, these volumes both represent accurately the shape of historical controversy (or consensus) on given issues and make historians' findings most conveniently available for current reference.

Introduction Americans' propensity to form voluntary associations for public purposes was one of the things that most impressed the French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville when he visited the United States near 1830. "The Americans make associations to give entertainments, to found seminaries, to build inns, to construct churches, to diffuse books, to send missionaries to the antipodes; in this manner they found hospitals, prison and schools." Approving this phenomenon and immortalizing it in his classic Democracy in America, De Tocqueville regarded voluntary associations as an essential protection for the civic spirit of republicanism against the other decentralizing and individualizing tendencies of American life.1 The French visitor was noticing men's activities, but had he been paying particular attention to women he might well have drawn the same conclusion. Forming for war-related purposes during the Revolution and then surfacing and increasing from 1800 on, sex-based voluntary organizations have throughout U.S. history brought like-minded women together, fostered their self-development and their cooperative strength, and made possible women's tremendous contributions to religious, social and civic life. Besides the Revolutionary war-era associations to knit socks, boycott tea, make bandages, and raise money for the army, the earliest women's associations were prayer groups organized in churches. Women's charitable societies, first formed by elite women in the largest cities to aid poor widows and orphans—and sometimes to train domestic servants for wealthy women's employ—began to appear by 1800. Under the bright rays of revival religion during the Second Great Awakening, many more varieties of women's religious associations blossomed Women formed "cent" or "m ite" societies—to which each would donate her "mite," be it only a penny a week—to raise funds for several purposes. Aid to the deserving poor was one; support for missionaries to evangelize in cities or pioneer settlements in the U.S. or among the "heathen" around the world was another; the purchase orprinting of tracts and Bibles to distribute among the unchurched was a third. When the idea of "Sabbath School" for children was invented (to stem the working-class trend to see Sunday as a holiday rather than a holy day), women formed Sabbath School associations and taught in the church classrooms. By the 1830spious women were forming associations with their own interests and self-definitions more to the fore. "Moral reform" societies aimed to eliminate prostitution by reforming male clients, reclaiming the female "fallen," and ending the double standard of sexual morality which punished women severely for sins blinked at in men. In "maternal societies," members examined their roles and obligations as Christian mothers and considered the rearing of the next generation as a collective task. xi

xii

INTRODUCTION

For the first three decades of the nineteenth century almost all women's associations had a religious basis, but by the 1830s, in a era of quickening reform of many sorts, others began more frequently to appear associations of women pursuing health reform, educational aims, temperance, and the abolition of black slavery. While church networks continued to be essential and salient in bringing women into associations, the secular aims and impact of women's efforts mounted. The Civil War, by necessity, tremendously stimulated women's associational activities. Soldier's Aid societies sprouted North and South. A war-bom national welfare umbrella agency (first of its kind), the U.S. Sanitary Commission, gathered together the efforts of Northern women in hundreds of locales on an unprecedented scale, goading grass-roots activity and also raising women leaders of such welfare efforts to national prominence. After the Civil War, women's voluntary associations became a major and recognized part of national life. Church networks continued to gather together the greatest numbers of women, now often bringing them into organizations separate from the churches themselves. Missionary societies and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union both enrolled hundreds of thousands of members. Associations with secular reform aims multiplied: the reform of prisons and mental asylums, the advancement of women's education, the housing and protection of rural girls migrating to the city to earn wages were examples of causes commanding women's voluntary efforts. By the latter part of the nineteenth century women were beginning to organize around their professional or occupational interests or identities, too. Women lawyers, women with higher education and social science aims, women wage-earners formed clubs, cooperatives and associations. In the 1880s and 1890s clubs proliferated in towns and cities among middle-class women whose smaller families and household conveniences enabled them to think about self-improvement and about efforts for social betterment. These were numerous and important enough for their leaders to form first one national organization, the General Federation of Women's Clubs, in 1892, and then—because the "general" federation drew the color line—another, the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, in 1896. In the century before women got the vote in 1920, voluntary associations served as vehicles for women's political education and for the expression of politics. In their associations women wrote and debated and amended constitutions, elected officers, organized new members. In other words, they familiarized themselves with the processes of representative government, while they were prevented from doing so in the male political system; perhaps they even created their own female political culture. Moreover they gained the sympathy and cooperation of like-minded women, and the confirmation of group support. In voluntary associations women were able to invent and enact a public role for themselves, while the dominant gender ideology maintained that women's role was in the home. The practice of women's voluntary association entered alive and well into the twentieth century. The League of Women Voters and the Parent-Teacher

INTRODUCTION

xiii

Associations are perhaps the best known, but are only two of thousands of examples of such organizations that might be cited. It is highly probable that the greatest extent of associational activity in the whole history of American women took place between the two World Wars, after women became voters but before a great proportion of married women were in the labor force.2 The persistence of women's voluntary efforts in a century when women have the ballot, and can use the political tools available to men, indicates how strong and appealing this model of community involvement has been and remains for women. In this volume, articles focus on the public accomplishments but more emphatically on the internal dynamics of women's organizations. Between this one and volume XVII (Social and Μoral Reform) and volume XVIII (Women andPolitics) there is great continuity and overlap. The articles herein examine the composition and motivations of women's voluntary associations in greatest depth. Notes 1

See Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, [1831], Phillips Bradley ed. (N.Y., Vintage, 1945), vol I: 198-205; vol. II: 106,114-18,123-28. 2

See Nancy F. Cott, The Grounding of Modern Feminism (New Haven, CT, Yale Univ. Press, 1987), 85-99.

Women Together: Organizational Life

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

THE " B E N E V O L E N T F A I R " : A STUDY OF CHARIT A B L E ORGANIZATION AMONG AMERICAN WOMEN IN THE F I R S T THIRD OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY MARY BOSWORTH TREUDLEY

HE victorious conclusion of the Revolutionary War released an extraordinary amount of social energy among Americans. Along the eastern seaboard that energy was transformed into associations of all sorts, especially of an educational or humanitarian character. With men there were no taboos to delay the process of transferring European culture across the Atlantic by copying all the social devices that seemed worthy of imitation. But even in the greater freedom of American society, women were not accustomed to organize their activities publicly. The lag, however, could not be long since association was a primary characteristic of postwar society, while pioneer life and urban growth alike combined to free women for participation in every aspect of cultural development. Church sewing circles, to be sure, had been formed before the Revolution, whose earliest achievement was to outfit the soldiers who marched with General Braddock to his defeat.1 But credit for the initiation of charity organization among women is usually given to Anne Parrish, a young Quaker of Philadelphia. She visited in the homes made desolate by the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. By 1795 she had gathered her friends into what was at first called the "Friendly Circle" and, after its incorporation in 1 8 1 1 , the "Female Society of Philadelphia for the Relief and Employment of the Poor." It was designed to help "suffering fellow creatures, particularly widows and orphans," without "distinction of nation or colour."* The statement is often made that material culture tends to be diffused more rapidly than nonmaterial. But that is not always 1

Kate Gannett Wells, "What Women Have Done in Philanthropy," The Second Church in Boston, 164971899 (Boston, 1900), p. 117. ' Annual Report (1858).

3

4

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

true. In this case, the design for women's organizations spread very rapidly. In 1797 the New York Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children was organized by Isabella Marshall Graham. In 1798 a Quaker group in New York formed a relief society with one of those mouth-filling names beloved of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In 1799 the ladies of Baltimore began discussions which led to the opening of an orphanage in the following year. In 1802 in the same city, the Female Humane Society was formed to supply work to widows. The women of Savannah organized at as early a date as Baltimore. Boston, stirred by news from the South, founded the Boston Female Asylum in 1800. The Benevolent Society of Troy was started a few months sooner in that same year as was also the Female Association of Philadelphia for the Relief of Women and Children in Reduced Circumstances. Salem organized its Female Charitable Society in 1801, Providence had organized a similar society by 1801, and Charleston by 1802. Societies were at work in Newark, Newburyport, Portsmouth, and Albany by 1803.* The list is probably not complete even for the decade 1793-1803, but it gives some indication of the readiness with which women filled their new leisure with philanthropy. Charity was not the only excuse for their organization. At the same time numerous Bible, tract, and missionary societies were starting to work. Women were organizing, too, to supply young men of various brands of orthodoxy with training in theology, and they were busy also in spreading free education among the children of the poor through the Sundayschool movement. It is not quite true that organization took place first and a purpose for it was found afterward, but a particular situation of need tended to be merely the stimulus to action which might as well have taken place with some other end in view. Association was in the air. American men were not only not opposed to such organization of » Thomas Alden, A Discourse Delivered before the Members of the Portsmouth Fanale Asylum (1804); Samuel Srillman, A Discourse Delivered before the Members of the Boston Female Asylum (1801); Eiiphalet Nott, A Discourse Delivered ^before the Ladies? Society for the Relief of Distressed W.omen and Children of Albany (1804); William Bentley,ndon. 1787), pp. 19. 48. 9 Mrs. T r i m m e r . The Oeconomy of Charity: or an Address to the Ladies: Adapted to the Present State of Charitable Institutions in England, etc. (London. 1801). I. 3-4. m William Roberts. Esq.. Memoirs of the I.ife and Correspondence of Mrs. Hannah More (New York. 1835), I, 14. " Harriet Martincau. Society in America (2nd. edition, London, 1837) I I I . 219 Miss More s influence was not confined to women. T h e Rev. Henry C. Wright, an evangelical minister and reformer, soon to become a radical noli resistant and a Carrisonian alx>litionist. was deeply impressed by Hannah More. See his Commonplace Book and Journal (Boston), Ms., Henry C. Wright Papers. Boston Public Library, entry for February 4, 1835. 12 Charles I. Köster. An Et rand of Mercy: The Evangelical United Front 1790 111)7 (Chapel Hill. Ι9 (May 1823). 54 Daniel Chaplin. A Discourse Delivered Before the Charitable Female Society in G r o t o i i , October 19. 1814 (Amlover. 1814). pp. 8-9. Similar sentiments are expressed in Benjamin Wadsworth. A Sermon Delivered . . . at the Ret/nest of the Charitable Female (tut Society in Dimvers and Middleton, for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Xt.v. 7, 1816 (Andover. 1817). p. 26. 53 William Craig B r o u n Ice. 1). I).. For Christian Mission·,. An Oration, Delivered by Αfipointmeiit of the Hoard of Missions, in the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia May 23, 182=· (Philadelphia, 1825), pp. 21-22. 56 Ibid.. p. 22. 5" Address bv the- Right Rev. Bishop W h i l e in The Constitution of the Female Bible Society of Philadelphia (Philadelphia. 1814), p. 6. Similar arguments are urged in W. R. l)e\\itt. H ornau: Her Excellence and Usefulness (Harrishuig. Pa., 1841). p. II. 58 Chaplin. Discourse, p. S. 5!) S. P. W illiams, Plea for the Orphan, Deliveietl on the Annwersary of the Female Charitable Society, of Xcubnryport, May 21, 1822 ( X e w h u r v p o r t , 1822). p. 4. 60 Report on {he Concerns of the Sac-Hampshire Cent Institution, for September, 1816, by the CommitUc of the Missionary Society (Concord, 1816), p. 12 61 Matthe« laRu:· I V n i n e . II omen Have a Work to do in the House of (iod: A Discourse Delivered ut llir First Annual Meeting of the Female Missionary Society for the Poor of the City of Xeit-York mid its I'icinity. . . , (Xew York, 1817;. p. II.

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

82 T h o m a s B a r n a r d , A Sermon Preached Before the Salem Female Charitable Society. . . . (Salem, 1803), p . 17. 63 W a d s w o r t h , Sermon, p. 6. Constitution of the Female liible Society of Philadelphia, . . . p. 6. 65 P c r r i n c , Discourse, p. 26. β® B a r n a r d . Sermcn, p. 14. Π Sixth Report of the Directors of the Penitent Females' Refuge, December, JX2J (Boston. 1825). Μ First Annual Report of the F.xecu:ive Committee of the Neu· York Magdalen Society, Instituted, January I. 1810 (New York, 1831), p. 12. 69 Lewis T a p p a n , The Life of Arthur Tappan (New York, 1870), p . 114; ch. 7 of t h i s work i n c l u d e s an a c c o u n t of McDowall's work. See also R o b e r t McDowall, Memoir of Rev. John R. M'Dovall, by his Father (New York, 1838). 70 Second Annual Report of the Hoston Fi male ΜυιαΙ Rcf:rm Socieiy (Boston, 1837). p p . 10-11. 71 Third Annual Report of the liostun Fem tie Moral Reform Society (Boston, 1838), p. 7. 72 New E n g l a n d (..olden R u l e Association. Prospectus for Publishing a Neu· Periodica!, to be Called the Golden Rule (Boston. 1839). 73 Ibid. 74 Liberator I I I , no. 51 ( D e c e m b e r 21. 1833). " s A m e r i c a n Anti-Slavery Socicty, Annual Reports, 1836-1838. 7B A. A. G u t h r i e t o Betsey M. Cowles. Secretary of A s h t a b u l a C o u n t y F e m a l e Anti-Slavery Society. Octolxn 29. 1835. Ms.. Betsey Cowles P a p e r s , in possession of Mrs. R o b e r t T i c k n o r . A u s t i n b u r g . O h i o . 77 A u g u s t u s W a t t l e s to Betsey M. Cowles. April 9, 1836. Ms.. Cowles Papers. 71* See chs. 4-5 of m \ dissertation. The Heginnings of the H'omen's Rights Movement in the I'niied States. IS00-IS50 (Ann Arlror: I ' n i v e r s i t v Microfilms. 1965), f o r d e t a i l s on t h e d e v e l o p m e n t of i h e " w o m a n q u e s t i o n " a n d the s l a u r v controversy l>etwcen 1837 a m i 1840. 79 1-ouis B. W r i g h t has p o i n l e d out t h e influence of w o m e n ' s organizations as Ijearers of c u l t u r e a n d civilization on t h e f r o n t i e r in his Culture on the Moving Fronticr (New York. 1961). p p . 193-194 . 224-230. 80 T h e h i s t o r i a n of t h e w o m a n ' s c l u b m o v e m e n t . Mis. J a n e C. Crolv, in The Histoiy of llie Woman's Club Movement in America (New York. 1898), rccogni/ed t h e i m p o r t a n c e of early n i n e t e e n t h - c iitury w o m e n ' s b e n e v o l e n c e in setting t h e p a t t e r n for later w o r k . See especially p p . I. 8-9. SI New York National Anti-Slavny Standard II. 22 ( J u h 15. 1841).

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

Women in Groups: An Analysis of Women's Benevolent Organizations in New York and Boston, 1797-1840

Anne M . B o y l a n

Historians have long recognized the importance of organizations in women's history. From a pioneering 1940 article by Mary Bosworth Treudley, through the work of Eleanor Flexner, to recent works by Nancy F. Cott, Keith E. Melder, and Barbara J. Berg, scholars have outlined the basic pattern of women's organizational beginnings. By 1800 the first permanent women's societies, such as the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children in New York, the Boston Female Asylum (founded in 1800), and women's missionary groups had appeared on the urban scene. Members of those societies combined an interest in social meliorism with an emphasis on social deference while also exhibiting concern for the spiritual welfare of those whom they aided. During the 1810s and 1820s, under the influence of the Second Great Awakening, there formed new women's organizations whose members sought first to alleviate spiritual want, then to deal with temporal deprivation. Through Sunday school, tract, Bible, and missionary societies, women labored to convert the objects of their attention as well as to minister to their daily needs. During the late 1820s and 1830s, more actively reformist, even millennialist, women's organizations developed. The New-York and the Boston Female Moral Reform societies worked to reform prostitutes and to eradicate the sexual double standard; female abolitionist societies sought immediate emancipation of slaves; and groups such as the Seamen's Aid Society, Boston, became actively involved in the problems of working women.1 Anne M. Boylan is lecturer in history at the University of New Mexico. Research for this article was funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 1 Mary Bosworth Treudley, " 'The Benevolent Fair': A Study of Charitable Organization among American Women in the First Third of the Nineteenth Century," Social Service Review, 14 (Sept. 1940), 509-22; Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States (Cambridge, Mass., 1959), 41-61; Nancy F. Cott, The Bonds of Womanhood: "Woman's Sphere" in New England, 1780-1835 |New Haven, 1977), 155-59; Keith E. Melder, Beginnings of Sisterhood: The Amencan Woman's Rights Movement, 1800-1850 (New York, 1977), 49-76; Barbara J. Berg, The Remembered Gate: Origins of American Feminism: The Woman and the City, 1800-1860 (New York, 1978), 145-222. See also Lois W. Banner, "The Protestant Crusade: Religious Missioas, Benevolence, and Reform in the United States,

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

In outlining this basic pattern, historians have not always agreed in their evaluation of how early benevolent organizations affected individual women. Nor have they concurred in their assessment of the impact of benevolent groups on women's status. Some have argued that those early societies provided the necessary preconditions for thr development of a feminist consciousness in the nineteenth century and have drawn a direct developmental line from early benevolent societies to later feminist ones. Through organization, they have suggested, women gradually built on each other's experiences, escalating their group activities from small-scale support of missionary work at the turn of the century to broadly based, active social work by the 1830s— from benevolence to reform. Within those groups, goes the argument, women developed a consciousness of themselves as individuals with needs, concerns, and ideas separate from those of men, became aware of the disabilities that all women shared, and learned useful organizational and fund-raising skills. Embedded in that viewpoint are three assumptions: first, that because the activities of women's societies in general progressed from benevolence to reform during the first decades of the century, the progression was evident within individual societies; second, and more important, that the progression over the decades was linear, with succeeding societies building on the experiences of their predecessors; and third, that individual women experienced a parallel progression in their own lives as they moved from involvement in private, melioristic organizations to active, reformist ones. 1 Other analysts have challenged that interpretation, especially the notion that involvement in benevolence necessarily advanced the cause of women as a group. Cott has argued that while their organizations might have offered women experience and identity separate from those of men, they might also have reinforced women's secondary status by bringing them together on the basis of family role and religion rather than individuality. Indeed, the societies might have prevented women from seeing their common subordination precisely because they did offer a sense of value and self-worth. Similarly, Blanche Glassman Hersh, examining the backgrounds of a group of feminist-abolitionists, questioned whether there was any connection between benevolent work and feminism, noting that benevolent women "in no way def[ied] tradition or question[ed] male authority." And in a recent study of a southern community, Suzanne Lebsock demonstrated that women participated in a full panoply of organizations without ever getting involved in explicitly feminist issues.® In order to explore these questions, I have examined the organizational histories and memberships of eleven New York and eleven Boston women's societies (see appendix A) founded between 1797 and 1835, a crucial period before 1790-1840" {Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1970), 188-305; and Carl N. Degler, At Odds: Women and the Family in Amenca from the Revolution to the Present (New York, 1980), 298-306. l Treudley, '"Benevolent Fair,'" 509-22; Melder, Beginnings of Sisterhood, 49-76; Berg, Remembered Gate, 149-75; Alice S. Rossi, "Social Roots of the Woman's Movement in America," in The Feminist Papers: From Adams to de Beau voir, ed. Alice S. Rossi |New York, 1973), 241-81. 1 Cott, Bonds of Womanhood, 155-59; Blanche Classman Hersh, The Slavery of Sex: FeministAbolitionists in Amenca (Urbana, 1978), 4; Suzanne Lebsock, The Free Women of Petersburg: Status and Culture in a Southern Town, 1784-1860 (New York, 1984), 195-236.

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

the emergence of strongly feminist organizations. M y analysis reveals that many popular assumptions about the history of w o m e n ' s benevolent societies and their effects on w o m e n are unfounded. In the following pages I delineate the patterns evident in w o m e n ' s organizational behavior during the first four decades of the nineteenth century and suggest w h y those patterns developed. 4 4 By "membership" and "members" I refer only to the officers and managers. Most societies had a similar organizational framework: a group of four or five officers and twelve to twenty-four managers who constituted the organization. Most societies had a large group of financial supporters (often termed "members") who were not involved in the actual work of the group. Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children, Minutes, vols. Ι-ΙΠ (New-York Historical Society, New York City); The By-Laws and Regulations of the Society /or the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children, Together with the Annual Reports for 1814, 1815, and 1816 (New York, 1817); An Act to Incorporate the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children. Passed April 2, 1802 (New York, 1802); Mrs. Jonathan Odell et al., comps. Ohgin and History of the Orphan Asylum Society in the City of New York. 1806-1896 (2 vols.. New York, 1896); The Constitution and Laws of the Orphan Asylum of the City of New-York |New York, 1818); [Orphan Asylum Society in the City of New-York|, Annual Report (title varies] (New York, 1811-1827, 1831, 1833); [New-York Female Auxiliary Bible Society], Annual Report [title varies] (New York, 1817-1827); Constitution and By-Laws of the New-York Female Auxiliary Bible Society |New York, 1816); The Constitution, and First and Second Annual Reports of the Proceedings of the Association for the Relief of Respectable, Aged, Indigent Females (New York, 1815); [Association for the Relief of Respectable, Aged, Indigent Females], Annual Report [title varies] (New York, 1816-1824, 1826, 1830, 1832, 1834-35, 1837); Constitution of the New-York Female Society for the Aid of Foreign Missions. Instituted 1814 (New York, 1814); (Female Missionary Society for the Poor of New-York and Its Vicinity], Second Anniversary Report (New York, 1818); [Female Missionary Society for the Poor of New-York and Its Vicinity], Annual Report (New York, 1819-1821); [New-York Female Union Society for the Promotion of Sabbath Schools], Annual Report (New York, 1817-1825); New-York Female Union Society for the Promotion of Sabbath Schools, Minutes (Long bland Historical Society, Brooklyn, New York); Female Branch of the New-York Religious Tract Society, Constitution and Minutes, vols. Ι-ΙΠ (New York City Mission Society Office, New York City); [Female Benevolent Society of the City of New-York], Annual Report (New York, 1834-1840); Flora L. Northrup, The Record of a Century, 1834-1934 (New York, 1934), 102-09; Our Golden Jubilee: A Retrospect of the American Female Guardian Society and Home for the Friendless from 1834 to 1884 (New York, 1884), esp. 73; The Constitution and Circular of the New-York Female Moral Reform Society; with the Addresses Delivered at Its Organization (New York, 1834); Constitution. By-Laws and Address of the Female Bethel Association |New-York Female Bethel Union| (New York 1836); |New-York Female Bethel Union], Third Annual Report (New York, 1838); An Account of the Rise, Progress, and Present State, of the Boston Female Asylum. Together with the Act of Incorporation. Also the Bye-Laws, and Rules and Regulations, Adopted by the Board of Managers (Boston, 1803); ibid. (Boston, 1810); An Account of the Boston Female Asylum. With the Act of Incorporation, ByLaws, Rules and Regulations (Boston, 1833); Annual Reports of the Boston Female Asylum. Presented at the Annual Meetings of 1841 and 1842 [Boston, 1842); Reminiscences of the Boston Female Asylum (Boston, 1844); Albert L. Vail, Mary Webb and the Mother Society (Philadelphia, 1914), 26-38; Twenty-Second Annual Report of the Fragment Society (Boston, 1834); Female Bible Society of Boston and Its Vicinity, Secretary's Records, vol. I, Female Bible Society of Boston and Its Vicinity Records (Schlesinger Library, Cambridge, Mass.); Constitution of the Female Bible Society of Boston and Its Vicinity. Instituted September 5, 1814. With the Annual Reports (Boston, 1816); [Female Bible Society of Boston and Its Vicinity], Annual Report (Boston, 1818-1841, 1864); Constitution of the Female Society of Boston and the Vicinity for Promoting Christianity among the Jews (Boston, 1816); First and Second Annual Reports of the Female Society of Boston and Vicinity for the Promotion of Christianity among the Jews (Boston, 1818); [Female Society of Boston and the Vicinity for Promoting Christianity among the lews]. Annual Report (title varies] (Boston, 1823-1839); Constitution and First Annual Report of the Widows' Society,· Together with a List of Its Members (Boston, 1817); Constitution of the Widows' Society; Together with Some Account of the Institution, and of Its Proceedings to the Present Period: To Which Is Added a List of Members (Boston, 1823); [Boston Fatherless and Widows' Society],

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES Except in the broadest sense, the programs of women's societies did not proceed in linear fashion from small-scale private benevolence to large-scale public involvement. It is true that the rhetoric and some of the activities that distinguished female abolitionists and moral reformers in the 1830s would have been unthinkable in the 1790s, as would their concern with prostitutes and slaves. But it is also true that some of the earliest women's societies engaged in active public benevolence from the outset. If members of the women's missionary societies of the early 1800s met in private homes and confined themselves to raising small sums to send to male-run organizations, members of groups such as the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children met publicly, acquired charters of incorporation, and petitioned successfully for shares of public welfare funds. Founded in 1797 by Isabella Graham, the society soon developed a system for districting the city so that members could systematically visit the widows receiving aid, opened a workshop to provide work during the winter months, and sponsored a school for the widows' children. Some societies founded later embraced much narrower goals and a more limited scope of activities. The New-York Female Auxiliary Bible Society, for example, formed in 1814, limited itself to collecting funds and distributing Bibles throughout the city. Still other groups, such as the Boston Female Society for Missionary Purposes (founded in 1800) and the Female Bible Society of Boston and Its Vicinity (founded in 1814), gradually expanded their activities over the years. The Boston Female Society for Missionary Purposes, for example, which began as a small circle of Baptist and Congregationalist women meeting to pray and to devote funds to the cause of western missions, in 1817 turned its attention to the problems of Boston's poor, hired a male missionary, and embarked on an ambitious program of spiritual uplift and temporal meliorism. There was, then, no uniform pattern in the programs of the societies.5 Nor did societies necessarily leam from or build on each other's experiences. True, the knowledge that other women were engaged in a similar endeavor at times proved the stimulus for forming a group. For example, the Female Bible Society of Boston and Its Vicinity was organized after some city women Annual Report (title varies] (Boston, 1832-1841, 1906); Report of the Committee of Advice on Behalf of the Society for Employing the Female Poor (Boston, 1824): Appeal to the Public in Behalf of the Penitent Females Refuge in the City of Boston (Boston, 1839); (Seamen's Aid Society, Boston], Annual Report (Boston, 1834-1840); The Second Annual Report of the Boston Female Moral Reform Society, October 17.1837 (Boston, 1837). ' Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children, Minutes, vol. I, Dec. 20, 1797-Nov. 29, 1808; (New-York Female Auxiliary Bible Society), Second Annual Report (New York, 1818), 2-5; (New-York Female Auxiliary Bible Society], Eleventh Annual Report (New York, 1827), 3; Female Bible Society of Boston and Its Vicinity, Secretary's Records, vol. I, Sept. S, 1814-March 26, 1839, Female Bible Society of Boston and Its Vicinity Records; Constitution of the Female Bible Society of Boston and Its Vicinity, 3-9; (Female Bible Society of Boston and Its Vicinity], Fifth Annual Report (Boston, 1819), 1-3; |Female Bible Society of Boston and Its Vicinity], Ninth Annual Report (Boston, 1823), 1-9; (Female Bible Society of Boston and Its Vicinity], Sixteenth Annual Report (Boston, 1830), 1-10; A Bnef Account of the Origin and Progress of the Boston Female Society for Missionary Purposes. With Extracts from the Reports of the Society, in May, 1817 and 1818, and Extracts from the Reports of Their Missionaries, Rev. James Davis, and Rev. Dudley D. Rosseter (Boston, 1818), 3-7.

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

received a letter from a Philadelphia group. Yet more often individual societies, apparently unaware of the experiences of others, repeated their actions and mistakes. The best examples are the organizations' recurrent experiments with work programs. In New York the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children had a work program as early as 1802, when members sought out work such as laundering for clients during the winter-relief months. By 1804 the society had a house where clothing made by clients was sold and where laundry was collected and distributed. The society's members quickly became aware of the complex problems faced by poor widows trying to support themselves through needlework and laundering, because few of the society's clients were able to do the "fine work" its patrons needed. Yet its forty-year experience was not drawn on in the 1830s when the Female Benevolent Society of the City of New-York began a similar work program as part of its overall plan for reforming prostitutes. Even though the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children was still in existence when the Female Benevolent Society of the City of New-York began its work program, the latter society repeated the mistakes of the widows' group. By training prostitutes only for domestic service, specifically laundry and sewing, the society did little to help them escape their marginal economic position, one that, perhaps, drove them into prostitution in the first place.4 Boston's organizations had similar experiences. In 1820 Boston women organized the Society for Employing the Female Poor, designed to provide work for poor women through a workroom where laundry was collected and where sewn goods were sold. The members quickly discovered what the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children had learned fifteen years earlier: that poor women could not support themselves on the meager wages paid them for laundry and coarse sewing and that the supply of workers generally outran the demand for them. Scarcely fourteen years later the Boston Seamen's Aid Society began its First Annual Report by attacking other societies for giving aid to the poor without demanding work in return. Like others before it, the Boston Seamen's Aid Society proposed to open a workshop to provide employment to sailors' wives and widows, offering fair wages for sewing and washing. To their credit, the members of the society, led by the redoubtable Sarah Josepha Hale, went on to develop an ambitious program that tried to take into account the problems of poor women, but they did so through trial and error, not by drawing on the previous experiences of other women's organizations.7 ' Female Bible Society of Boston and Its Vicinity, Corresponding Secretary's Records, 1814-1882, circular letter from Philadelphia Female Bible Society, }une 5, 1814, Female Bible Society of Boston and Its Vicinity Records; An Account of the Rise. Progress, and Present State of tile Boston Female Asylum [1803], 3-4; Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children, Minutes, vol. I, Dec. 13, 1802, Jan. 10, March 7, 1803, Feb. 13, 1804; (Female Benevolent Society of the City of New-York|, First Annual Report |New York, 1834); Annette K. Baxter and Barbara Welter, Inwood House: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Service to Women INewYork, 1980|, 11-16. ' Report of the Committee of Advice on Behalf of the Society for Employing the Female Poor, 1-7; [Seamen's Aid Society, Boston], First Annual Report (Boston, 1834), 4-10; (Seamen's Aid Society, Boston], Second Annual Report (Boston, 1835), 3-11; [Seamen's Aid Society, Boston), Seventh Annual Report (Boston, 1840), 7-12.

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

Finally, there is little evidence that organizational activity by itself led individuals from benevolence to reform. Certainly, belonging to a benevolent society often taught women useful skills, particularly organizational and fundraising skills. Membership also imparted lessons about the legal disabilities married women faced in American society. Boston's organized women, for example, invariably chose single women as their groups' treasurers. Thus, at their annual elections the members received a tangible reminder that under common law husbands had legal control over any assets in wives' hands. In New York societies included in their bylaws a stipulation that husbands were not liable for debts incurred by their wives to or for the organization. Furthermore, in justifying organized female benevolence as an extension of women's nurturing capacity, women often redefined the boundaries separating the public from the private sphere, in the process building permanent woman-run public corporations. But missionary work, Bible distribution, and orphanage work took those women only so far. It did not make abolitionists, moral reformers, or feminists out of them. Indeed, detailed analysis of the membership lists of women's societies reveals little overlap between benevolent societies such as the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children and reformist societies such as the Boston Seamen's Aid Society and the NewYork Female Moral Reform Society.· This is not to suggest that there were no direct connections among women's organizations. Historians have long known that many women participated in more than one society and have shown how individuals such as Graham and her daughter, Joanna Graham Bethune, created careers in benevolence, organizing society after society. My analysis also reveals that members of the same families—mothers, daughters, sisters, sisters-in-law—frequently joined or contributed to the same groups. In Boston, for example, there was considerable overlap in the leaderships of the Female Bible Society of Boston and Its Vicinity, the Widows' Society, Boston, the Fragment Society, and the Boston Female Society for the Promotion of Christianity among the lews. A similar network existed in New York among the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children, the New-York Female Union Society for the Promotion of Sabbath Schools, the New-York Religious Tract Society, Female Branch, the Orphan Asylum Society in the City of New-York, and the Association for the Relief of Respectable, Aged, Indigent Females. Some of those societies were offshoots of earlier ones. The evidence suggests, however, that such cross-organizational activity took place within limits. The same women seldom joined more than one type of organization.9 One was either a benevolent lady or a reformer, seldom both. 1 See note 4 above. Boston Society for the Care of Gills [Boston Female Asylum], One Hundred Years of Work with Girls in Boston (Boston, 1919), 11; Norma Bäsch, In the Eyes of the Law: Women, Marriage, and Property in Nineteenth-Century New York (Ithaca, 1982), 42-69. • See note 4 above. Joanna H. Mathews, comp., A Short History of the Orphan Asylum Society in the City of New York, Founded 1806 (New York, 1893), esp. 8-10; Northrup, Record of a Century, 13-16; Vail, Mary Webb and the Mother Society, 70-74; Dictionary of Amencan Biography (20 vols., New York, 1928-1936); The National Cyclopedia of Amencan Biography (62 vols., New York, 1892-1984); Edward T. James and Janet Wilson James, eds.. Notable Amencan

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

To explain why women thus limited their organizational involvements, we need to examine how the societies differed from each other in rhetoric and in programs. We also need to know what characteristics women in individual organizations in thes4 two cities shared. An analysis of the societies' rhetoric and programs reveals that the 1830s marked a significant turning point in the history of women's organizations. No matter what their goals, no matter how narrow or extended their activities, groups formed before 1830 (and, indeed, many founded after that date) subscribed to similar images of women and similar views about their proper role in society, images and visions that differed substantially from those held by the moral reformers, abolitionists, and working women's advocates who organized for the first time in the 1830s. Members of groups such as the Boston Female Asylum, the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children, and female Bible societies had been actively involved in creating the popular nineteenth-century image of woman as the "moral mother," to use Ruth H. Bloch's apt phrase. They had justified women's organizational activity as an extension of their mothering role and had succeeded in making legitimate women's desire for public roles. They had not, however, concerned themselves with extending "the proper sphere of female usefulness" beyond concern for the widow and the orphan, instead acquiescing in the conventional contemporary distinction between the "deserving poor," whom they aided, and the "vicious poor," whom they did not. The Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children, for example, made frequent efforts to reassure its supporters that its funds would not be wasted on widows of low character by routinely taking off its lists clients who drank, danced, lied, or associated with the wrong people. While displaying a good deal of sympathy for the poor they aided and while demonstrating the difficulties widows faced in trying to support families through their own labor, the society's members were often quick to urge "Patience, and submission, in the Suffering Poor." At times, the members even blamed Women 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary (3 vols., Cambridge, Mass., 1971); William B. Sprague, Annals of the Amencan Pulpit; or Commemorative Notices of Distinguished American Clergymen of Various Denominations (5 vols., New York, 1857-1869); Longworth's Amencan Almanac, New-York Registerand City Directory (New York, 1797-1845); Elliot's Improved NewYork Double Directory (New York, 1812); New-York as it is; In 1834; And Citizens' Advertising Directory (New York, 1834]; New- York as it is; In 18391 And Citizens' Advertising Directory [New York, 1839); The Boston Directory (Boston, 1800-1830); Stimpson's Boston Directory |Boston, 1831-1840); [Dorothy C. Barck], ed., Letters fom John Pintard to His Daughter Eliza Noel Pintard Davidson, 1816-1833 |4 vols., New York, 1940-1941); T. Sharp, The Heavenly Sisters; or. Biographical Sketches of the Lives of Thirty Eminently Pious Females (New Haven, 1822), 116-44; The Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children, 1797-1922 |New York, 19221, esp. 7-12; Kenneth D. Miller and Ethel Prince Miller, The People Are the City: ISO Years of Social and Religious Concern in New York City (New York, 1962); [Joanna Graham Bethune], ed., The Power of Faith, Exemplified in the Life and Wtitings of the Late Mrs. Isabella Graham (New York, 1843), esp. 131-67; George W. Bethune, Memoirs of Mrs. Joanna Bethune (New York, 1863), 79-87; Marlou Belyea, "The New England Female Moral Reform Society, 1835-1850: 'Put Down the Libertine, Reclaim the Wanderer, Restore the Outcast,'" table 1 (in Boylan's possession); J. Leslie Dunstan, A Light to the City: ISO Years of the City Missionary Society of Boston, 1816-1966 (Boston, 1966); Reminiscences of the Boston Female Asylum, esp. 18-25; Boston Society for the Care of Girls [Boston Female Asylum), One Hundred Years of Work with Girls in Boston.

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

poor women foi their misfortunes. "Intemperance among the Men, and the love of dress among the Women" were the principal causes of poverty, wrote one member in 1822, suggesting that improvidence, gossiping, and negligence were what did the poor in. Groups working with older women often suggested that their clients deserved more sympathy than did the desperately poor precisely because they were respectable. Because these women had "a greater degree of refinement" and had once known the "elegancies" of life, argued a writer for the Widows' Society, Boston, they "present to the heart a far more touching appeal than any other class of sufferers." Subscribers were urged to identify with those women because they too might someday be reduced to respectable poverty as a result of widowhood or economic adversity. In Boston the Society for Employing the Female Poor even boasted that paying wages "considerably lower than the ordinary rate" assisted the poor while not discouraging them from seeking regular employment.10 Members of reform societies founded in the 1830s, on the other hand, had both a broader conception of women's social role and a different perspective on the problems of the poor. Even before Sarah Grimkd articulated the new conception that women as moral beings had an interest in all social problems, women in organizations such as the New-York Female Moral Reform Society and the Boston Seamen's Aid Society were attacking such issues as wives' legal disabilities and the culpability of men for immorality. In particular, the analysis of the economic problems of poor women constructed for the Boston Seamen's Aid Society by Hale marked a major departure from the approach taken by earlier benevolent groups. Writing in 1838, Hale analyzed all the problems the poor faced—from expensive, shoddy housing, to an inability to buy in bulk, to low wages—and concluded that "it is hardly possible for the hopeless poor to avoid being vicious." Such environmentalism would have been, and remained, anathema to societies founded earlier, whose leaders, while recognizing the environmental causes of some kinds of poverty, fully expected the poor to remain virtuous and respectable in adversity. Indeed, in their 1837 report, the members of the Fatherless and Widows' Society, a Boston group founded in 1817, had proclaimed of their clients: "We love to see them amid hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, retaining and transmitting to their children, all their inherent shrinking from servile dependence."11 10 Ruth H. Bloch, "American Feminine Ideals in Transition: The Rise of the Moral Mother, 1785-1815," Feminist Studies, 4 (June 1978), 101-26; Cott, Bonds of Womanhood, 126-59; David J. Rothman, The Discovery of the Asylum: Social Order and Disorder in the New Republic (Boston, 1971), 162-64; Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children, Minutes, vol. 1, Dec. 2, 1805, March 27, Nov. 10, 1813, Nov. 16, 1820, Nov. 21, 1822; The By-Laws and Regulations of the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children (New York, 1813); Constitution of the Widows' Society, 10; An Explanation of the Views of the Society for Employing the Female Poor; with the Constitution and By-Laws, and Extracts from Several Reports (Cambridge, Mass., 1825), 3. π [Seamen's Aid Society, Boston), Fifth Annual Report (Boston, 1838), 3-6; (Fatherless and Widows' Society), Twentieth Annual Report (Boston, 1837), 7-8; Melder, Beginnings of Sisterhood, 86-88; (Seamen's Aid Society, Boston), Fourth Annual Report (Boston, 1837), 17; An Appeal to the Wives, Mothers and Daughters of Our Land, in the City and the Country, Earnestly and Affectionately Presented, by the Ladies of the New-York Female Moral Reform Society (New York, 1836), 7-9.

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL L i r e

The moral reform societies of the 1830s also differed substantially from earlier prostitution-reform groups, not only in their willingness to discuss "this vice" openly and in their championship of women's right to speak publicly on it, but also in their willingness to associate with prostitutes directly. The first Boston society to confront the issue had been the Boston Female Society for Missionary Purposes, whose members in 1817 had urged some "gentlemen" of their acquaintance to form the Penitent Females Refuge. After dragging their feet for a few years, the men set up the refuge in 1821, then invited the women in 1825 to form a ladies auxiliary. The members of the auxiliary seldom published annual reports and only very delicately made their work known to the public, warning that they could not discuss prostitution in print "without great danger of communicating defilement and pollution as well as information." By contrast, the members of the Boston Female Moral Reform Society (founded in 1835), like their New York counterparts, worked directly with prostitutes, ran their own newspaper, and campaigned for antiseduction laws. 11 Members of groups such as the Boston Female Moral Reform Society also exhibited a greater willingness than women in other societies to associate themselves with clients who were not "respectable" and to champion the cause of all women regardless of station in life. Although such identification with clients was not entirely new in the 1830s, its extent was. Members of earlier benevolent societies had identified with some clients to the extent of reminding supporters that some of the poor (widows, for example) were respectable people "reduced to poverty by the vicissitudes of Providence" and that they too might find themselves "plunged into the depths of affliction" without warning. What was new in the 1830s was an appeal to women to identify as women with others of their sex who were poor, tempted, fallen, or enslaved. Along with that went a new awareness of women's disabilities, which led to attacks on discriminatory laws and social practices. As moral reform societies lobbied for laws penalizing male seducers, the Boston Seamen's Aid Society attacked "the law which gives to the husband uncontrolled power over the personal property of his wife.'' 13 Also new was the extent of political involvement by women's societies in the 1830s. Many groups founded earlier had taken on political roles, but they had done so primarily to acquire funds for their work. In New York the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children and the Orphan Asylum Society in the City of New-York had petitioned often and successfully for a share of city welfare funds; they had also lobbied for the right to conduct 11 Belyea, "New England Female Moral Refonn Society," 1-13; Canoll Smith Rosenberg, Religion and the Rise of the American City: The New York City Mission Movement, 1812-1870 llthaca, 1971), 97-124; A Short Account of the Penitent Females Refuge (Boston, 1834), 9; A Brief History of the Ladies' Auxiliary, Penitent Females Refuge Society (Boston, 1847), 3-6. " The Constitution, and First and Second Annual Reports of the Proceedings of the Association for the Relief of Respectable, Aged, Indigent Females, IS; (Association for the Relief of Respectable, Aged, Indigent Females], Eighth Annual Report (Boston, 1821], 5; Berg, Remembered Gau, 209-12; [Seamen's Aid Society, Boston], Fourth Annual Report, 17; (Seamen's Aid Society, Boston], Fifth Annual Report, 6.

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

occasional state-sanctioned lotteries. Reform societies founded in the 1830s, however, went beyond their benevolent counterparts in political activism by engaging in petition campaigns, by lobbying for legal reforms, and by forcing changes in·educational policy. The Female Moral Reform Society was largely responsible for an 1848 law making seduction a crime in New York State. Similarly, the Boston Seamen's Aid Society campaigned successfully to have needlework taught in Boston's primary schools, beginning in 1836.14 The campaign waged by the Boston Seamen's Aid Society was part of the society's general effort to make women more economically self-sufficient, and it points to another difference exhibited by many societies founded after 1830: their willingness to blame men for women's problems. Whereas groups founded earlier looked for moral or circumstantial causes, many new organizations pointed to men as the culprits responsible for social evils. As the moral reformers of the decade blamed prostitution almost entirely on male seducers, so the Boston Seamen's Aid Society directly attacked male employers for deliberately keeping down wages paid to working women and for exploiting them unmercifully. "Combinations of selfish men are formed to beat down the price of female labor," wrote Hale in 1836, "and then forsooth, they call the diminished rate the market price." Attacking free-market economics, she vowed that the society would work until "it should be accounted a shame for any one, who writes himself man, to make a fortune out of the handy-work of poor females!" 15 This is not to suggest that benevolent societies founded earlier were completely subservient to men. Men's roles varied considerably from society to society, although all groups received important financial backing from the fathers, brothers, and husbands of their managers. Some organizations were quite autonomous. The Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children, the Boston Female Asylum, and the Orphan Asylum Society in the City of New-York were, for example, run and directed by women. The only men who were involved in those societies were physicians who were hired (or who volunteered) to treat clients, ministers who delivered fund-raising sermons, and philanthropists from whom donations were solicited. The members did all the visiting, supervising, and other work of the groups. Other organizations, such as the Female Missionary Society for the Poor of NewYork and Its Vicinity, hired male missionaries to visit potential clients. Their doing so reflected, not a lack of ambition or enterprise on the members' part, but their desire to reach "the most obscure and suffering classes of society" or "those remote and obscure" women who were "little likely to be found by the accustomed modes of benevolence." In other words, women's groups that 14 Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children, Minutes, vol. I, Nov. 29, 1808, vol. m, Nov. 19, 1835; [Orphan Asylum Society in the City of New-York), Annual Report (New York, 1811), 3; (Orphan Asylum Society in the City of New-York|, Annual Report (New York, 1818), 4; |Orphan Asylum Society in the City of New-York), Twenty-Fifth Annual Report |New York, 1831), 9; Berg, Remembered Gate, 111-12; (Seamen's Aid Society, Boston), Third Annual Report (Boston, 1836), 18. " Smith Rosenberg, Religion and the Rise of the American City, 120-22; (Seamen's Aid Society, Boston), Third Annual Report, IS.

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

hired male missionaries generally bad highly ambitious plans for going into poverty-stricken areas to reach the poor and the unchurched and sought to reach men as well as women and children. The autonomous women's societies restricted themselves to dealing with women and children, and then only with those who were recommended to them or who applied personally for assistance. Thus, societies founded before 1830 defined men's roles in them according to contemporary notions of propriety. Believing that women had a duty to engage in benevolence, they nevertheless involved themselves directly only with the respectable widow and orphan and hired men when their plans called for work with less savory clients. By that means their members were spared from having to visit "streets of bad reputation" or of "disreputable character." 1 4 Some societies were, of course, auxiliary to men's groups and by definition secondary to them. But even those societies had a variety of arrangements with their parent groups. Some construed their roles very narrowly, collecting funds or otherwise assisting the men's societies, whereas others gradually took on fairly broad roles independent of the male groups. For example, the NewYork Female Auxiliary Bible Society collected money that it either donated to the American Bible Society or used to buy Bibles. The Female Bible Society of Boston and Its Vicinity did the same for ten years but took on a much broader role in 1822 when its members established a subsidiary organization (the Ladies Distributing Bible Association) through which they actually visited the poor. The New-York Religious Tract Society, Female Branch, expanded its activities in the 1820s in a similar fashion as the members agreed to do their own tract distributing and visiting and briefly set up a women's tract depository on a busy downtown street. By the early 1830s, however, the women had once again narrowed their activities to collecting money for the 14 Matthew La Rue Penine, "Women Have a Work to Do in the House of God": A Discourse Delivered at tie First Annual Meeting of the Female Missionary Society for the Poor of the City of New-York and Its Vicinity. May 12, 1817 (New York, 1817), 31-32; Report of the Committee of Advice on Behalf of the Society for Employing the Female Poor, 4-5; Ward Stafford, New Missionary Field. A Report to the Female Missionary Society for the Poor of the City of New- York and its Vicinity at Their Quarterly Prayer Meeting, March, 1817 (New York, 1817), 2-32; [Female Missionary Society for the Poor of New-York and Its Vicinity], Second Anniversary Report, 3-6; A List of New Subscribers to the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children (New York, 1809), 1-7; {Orphan Asylum Society in the City of New-York|, Annual Report |1818], 6-27; (Female Union Society for the Promotion of Sabbath Schools], Second Annual Report (New York, 1818), 22-29; Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children, Minutes, vol. I, April 14, 1806; Joseph S. Buckminster, A Sermon Preached before the Members of the Boston Female Asylum, September, 1810. Being Their Tenth Anniversary (Boston, 1814), 3-16; (BarckJ, ed.. Letters from John Pintard to His Daughter Eliza Noel Pintard Davidson, I, 259, ΙΠ, 241; Constitution, and First and Second Annual Reports of the Proceedings of the Association for the Relief of Respectable, Aged, Indigent Females, 4; Constitution of the Ladies Society, Established in New-York, for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children (New York, 1799), 8-10. Women's missionary societies often established "committees of gentlemen" to advise them as well. In later years groups such as the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children and the Orphan Asylum Society in the City of New-York, which had previously been autonomous, also acquired "committees of gentlemen" to advise members on investments. Constitution and By-Laws of the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows wich Small Children (New York, 1857), 6; Mathews, Short History of the Orphan Asylum Society in the City of New York, 62.

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES new New-York City Tract Society, and by the end of the decade their organization had become the New-York City Tract Society's "Female Branch," with so little work to report that its annual statement consisted of three pages tacked onto the New-York City Tract Society's one-hundred-page annual report. 1 ' The relationship between the New-York Female Union Society for the Promotion of Sabbath Schools and the male New-York Sunday-School Union Society illustrates some of the fine distinctions that early women's societies made in their relationships to men. Women organized their union first (in 1816), then operated separately from, but often coordinately with, the men's union until 1828, when the women dissolved their society and permitted the men to take over all their schools and activities. True, the female union's officers and managers were the wives and daughters of the members of the male union, and the two groups often did similar work, even at times duplicating each other's efforts. Cooperation and eventual merger might have seemed logical, as might the women's deferring to the authority of the same men to whom they deferred at home. Yet the women preferred to maintain their own union and viewed the men's efforts to merge the two groups with suspicion, accusing the men of generating "unchristian feelings" and of exerting "undue influence" over the female union's students. In the end, however, the women's desire to maintain a separate organization reflected their belief that women alone ought to teach girls and that men ought to confine themselves to teaching boys. It was the refusal of the male union to reject girl pupils, combined with sectarian difficulties within the female union, that led to the latter's dissolution. Thus, those women defended autonomy on the grounds that the sexes ought to occupy separate spheres and that it was improper or unseemly for men to run Sunday schools attended by girls. Unlike the later abolitionists, they did not seek equality in the same organization; unlike some of their contemporaries, they did not accept auxiliary status. They simply dissolved their society." In their views of women's proper sphere, in their political activities, and in their relationships to men, benevolent societies founded before 1830 differed substantially from the moral reform, abolitionist, and working women's organizations of that decade. One other difference also is notable. As the reform societies exhibited a growing activism during the 1830s, the benevolent societies concurrently limited and narrowed their scope. In New York the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children, for example, in 1835 limited itself to aiding widows who needed only small amounts of " [New-York Female Auxiliary Bible Society], Second Annual Report, 2-5; [New-York Female Auxiliary Bible Society), Eleventh Annual Report, 3-16; |Female Bible Society of Boston and Its Vicinity], Ninth Annual Report, 7-10; Female Branch of the New-York Religious Tract Society, Constitution and Minutes, vol. I, March 25, 1823-Sept. 29, 1826; Twelfth Annual Report of the New-York City Tract Society with the Sixteenth Annual Report of the Female Branch (New York, 1838), 103-05. 11 New-York Female Union Society for the Promotion of Sabbath Schools, Minutes, Feb. 19, March 8, April 4, April 3(0], 1826, July 11, 1827.

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

assistance, giving three-dollar monthly stipends to the 400 or so widows on its books. In 1837 it further excluded "such widows as are totally destitute and of the lowest grade" from its aid. The Orphan Asylum Society in the City of New-York in 1827 began taking only full orphans (it earlier had taken widows' children) and in 1834 built a new orphanage far from the city and its problems. The Association for the Relief of Respectable, Aged, Indigent Females in 1834 limited the number of regular aid recipients to 150 and then began planning an asylum to provide better care for the women already receiving aid from the association. When completed, the asylum had a capacity of only 100 inmates, and the group's members increasingly turned their attention to the residents of the asylum and away from other respectable, aged, indigent females in New York (some of whom continued to receive small pensions). The Boston Female Asylum found itself faced in 1830 with a dwindling subscribers' list, despite the city's growth over the thirty years of the organization's work with poor girls. It also found that the rise of wage-work opportunities diminished considerably the appeal of the group's indenturing system to poor families. In 1832 the Female Bible Society of Boston and Its Vicinity dissolved its auxiliary, the Ladies Distributing Bible Association, and turned its visiting work over to the new City Missionary Society of Boston. The Penitent Females Refuge, Ladies Auxiliary, which in the 1820s had built an asylum to aid prostitutes, abandoned its earlier aim of eradicating vice and concentrated on aiding only young women who were in prostitution for a short time, because to do so was "most likely to result in reformation and restoration to virtue." Quite in contrast to the militancy of the moral reform societies, the Penitent Females Refuge, Ladies Auxiliary argued that legal means were useless against licentiousness, that only "persuasive moral means" would work, and that prostitution could be reformed only through "constant employment and faithful moral and religious instruction." 19 In both cities during the 1830s, then, women's organizations moved in opposite directions. Some embraced broad social goals and developed sharp critiques of American society while others narrowed their goals and staked out smaller areas for concern. It is perhaps easiest to explain the latter behavior. For one thing, the economic and demographic changes transforming both cities by the fourth decade of the nineteenth century forced older societies to " Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children, Minutes, vol. ΙΠ, Dec. 21, 1835, Dec. 26, 1837; Mathews, Short History of the Orphan Asylum Society in the City of New York, 47-48; (Orphan Asylum Society in the City of New-York), Annual Report (New York, 1827|, 7; (Association for the Relief of Respectable, Aged, Indigent Females), Twenty-First Annual Report (New York, 1834), 3-4; (Association for the Relief of Respectable, Aged, Indigent Females), Twenty-Second Annual Report (New York, 183Sj, 7-8; (Association for the Relief of Respectable, Aged, Indigent Females], Twenty-Fourth Annual Report (New York, 1837|, 4-5; Association for the Relief of Respectable, Aged, Indigent Females, Records, vol. IV: "Journal of Visits to the Asylum, 1839-1843," )an. 5-April 22, 1839, Records of the Association for the Relief of Respectable, Aged, Indigent Females (New-York Historical Society); Reminiscences of Ibe Boston Female Asylum, 35-38; [Female Bible Society of Boston and Its Vicinity), Eighteenth Annual Report (Boston, 1832), 11-12; Appeal to the Public in Behalf of the Penitent Females Refuge in the City of Boston, 8.

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

assess realistically what they could achieve with limited womanpowei and limited resources. The cities that their founders had traversed in 1800 in search of people to aid had become by 1830 impossibly large and complex. Moreover, the problems their founders had identified and sought to solve had in themselves become more complicated and less responsive to solution as the character of the urban poor and the causes of their poverty had shifted.10 Harder to explain in the face of such daunting social change is the willingness of new groups such as the moral reform societies to take on large social issues and to tackle problems (such as working-women's poverty) that earlier groups had abandoned. As noted above, the moral reformers, members of the Boston Seamen's Aid Society, and female abolitionists were not the same people as those who ran Sunday schools, distributed tracts, or organized asylums for orphans. More important, they came from somewhat more varied socioeconomic backgrounds and were of a different religious bent from that of their predecessors and contemporaries in benevolent causes. These differences help to explain the growing divergence in women's organizations. Recent studies of the class backgrounds of benevolent women have shown that within the broad category of "middle class," women of different social backgrounds founded different types of societies. In studying Utica, New York, for example, Mary P. Ryan found that women who belonged to missionary and Sunday school societies differed in socioeconomic background and family style from women in maternal associations, which were devoted to the essentially personal goal of improving women's parental abilities. While the latter were more likely to belong to artisan families whose homes were still centers of economic activity, the former were wives of merchants and professional men whose economic activities took them to business locations separate from their homes. Similarly, in a study of the New England Female Moral Reform Society (Boston Female Moral Reform Society), Marlou Belyea discovered that its members were predominantly "upper working class" and "new urban middle class" individuals "only a few steps higher" on the socioeconomic scale than the women they sought to assist.11 My analysis of New York and Boston groups indicates that each society exhibited its own particular "mix" of social classes but that reformist societies founded after 1830 displayed a much greater degree of cross-class u Smith Rosenberg, Religion and the Rise of the American City, 15-43; Raymond A. Mohl, Poverty in New York, 1783-1825 (New York, J 971), 3-34, 259-65; Dunstan, Light to the City, 3-11; Oscar Handlin, Boston's Immigrants: A Study in Acculturation (New York, 1959), 1-53. See also Carol S. Lasser, "A 'Pleasingly Oppressive' Burden: The Transformation of Domestic Service and Female Charity in Salem, 1800-1840," Essex Institute Historical Collections, 116 (July 1980), 156-75. 11 Mary P. Ryan, "A Women's Awakening: Evangelical Religion and the Families of Utica, New York, 1800-1840," American Quarterly, 30 (Winter 1978), 602-23; Mary P. Ryan, "The Power of Women's Networks: A Case Study of Female Moral Reform in Antebellum America," Feminist Studies, 5 (Spring 1979), 66-85; Belyea, "New England Female Moral Reform Society," 1; Smith Rosenberg, Religion and the Rise of the American City, 114-15. See also Susan Porter Benson, "Business Heads and Sympathizing Hearts: The Women of the Providence Employment Society, 1837-1858," iQumal of Social History, 12 (Winter 1978), 302-12.

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

involvement than did societies founded earlier (see appendix B). No matter what their interests, women founding societies in both cities before 1830 came primarily from families of upper- and middle-class merchants, shippers, professionals, and the ministers of the churches they attended. The Boston Female Asylum, for example, numbered among its officers in the early years Hannah Stillman, wife of the prominent Baptist clergyman Samuel Stillman and daughter of the Philadelphia physician John Morgan; Elizabeth Peck Perkins, mother of the wealthy Boston merchants James Perkins and Thomas Handasyd Perkins, and her daughter-in-law, Sarah Paine Perkins; Mary Lynde Smith, married to physician Nathaniel Smith; and Susannah Powell Mason, wife of businessman and United States Senator Jonathan Mason. The NewYork Female Union for the Promotion of Sabbath Schools counted among its founders and managers Joanna Graham Bethune, whose husband, Divie Bethune, was a wealthy importer; Hannah Ker Van Wyck Caldwell, wife of merchant John E. Caldwell; Mary Gilbert Colgate, married to shipper William Colgate, who founded the Colgate-Palmolive fortune; and Sarah Hall, whose husband, Francis Hall, was the publisher of the Commercial Adveitisei in the 1820s. Few wives or daughters of artisans or shopkeepers found their way into these societies, and only an occasional woman who worked to support herself. (Isabella Graham, founder of New York's Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children and an officer of the Orphan Asylum Society in the City of New-York, may have been an exception, in that she was a widow who ran a girls' academy in the 1790s. Her career in benevolence, however, seems to have been made possible by the financial support of Bethune after his marriage to her daughter, Joanna, in 1795.)" Societies formed in the 1830s, however, frequently brought together women of widely varying social backgrounds. The most obvious example is the women's antislavery societies. In the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, for example, wealthy women such as Maria Weston Chapman and Louisa Gilman Loring joined the sisters Lucy Ball and Martha Ball, both schoolteachers, and Margaret Scarlett, the daughter of a black shopkeeper, to work for the cause of Negro rights. A similar mixing of classes (if not races) was evident in the Boston Seamen's Aid Society, where founder Hale, then a widow with five children who supported herself as editor of the Ladies' Magazine, worked with the wives of shopkeepers, merchants, a sea captain, and a minister to sailors. The contrast in social backgrounds between benevolent women and reformers 11 Boston Society for the Care of Girls (Boston Female Asylum|, One Hundred Years of Work wtb Girls in Boston, 3-8; Carl Seaburg and Stanley Paterson, Merchant Prince of Boston: Colonel Τ. H. Perkins, 1764-1854 (Cambridge, Mass., 1971), 16-19, 22-29, 39, 136; Reminiscences of the Boston Female Asylum, 19, 24, 26; Edward Wanen, comp., The Life of John Collins Warren, M.D., Compiled Chiefly from His Autobiography and Journals [2 vols., Boston, 18S9), I, 63, 152; lames and James, eds., Notable American Women, I, 138-40, Π, 71-72; Bethune, Memoirs of Mrs. [oanna Bethune, esp. 88-92; (Barckj, ed., Letters from John Pintard to His Daughter Eliza Noel Pintard Davidson, I, 170-71; Tenth Annual Report of the Association for the Benefit of Colored Orphans |New York, 1846), 9; New York Evening Post, Sept. 8, 1846; Dictionary of American Biography, s.v. "Stillman, Samuel," "Mason, Jonathan," "Colgate, William."

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

is seen most clearly in New York, where both the New-York Female Benevolent Society and the New-York Female Moral Reform Society dealt with prostitution. While the officers of the former were wives of merchants and ministers, those in the latter group came from the families of physicians and small shopkeepers and included self-supporting women. The women of the New-York Female Moral Reform Society, several of whom had withdrawn from the New-York Female Benevolent Society to form the new group, proved much more innovative in their approach to prostitution, vigorously attacking male "licentiousness," hiring female missionaries (the New-York Female Benevolent Society hired only men), and using public forums to advance their cause." In religion, too, each society exhibited its own particular " m i x , " although the overall mix among the societies was shaped by each city's particular religious makeup. In New York, for example, there were no Unitarians in the societies because Unitarianism had little foothold there. It was strong in Boston, however, so that Unitarianism contributed members to several women's groups in that city. Similarly, the dominance of Presbyterians and the closely associated Reformed Dutch on New York's religious scene helps explain the heavy involvement of women from those two groups in benevolent and reform causes. Boston had, of course, few Presbyterians but many Congregationalists and Baptists; hence, Congregationalist and Baptist women showed up frequently in Boston's organizations. In both cities Episcopalians played small, but significant, roles. (The absence of Catholics and Jews, despite their presence in both cities, hardly needs explanation; these were, after all, Protestant women's societies.)24 Still, within the overall framework of each city, members of reform-oriented societies founded in the 1830s displayed different religious orientations from those of women in benevolent groups. Although often belonging to the same denominations—whether Congregationalist, Presbyterian, or Unitarian—as their benevolent predecessors and contemporaries, they usually did not belong to the same churches. Their churches were likely to be "free" ones that charged no pew rents or else mission churches that catered to the poorer residents of the two cities. Most of the New York moral reformers, for example, were Presbyterians but differed from Presbyterian women in other societies in their association with Charles Finney's revivals. The New-York u See note 9 above. Jane H. Pease and William H. Pease, Bound with Them in Chains: A Biographical History of the Antislavery Movement (Westport, Conn., 1972), 28-59; (Bostoh Female Anti-Slavery Society], Right and Wrong in Boston, in 1836 (Boston, 1836), 84; |Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society], Right and Wrong in the Anti-Slavery Societies (Boston, 1840), 2; Stimpson's Boston Directory; Amy Swerdlow, "Abolition's Conservative Sisters: The Ladies' New York City Anti-Slavery Societies, 1834-1840," Berkshire Conference Collection (Schlesinger Library); Northrup, Record of a Century, 13-16; Appeal to the Wives. Mothers and Daughters of Our Land, 11•,Smith Rosenberg, Religion and the Rise of the American City, 102n. 14 Gabriel P. Disosway, The Earliest Churches of New York and Its Vicinity (New York, 1865], 13-38, 63-93, 181-204; [Isaac Smith Homans], History of Boston, from 1630 to 1856. illustrated with One Hundred and Twenty Engravings (Boston, 1856), 62-129.

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

Female Moral Reform Society also attracted a contingent of Methodist women, whose experiences in that relatively democratic sect shaped their notions of women's " p l a c e . " And Boston's moral reformers were usually liberal Unitarians or memhers of free Congregationalist churches. The 1830s also saw the entrance of Quaker women into women's societies. Virtually absent from earlier benevolent societies in the two cities, female Friends became active in the reform groups of the 1830s, especially in abolitionism, bringing to those organizations their sect's tradition of gender e q u a l i t y . " The differing class and religious blends evident in the moral reform, seamen's aid, and antislavery societies of the 1830s offer some clues to the contrasts between those societies and others. With working women and the wives of missionary-ministers among its officers, the Boston Seamen's Aid Society, for example, was bound to take a different approach to female poverty from that of earlier groups. Moral reform societies that included selfsupporting women (many newly arrived from rural areas) would likely have had a clearer understanding of the dilemmas facing young working women than would have those societies whose memberships comprised primarily wives of prosperous merchants. Religion also served as a point of division but in somewhat less obvious ways. In belonging to the least orthodox and most liberal wings of their denominations, reformist women freed themselves from the definition of women's proper sphere so carefully honed by the orthodox churches. Not all religious liberals, of course, became abolitionists or moral reformers, but abolitionists and moral reformers were almost without exception religious liberals. 1 6 The growing activism of some organized women in the 1830s, then, is explained by their personal characteristics and beliefs, not by their previous experiences in women's societies. Few women became moral reformers or abolitionists because of their participation in a benevolent society. 2 7 Indeed, " Alma Lutz, Crusade for Freedom: Women of the Antislavery Movement (Boston, 1968), 21-67; Hersh, Slavery of Sex, 1-79; Smith Rosenberg, Religion and the Rise of the American City, 102-04; Belyea, "New England Female Moral Reform Society," table 1; Swerdlow, "Abolition's Conservative Sisters," 3-5; Lawrence J. Friedman, Gregarious Saints: Self and Community in American Abolitionism, 1830-1870 (Cambridge, Eng., 1982), 45-48; S. R. Ingraham, Walks of Usefulness; or. Reminiscences of Mrs. Margaret Prior (New York, 1843), 13-17, 41-47. See also Nancy A. Hewitt, Women's Activism and Social Change: Rochester, New York. 1822-1872 (Ithaca, 1984), 33-37, 249-57. u Belyea, "New England Female Moral Reform Society," 5-6. See also Ellen DuBois, "Women's Rights and Abolition: The Nature of the Connection," in Antislavery Reconsidered: New Perspectives on the Abolitionists, ed. Lewis Perry and Michael Fellman (Baton Rouge, 1979), 238-51. 37 The one major exception to this generalization is Abby Ann Cox, wife of physician Abraham L. Cox, who was a manager of the New-York Female Auxiliary Bible Society from 1822 to 1834 and then went on to become corresponding secretary of the Ladies' New-York City Anti-Slavery Society. My analysis of the membership lists indicates that five other New York women were active both in Bible and tract societies and in the New-York Female Benevolent Society. The latter was, however, a much more conservative organization than the contemporary New-York Female Moral Reform Society and shared none of the New-York Female Moral Reform Society's willingness to blame men for women's problems. See note 4 above. Swerdlow, "Abolition's Conservative Sisters," 23n ; Ann··*) Report of the Ladies' New-York City Anti-Slavery Society

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES most groups had a limited ability to embrace new definitions of women's proper place in society because they embodied the social views of theii founders, who, in tum, recruited succeeding generations of members from among their friends and relations. As a result, while there were women's networks in antebellum America, networks that often operated through benevolent organizations, they were separate from each other and mutually exclusive. A woman participated in the network that best fit her class and religious background, her social views, and her image of womanhood. Although the existence of other women's groups validated feminists' claims for public roles, actual experience in evangelical benevolent societies was usually not an important step on the road to feminism. The preceding analysis has shown that there was no clear temporal progression in the public roles assumed by women's groups as a whole. Furthermore, my examination of individuals' organizational careers has demonstrated that few women undertook the journey from benevolence to reform solely through participation in a women's society. Although many women joined more than one, few joined more than one type of society. Most seem to have been predisposed to join only one specific type of organization. As a result, belonging to a women's society seldom had a dramatic impact on an individual's ideas about women's proper place or her attitude toward feminism. Instead of traveling the same road, organized women thus created parallel sets of societies that often had little in common, and the existence of those separate women's networks helps explain the seeming inability of later organizations to learn from the experiences of their predecessors. In formulating work programs, for example, women's groups repeated the same mistakes either because they were simply unaware of earlier experiments or because they had no connections with contemporaries involved in similar projects. (To be fair, I must point out that such repetition of previous mistakes is not uncommon; the history of poverty in America is replete with failed efforts to substitute "workfare" for "welfare.") There was, then, not one women's organizational tradition in the nineteenth century, but several. The benevolent tradition retained its vitality into the 1830s and later as older organizations consolidated their work and as new groups, such as the Boston Children's Friend Society, were founded. The reform tradition was new in the two cities in the 1830s. By challenging the benevolent ladies' assumptions about what women could and ought to attempt in the public sphere, reform-oriented women moved beyond benevolence and into active efforts to change basic social relationships, both in the marketplace and in the family. A third tradition, the feminist, emerged in the 1840s. With the formation of women's rights organizations, many of whose members had indeed cut their organizational teeth in abolitionist or moral reform work, there emerged the first direct connections between traditions. Even these traditions remained essentially separate, however, as only a (New York, 1836), 2; (New-York Female Auxiliary Bible Society), Sixth Annual Report (New York, 1822), 4; Northrop, Record of a Century, 13-16.

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

minority of reformers became feminists. The history of women's organizations remains a fruitful area for historical investigation if we are to understand the characteristics and impact of each of these traditions.1* •ι Circular, Act of Incorporation, Constitution, Government and By-Laws, Children's Pnend Society (Boston, 1837), 3-23; Hersh, Slavery of Sex, 157-88.

of the

Boston

60

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

Appendix A OXCAMOAUOM New York

D a t i or

Fowoofc

Coals and Piocxams

Ladies Society, Established in New-York, for the Relief of Poor Widow« with Small Children Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children (1801)

1797

To provide winter relief for widow», y r h ^ i m j for tbcii children.

Orphan Asylum Society in the City of New-York

1606

Initially, to care for the children of widows aided by the Sodety for the Relief of Poor Widow· with Small Children. Later, took orphans from the city Almshouse and indentured them. In 1834 built an asylum solely for full orphans.

New-York Female Auxiliary Bible Society (New-York Female Bible Society)

1814

Collected money to buy Bibles and distributed them to the poor.

Association for the Relief of Respectable, Aged, Indigent Females

1814

To provide pensions to older women reduced from affluence to poverty. In late 1830s built an asylum for some of the association's pens ion e n .

New-York Female Society for the Aid of Foreign Missions Female Missionary Sodety for the Poor of New·York and Its Vidnity (New-York Female Missionary Society)

1814

Collected funds to send to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

1816

Hired s male missionary to provide public worship in poor areas, to visit the poor, and so on.

New-York Female Union Society for the Promotion of Sabbath Schools (Female Sunday School Union)

1816

To faring together Sunday school teachers for mutual improvement, to provide materials for the schools, and

New York Religions Tract Society, Female Branch Female Tract Society of the City of New-York, Auxiliary to the American Tract Society (1827) Female Branch of the New·York City Tract Society (1831)

1822

Initially, to send hinds to the New-York Religious Tract Sodety. Later, distributed own tracts.

Female Benevolent Sodety of the Oty of New·York (New·York Female Benevolent Sodety)

1832

To encourage prostitutes to repeat- sad to provide work for them m an asylum.

New-York Female Moral Reform Sodety American Female Moral Reform Sodety (1839)

1834

Published books, tracts, and a newspaper. Hired missionaries (after 1837, women) to work with prostitutes. Briefly ran aa asyhitnj later, an employment office.

New-York Female Bethel Union (Female Bethel Union) -

1835

To provide preaching to sailors, to distribute Bibles and tracts aboard ships. Ia 1837 became auxiliary to the Seamen's Friend Sodety.

Boston Ran aa orphanage for girls, most of whom were indentured at age twelve.

Boston Female Asylum

1800

Boston Female Sodety for Missionary Purposes

1800

Fragment Sodety

1812

Aided indigent siek persons by giving them clothing, bedding, and so on.

Female Bible Sodety of Boston and Its Vidnity Female Auxiliary Bible Sodety of Boat on (1823)

1814

Initially, collected money to buy Bibles. In 1820s began visiting sad aiding the poor. By 1840 involved primarily in collecting funds for the American Bible Sodety.

Initially, collected money for Baptist and Congregational ist missions. In 1817 began sponsoring mtwions to the dty*s poor, la 1821 spurred the formation of the Penitent Females Refuge.

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

Organization

D a t i or Founxxnc

C o a l s and Pxoc&ams

Female Society of Boston and the Vicinity, for the Promotion of Qiristianity e n o a ( the Jew* Bottoo Female Society for the Promotion of Christianity among the Jews (1827) Female Society of Boston cad Vicinity for Promoting Christianity among the Jew* (1832)

1815

Collected money to send to a London group. Later, supported a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in the Middle East.

Widows' Society, Boston

1816

Aided "destitute and infirm widow· and aged single women of good character" (and Boston birth) who were reduced from to poverty.

Fatherless end Widow«' Society Boston Fatherless tad Widows' Society (1837]

Care winter relief to widows and their children.

Society for Employing the Female Poor Penitent Females Refuge, Ladies Auxiliary

61

Providing work (washing, booing, and tewing] for poor 1825

Visited Penitent Females Refuge inmates, provided them with prsyed with them.

Seamen's Aid Society, Boston [Boston Seamen's Aid Society)

Provided work for wives and widows of saÜars, ran a school for their daughters, sold their handiwork at a

Boston Female Moral Reform Society New Female Moral Reform Society, Boston (1838)

Ran a newspaper, worked to eradicate prostitution and the double standard, hired a female miwioosry.

Appendix Β Some of the societies listed in appendix A are not analyzed here because I did not have complete lists of officers and managers for them. In analyzing the women's "family characteristics/' I categorized them by the occupation of the head of the household in which they lived. Generally, the head of the household was a husband, but in the case of single women it was a father or, occasionally, a brother. I counted each woman only once for each organization even if, for example, she lived in a household with two male breadwinners. Many women belonged to more than one society; such women are counted under each society to which they belonged. Five of the categories in tables B-l and B-2 require further explanation: (1) "Professional" includes not only doctors and lawyers (the largest groups) but also publishers, teachers, accountants, and brokers. (2) "High"-status ministers are men who served established congregations that had upper- and middle-class members, whereas "low"-status ministers are men who served missionary congregations, free churches, or similar churches. (3) "Widow" includes only those widows about whom I had no household information. Most widows are included under their late husbands' occupations, since most were widowed while serving the society or shortly before joining. (4) "Self-supporting woman" includes only women who clearly worked for all or most of their own incomes. (5) Finally, for a variety of reasons, I could not identify some women's household associations. Some societies, for example, had a high proportion of single members, and unless the records indicated an address I could not trace them in city directories. Other societies iisted members only by their first and last names, making them hard to trace because city directories generally include only employed men and some women. And, of course, women with very common last names were difficult to trace.

62

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

TABLE B-l Family Chaiicterinics of Members of Selected Organizations, New York, 1797-1840 DATO

ORGANIZATION

Covmo

MfaotAHT O*MANV-

rACTUua 1*1

PaorttSIONAL

1*1

MNTNU HICH LOW

mi

Society for the Relief of Poor Widow* with Saul) Children Orphts Asylum Society in the City of New-York IN-34)

New-York Femtle Auxiliary Bible Society A»oci*tion lor the Relief of RespecubJe, A|J —o * £ Λ £ CÖ Β Ö = « ί » B S g gΕ . Μ Ο « Λ c.

5Γ O δ ^ v.

" Β Ξ τ ί ί ° ι

»iB^s's&ss^ri

s-gsHz*

- οS " ο —

o Ο S c. ;

^ I1

BΟ o =g J ' αr E - « _- *" Β a C Γ\ ΕΓ" _ ν — fe ρ » ο f ® t o D οο

" i S - S ^ C . b λ ρ —33 ρ — C-oog c 2 . j ? -J

2 - ϋ ί

t

S

§

5

ί

c l ^ C. ~ ™ ° 2 s> ο

ο

2

ο

σ

f a ε-j? • o S ·S s 8TS a Ο. 5' · —r sto3 t3οε-Β § < ° ^

Ρ η

Λ* . ! ο? » ο 2· ρ η

C

Γ

< rt Γ' ^

υ

„, re —> Ο

•c — - , τ — ο - λ Ι Γ ' · · α < ° · η ο

— %*·§ a ag


o|>cralion. and Conflict Among d ornen in Domestic Crou|>s." in Rosaldo and l-attiphere, op. cit.. 97-112. 33. Michael Young and Peter VI illmott. Family arul kinship in Fxist I/millm (Baltimore. l'N>H). 18').

34. PKS. Annual RejnnU IV (ItWl). 4: V (1842). 4: XI (18W). 10-11: XIII (1850). 10-11: (1852). 10: XIX (iaV>). 9: XXIII (18()0). 8: Rejmrt of the Sort, 1903, p. 51. 40 M a r y L. Starkweather, "Report of the D e p a r t m e n t of Women and Children," in Minnesota Bureau of Labor, Industries and C o m m e r c e , Twelfth Biennial Report, 1909-1910, p. 619-620. A similar metaphor was used in Thomas Russell, The Cirls Fii>ht for a Liiinfi: How to Protect Working Women From Donners Due to Low Wanes, 146 (Chicago, 1913). For informa-

H I S T O R Y O F W O M E N IN T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S

But it was to b e private rather than public organizations that sustained public interest in the morality of working women. T h e Travelers' Aid matrons supported by the YVCA and YVVCA met Minneapolis trains from 6 : 3 0 A.M. until 10:30 P.M. In their efforts to protect women and children from "moral d a n g e r , " matrons distributed religious tracts, provided addresses and train i n f o r m a t i o n , and d i r e c t e d w o m e n to h o u s i n g and employment agencies. T h e y counseled young runaways and pregnant teenagers and occasionally advised penniless young women to return to their country homes. With these services, Travelers' Aid workers eased the transition to urban life for thousands of rural women. By 1915, there were five Traveler's Aid matrons working in the city's train depots. 4 1 Travelers' Aid work expanded to housing in 1902, when the W C A rented sleeping rooms for transients near a downtown depot. T h e first building entirely for women transients, the Travelers' Aid H o m e at 724 Third Avenue South, was purchased in 1909 " t o provide a temporary h o m e under healthful influences" for women travelers and newly arrived migrants seeking employment. T h e h o m e charged from fifteen to fifty cents nightly and accepted lodgers for up to two weeks' residence. In 1909 the W C A and Y W C A split the Travelers' Aid responsibilities. T h e Y W C A agreed to fund the depot matrons, while the W C A took on the task of housing transients. T h e Travelers' Aid H o m e b e c a m e the Transient H o m e for Girls in 1912 and moved to a new site at 1714 Stevens Avenue. F o u r years later, the W C A established the Woman's Hotel at 122 Hennepin Avenue near the Great Northern Railroad Depot. T h e hotel was one of lion on M r s . S t a r k w e a t h e r , s e e " M i n n e s o t a s B u r e a u of W o m e n anil C h i l d r e n , " 1913, typewritten m a n u s c r i p t , D e partment of Labor and Industry Papers, Box 3 1 , S t a t e Archives. 4 1 Minneapolis T r a v e l e r s ' Aid Society, Riyorts, and letter from Sarah Slater, Minneapolis T r a v e l e r s ' Aid C o m m i t t e e , to the Virginia, M i n n . , Y W C A , March 2 , 1922, both in Box 1, M i n n e a p o l i s T r a v e l e r s " Aid S o c i e t y P a p e r s ; T r a v e l e r s Aid C o m m i t t e e , " M i n u t e s , " July 2, 1915, W C A files. S e e also Mrs. A. Y. M e r r i l l , " A History of t h e Work o f the T r a n s i e n t H o m e for Girls C o m m i t t e e o f the W o m a n ' s Christian Association," 1940, typewritten manuscript, W C A files.

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

233

H I S T O R Y O F W O M E N IN T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S

the first o f its kind in t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s . 4 2 M o r e than 4 , 5 0 0 w o m e n a n d c h i l d r e n patronized it in nine m o n t h s in 1916; from 1 9 2 2 t h r o u g h

1935, t h e hotel p r o v i d e d

almost 4 8 0 , 0 0 0 nights o f lodging to w o m e n looking for work or j u s t passing through the c i t y . 4 3 T h e hotel's location c h a n g e d t h r o u g h t h e years. It m o v e d in 1922 to t h e e l e v e n t h floor o f t h e S t . J a m e s H o t e l , 12 North S e c o n d S t r e e t , and in 1 9 2 9 o p e n e d its last h o m e at 1 0 1 5 M a r q u e t t e A v e n u e . It was d i s c o n t i n u e d in 1935. F O R T H O U S A N D S o f w o m e n with steady j o b s , h o m e was a W C A b o a r d i n g c l u b . T h e r e they e x p e r i e n c e d an e n v i r o n m e n t c h a r a c t e r i z e d by a relatively h o m o g e n e o u s group o f lodgers, strict rules, and, a b o v e all, a pervasive " d o m e s t i c i n f l u e n c e . " Association officials w r o t e in 1 8 9 8 that " W e w e l c o m e all h o n e s t w o m e n but p r e f e r to aid the young and i n e x p e r i e n c e d . T h e i n n o c e n t , unsophistic a t e d c o u n t r y girl c o m e s all u n p r e p a r e d for a city life o f trial and t e m p t a t i o n . S h e c o m e s fresh from g r e e n

fields,

and t h e l i b e r t y o f h o m e life, to work in [a] stuffy factory, or dusty o f f i c e . " 4 4 M o s t o f t h e c l u b b o a r d e r s w e r e " c o u n t r y girls" in t h e 1880s, although m a n y i m m i g r a n t s (including S c a n d i n a vian, I r i s h , G e r m a n , C a n a d i a n , Polish, and B o h e m i a n w o m e n ) r e g i s t e r e d at t h e h o m e s . D e s p i t e t h e evangelical Christianity o f t h e W C A , J e w s as well as g e n t i l e s w e r e a d m i t t e d . Only w h i t e w o m e n , h o w e v e r , w e r e allowed to r e g i s t e r , and Blacks applying for h o u s i n g w e r e r e f e r r e d to private boarding houses. In t h e W C A c l u b s , as in most clubs nationally, b o a r d e r s w e r e typically w h i t e ,

under

t h e age o f forty, childless, and " r e s p e c t a b l e . " 4 5 T h e s e b o a r d e r s worked at a variety o f o c c u p a t i o n s . In 1881 the W o m a n ' s B o a r d i n g H o m e matron r e p o r t e d " 5 4 2 Travelers' Aid Committee, "Minutes, 1909-1915, WCA files; Merrill, "A History"; WCA, Rq>ort, 1942, p. 19. 4 3 T h e author calculated these figures from Travelers' Aid reports and Transient Home for Girls minutes in the WCA files. 4 4 WCA, Report, 1898, p. 34. 4 5 W C A , Rqiort, 1887, p. 42; YWCA, "Survey of WCA Housing," 1919, in WCA files; Woman's Boarding Home, "Minutes," September, 1912. F o r a discussion of club boarders nationally, see Fergusson, "Boarding Homes."

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

235

236

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

teachers, several clerks, a few sewing women, a missionary engaged in work among the Scandinavians, an elderly lady, also a young girl attending high school. The whole comprising a very pleasant family." 4 6 Records also indicate that dressmakers, office workers, factory operatives, laundry girls, cash girls, milliners, students, and domestic servants (on their days off or in between jobs) boarded at the clubs. 4 7 By the 1910-1920 decade, most of the WCA boarders were white-collar workers. In 1919 a city-wide survey of boarders living in organized clubs revealed that over a third worked in offices, 12 per cent in factories, and 11 per cent in sewing trades. In contrast, half of the WCA boarders were office workers, 5 per cent were sewing workers, and just 2 per cent worked in factories. 4 8 These figures reflect the concern of the WCA with white, native-born women, dispossessed of their status by the need or desire to work. T h e WCA noted that its boarders included "persons of culture and refinement, whose lives would be made wretched by being obliged to live amid the surroundings of a second or third-rate boarding house in Minneapolis." 4 9 For these women; the clubs acted as a buffer between the urban environment and the domestic ideal. While they worked for a living, they still lived "at home," and so their reputation and status remained protected. Unfortunately, the individual histories of the boarders are lost. The WCA intended to protect the privacy of "their guests," and so the annual reports and unpublished records usually omitted identifications. "Ours is but the history o f . . . a n institution w h e r e those of our own sex striving to maintain themselves in honorable independence, may find the shelter and comfort of a home . . . ," the WCA reported in 1884. " T h e private life and experience of those gathered u n d e r its roof, be4e

Woman's Boarding Home, "Minutes," Deceml>er2,1881. WCA Executive Board, "Minutes," December, 1892, WCA files; YWCA, "Survey." 48 YWCA, "Survey"; Marguerite Wells, "Report of the Sub-Committee on Homes for Working Girls," 2 (Central Council of Social Agencies, Minneapolis, 1917) in WCA files. 49 WCA, Rqiort, 1885, p. 22; 1884, p. 33. 47

W O M E N TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

long no more to the world at large than do our own." 5 0 What the records do leave us is a revealing portrait of life in the boarding clubs. At the Woman's Boarding Home, as at all the WCA clubs, a matron supervised household activities. She served as a substitute parent, the WCA suggested, "and knows all her family, and knows their needs, and they come to her just as though they would to their own mother back home for help and advice." 5 1 The clubs would "sustain virtue" by providing the "place . . . of father, mother, home — blending in the one the counsels, love, and refining influences of the three." 5 2 The matron presided over a strictly regulated home. She admitted applicants who qualified by earning less than a set salary, and who presented "testimonials of character." She saw that lodgers ate meals at the ringing of one bell, and that they turned out the lights at night at the ringing of another. Sunday worship services were mandatory, although in the early years of the home the matron observed that "only a few of present numbers of this household were professing Christians." 53 Infringement of the rules resulted in expulsion. Two young women w e r e dismissed from the home in 1903, for example, for "ingratitude." 54 While strict rules were upheld in the clubs, increased amenities were also available. A parlor — often with a piano — was available to boarders and their guests. T h e clubs s u p p l i e d a library of books and periodicals, many of a religious nature, but also such popular, albeit prescriptive, literature as Youths Companion and Ladies' Home Journal. The WCA provided a loan fund for boarders in the 1880s, a low-cost vacation retreat on Lake Minnetonka — Janette Merrill Park at Howard's Point — from 1921 through 1946, and a liberal policy towards boarders who were unable to pay rent WCA, Rej)ort, 1884, p. 32. "Woman's Place is in the Home," 2, typewritten manuscript, WCA files. 50 51

52

WCA, Rei>ort, 1881, p. 22.

WCA, Rq>ort, 1881, p. 32; Woman's Boarding Home, "Minutes," December 2, 1881. 53

54

WCA, Report, 1903, p. 34.

237

H I S T O R Y O F W O M E N IN T H E UNITED S T A T E S

because of unemployment or illness. 5 5 T h e W C A argued that one way to promote moral purity was to structure leisure time. "An ounce of prev e n t i o n is worth a p o u n d of c u r e , " W C A officials cautioned, "and were this work of guiding the leisure hours of young girls looked after, there would be less need of reformatories [and homes for prostitutes]." 5 6 In many of the clubs, young women read poetry in literary societies, studied typing and cooking in domestic science classes, and formed enthusiastic athletic teams. Among the teachers at the Woman's Boarding Home was Maria Sanford, professor of rhetoric and elocution at the University of Minnesota from 1880 to 1909. S h e charged club r e s i d e n t s twenty-five cents for each lesson on Browning, Riley, Kipling, and other topics of literature and art. 5 7 T h e r e is evidence that some boarders chafed at both the public image and the regulations of the clubs. In 1885, twenty-eight residents of the Woman's Boarding Home petitioned the W C A board to change the name of the club, "as the present name is obnoxious on many accounts." T h e y probably believed the name to b e too remininscent of a charitable or public institution. Their petition was tabled, and two years later some of the boarders destroyed the name plate on the building. 5 8 In 1888 several boarders at the Branch were reported to have " g r u m b l e d a bit about the evening rules, no one being allowed out later than 10 p . m . , unless by special permission. " 5 9 But other W C A boarders expressed their appreciation of the association in the pages of their newsletter, " B r a n c h , "Minutes," November 5, 1889, and April 1, 1890, in WCA files; WCA, Report, 1975, p. 15, and 1889, p. 33-34; Woman's Boarding Home, "Minutes," October 4, 1878. 5 6 W C A , Rqiort, 1888, p. 14. " " H i s t o r y of the Woman's Boarding Home, 1874-1911," manuscript in WCA files. For brief biographies of Maria Sanford, see Edward T. James, et al., eds., Sot able American Women, 3:223-234 (Cambridge, Mass., 1971) and Ceraldine Bryan Schofield and Susan Margot Smith, "Maria Louise Sanford: Minnesota's Heroine," in Women of Minnesota. s 8 Woman's Boarding Home, "Minutes," June 5, 1885, and May, 1887. S 9 Cay, in St. Paul Globe, August 5, 1888.

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL L I F E

"Annals of No Man's Land," published by committees of boarders beginning in the 1910-1920 decade. The "Ann a l s " p r i n t e d p o e m s , news a r t i c l e s , gossip, and aphorisms about and by club residents. Much of this literature emphasized the importance of friendships made between women who had arrived in the city as strangers. One poem, about the Pillsbury club, typically expressed this theme: Ρ is for the port in distress, I is for the incense of friendship, L is for two lights in the fog, S is for the spirit of kinship, . . . Little bachelor girl finally finds "home," Maybe it isn't so bad after all To go limping along alone. 6 0 T H E D E C L I N E of the boarding club movement in Minneapolis reflects both changing social attitudes and changing demographic patterns. T h e expansions of the war years culminated in increasing club vacancies in the 1920s and 1930s. VVCA officials suggested at first that the decline was related to the depression of 1920-21, as they had in previous years observed the relationship between the city's business conditions and migration patterns. 6 1 The trend away from the clubs continued despite the economic fluctuations of the decade. In 1927 the WCA "noted with alarm the tendency of the young girls to flock to apartment houses and crowd three, four, five into one room. That way of living is not wholesome for girls and we are doing all possible to make our homes attractive and are hoping that this will prove to be but a passing condition." 6 2 6 0 " A n n a l s of No Man's L a n d , " October, 1924, p. 11. Another poem with a similar theme was published in a later version of the newsletter — the " W . C . A . News" — on June 5, 1933. " T h e r e are Marguerite, Dorothy, Diane, and Hazel,/ Evelyn, Alma, Georgina, and Mabel . . ./There are typers, marcellers, and girls who keep books,/And girls who are marvelous, wonderful cooks . . ./Some are students, and some are teachers,/Oh! T h e girls at Marquette Coiners' are wonderful creatures." T h e newsletters are in the WCA files and the MHS.

See, for example, the Branch, " M i n u t e s , " June, 1894, •ind VVCA, Report, 1922, p. 3. 6 2 WCA, Rqwrt, 1927, p. 10. 61

240

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

241

242

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

243

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

σ 2C "C £ Γ·* •Ji β ο1 Ο οο e ν. ο £ ϊ CO a Ζ κ la 2 < •b 'So ften ο

244

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

It was not to be. By the 1920s, women had become more sophisticated and more i n d e p e n d e n t . T h e first generation of boarders and lodgers had effectively paved the way for the broadening of "women's s p h e r e . " As one historian states, the urban "new woman" of the period after 1910 lived by an internal morality, rather than the external authority imposed by the family and the small town. 6 3 The "new woman" became, in effect, her own "keeper" outside the home, and consequently the moral imperative of the boarding clubs weakened. A social worker, reflecting the "new i n d e p e n d e n c e , " maintained in 1917 that: From my own point of view, and that of most of my friends, most of us being working women, a boarding house life, even the best of its kind, is a poor apology for living, and we all agree if we had the problem of home finding to face we would settle it by combining and taking an apartment . . . that is the opinion of the majority of working women with whom I have talked, w h e t h e r they be teachers or stenographers or college students or shop girls. 64 Changing cultural attitudes, however, were only one factor in the decline of the clubs. T h e relative n u m b e r s of female boarders and lodgers fell in Minneapolis as city growth stabilized and the state b e c a m e urbanized. Immigration rates also dropped, as new laws restricted the influx of foreigners to the United States in the 1920s. 65 Furthermore, the state minimum wage law was passed M

James R. McGovern, "The American Woman's PreWorld War I Freedom in Manners and Morals," in Jean E. Friedman and William G. Shade, Our American Sisters: Women in American Life and Thought, 2 3 7 - 2 5 9 (Boston, 1973). 64 Wells, "Report of the Sub-Committee on Homes for Working Girls," 6. 65 Conrad Taeuber and Irene B. Taeuber, The Changing Population of the United States, 59 (New York, 1958). Joseph Adna Hill, in Women in Gainful Occupations, 1870 to 1920, 105-106 (Census Monograph IX, Washington, 1929), suggests that the female boarding population decreased as cities passed their peak growth. While he does not present data for Minneapolis, he states that the percentage of boarders in St. Paul

246

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

in 1914, easing, in a limited way, the wage situation for self-supporting women. 6 6 T h e WCA, however, did not die out. Instead, the organization survived by adapting to changing times. The transient lodgings, for example, e n d e d in 1936 when Travelers' Aid became a United F u n d service for all travelers — male as well as female. That year, the WCA committee in charge of the Woman's Hotel t u r n e d to a new project — the housing of older, unmarried women. Lindley Hall, which opened for " m a t u r e women" in 1941 at 1725 Second Avenue South, is said to have b e e n the first club of its kind in the country. 6 7 In 1972 the Clara Doerr Club, which had opened in 1925 at 1717 Second Avenue South to accommodate up to ninety-four working women, was leased to Opportunity Workshop as housing for retarded young people receiving occupational training. 6 8 And, in 1979, the WCA maintains three boarding clubs in downtown Minneapolis for a diminished but still visible population of young women migrants seeking inexpensive, supervised housing in the city. 6 9 decreased from almost half the female labor force in 1900 to 28 per cent in 1920. 66 T h e first minimum wage legislated in Minnesota and effective in Minneapolis set salaries at between $8.75 and $9.00 weekly for women workers. See Minnesota Minimum Wage Commission, First Biennial Rej)ort, 1913-1914 (St. Paul, 1914). 67 WCA, Rei>ort, 1942, p. 19; Woman's Christian Association of Minneapolis, 1866-1966; Merrill, "A History." 3. Lindley Hall today accepts men as well as women residents. 68 WCA, Rejwrt, 1975, p. 22. 69 They are the Mahala Fisk Pillsbury Club at 819 Second Avenue South, Kate Dunwoody Hall at 52 Tenth Street South, and Mabeth Paige Hall at 727 Fifth Avenue South. The latter has admitted young men to residency since September, 1975.

THE PHOTOGRAPHS on p. 230 and p. 235 (bottom) are from Woman's Christian Association, Fiftieth Annual Report, 19161917, p. 52, 60; all the others published with this article are from the files of the Woman's Christian Association office at 821 Second Avenue South. Of these, the two on p. 233 were taken by Norton & Peel, and the kitchen picture on p. 241 was taken by C J. Hibbard. All the other photographs were made by Lee Brothers.

W O M E N TOGETHER: O R G A N I Z A T I O N A L LIFE

Civilizing Kansas: Women's Organizations, 1880-1920 by June 0. Underwood

T

W O I M A G E S d o m i n a t e o u r vision o f w o m e n o n t h e G r e a t Plains a n d in e a r l y K a n s a s . O n e is o f t h e p i o n e e r m o t h e r , d e v a s t a t e d by t h e d i f f i c u l t i e s o f h e r life a n d d r i v e n m a d b y t h e w i n d . T h e o t h e r is o f t h e civilizing w o m a n , C a r r y N a t i o n w i e l d i n g her a x a g a i n s t t h e d e m o n r u m . It is t o t h e latter i m a g e , a n d its c o n n e c t i o n s with real life, t h a t this e s s a y a d d r e s s e s itself. 1

This essay is based on work done under the auspices of the Research Institute on Women's Public Lives, University of Kansas, funded by the Ford Foundation. 1. Walter Prescott Webb, The Great Plains (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1931), 5 0 5 - 6 , codifies this image of the pioneer mother gone mad in his chapter "Mysteries of the Great Plains." "The Plains exerted a peculiarly appalling effect on women," he says. "The wind alone drove some to the verge of insanity and caused others to migrate in time to avert the tragedy." For one view of domestic images, see Sandra L. Myres, Westering Women and the Frontier Experience, 1800-1915 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1982), particularly ch. 1, "The Madonna of the Plains and Calamity Jane: Images of Westering Women," 1 - 1 1 .

June O. Underwood, associate professor of English and associate dean of liberal arts and sciences at Emporia State University, received Β.Λ. arid M.A. degrees from Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She has published a number of articles on Victorian and western literature and the history and literature of women on the Great Plains and is currently writing a book on Kansas women's organizations, 1880-1920.

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"Civilizing" is a term with strong connotations in American culture. American literature is full of males who "light out for the territory" to escape civilizing females. Once the pioneer woman was past the difficulties of settlement, so popular notions go, she proceeded to civilize, laying down her rifle and picking up her hatchet, forcing her adolescent children into church and tight shoes, and driving golden-hearted whores and fun-loving saloon keepers out of town. Even historians have difficulty defining nineteenthcentury women's civilizing mission. When they describe women as civilizers, they talk primarily about the home — bringing lace tablecloths and dinner-time manners to family life. However, the civilizing which is the subject of this essay is a far tougher and more collective activity than espousing domestic amenities. It is influencing society and government to diminish human suffering. Women's organizations in frontier and post-frontier Kansas worked continuously over many years bringing to local communities structures which would prevent poverty, misery, and disease. T h i s essay explores the range of civic and social activities of Kansas women's organizations and their incursion into and impact upon public and political spheres and then attempts to account for the decline of those organizations after 1920.2 Julie Roy Jeffrey in Frontier Women asks the question: "if . . . the move to the frontier meant the abandonment of civilization by frontiersmen, what did it mean for their wives and daughters, who presumably thought themselves responsible for civilizing the wilderness?" 3 2. The term "civilizer" has been so banalized and derogated that historians of the women's West sometimes go out of their way to deny women this role. See, for example, Elizabeth Jameson, "Women as Workers, Women as Civilizers: True Womanhood in the American West," Frontiers 7 (1984): 1-8. Jameson despises the term, feeling it is overly simple and denotes passivity. However, one of her sources, May Wing, wanted to be remembered for running the local museum, starting the school hot lunch program, organizing a boys' chorus, and teaching Sunday school (7). These are the kinds of activities I would term "civilizing." 3. Julie Roy Jeffrey, Frontier Women: The Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-1880 (New York: Hill and Wang, 1979), xiii.

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For women, the move to the frontier meant taking west the nurturing and home responsibilities into which they had been socialized. As innumerable historians have documented, the rise of industrialism in the East had separated "home" from work, and women's duties, practically and ideologically, involved harmonizing human environments and relationships and caring for the welfare of others. Politically as well as economically restricted to the domestic s p h e r e , middle-class women focused on religion and nurture, ignoring economics and politics. As Barbara Berg shows, almost at the instant of this enclosure within the domestic, however, women found ways of breaking out of its restrictions. When they broke loose they did so almost entirely in terms of the domestic ideologies: teaching the children, being responsible for social welfare, taking on "municipal" housecleaning. Women bonded together in their domestic enclosures, and because of that sisterhood, they were able to extend their extradomestic power. T h e period in America from about 1800 to 1850, before Kansas became a territory and attained statehood, was the period in which successive stages in the domestic ideology, including women's relegation to the private sphere, their banding together as a separate community, and their assuming responsibilities for public welfare, were formulated. 4 Thus, when women came to Kansas after 1850, they brought not only the baggage of human concerns but years of working together, separate from the male populace, to achive social good. Abolitionists had 4. Nancy F. Colt, The Bonds of Womanhood: "Woman's Sphere" in New England, 1780-1835 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), provides the most thorough history of the rise of women's bonding. J o h n n y Faragher and Christine Stansell, "Women and T h e i r Families on the Overland Trail to California and Oregon, 1842-1867," Feminist Studies 2 (1975): 1 5 0 - 6 0 , explore the ramifications of such bonding for western women travelers. Other important analyses of pre-Civil War eastern women's bonding and organizing are Barbara Berg, The Remembered Gate: Origins of American Feminism, the Woman and tiie City, 1800-1860 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978); Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, "Beauty, the Beast and the Militant Woman: A Case Study in Sex Roles in Jacksonian America," American Quarterly 23 (1971): 5 6 2 - 8 4 ; and Mary P. Ryan, "The Power of Women's Networks: A Case Study of Female Moral Reform in Antebellum America," Feminist Studies 5 (1979): 6 6 - 8 5 .

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found in women a source of great power; later the sanitary commissions of the Civil War were staffed by women. T h u s , once the initial settlement of the frontier was completed, women were ready to go on with their public welfare and reform activities — their civilizing. As J e f f r e y puts it, "As the period of isolation came to a n end, women's social contacts multiplied. T h e organization of churches, schools, and voluntary associations, the development of rural towns and cities, gave women a new and more public forum for their activities a n d o p e n e d another phase of female experience on the frontier. With growth came the o p p o r t u n ity to carry out the civilizing mission implicit in the concept of domesticity." 5 Kansas is an excellent place in which to explore the activities of organized women because of its settlement patterns, the availability of its historical materials, and its relationship to the Civil War. It is possible to trace stages in organizational development and relate them to the maturity of the society. Because of the lateness of its settlement and the pride Kansas has had in its history, both written and pictorial materials are readily available. And finally, Kansas was a place of political experimentation, seen nationally as embodying possibilities for a new society. T h e Kansas-Nebraska Act m a d e Kansas a stage for tests of slavery sentiments prior to the Civil War. T h e first s u f f r a g e campaign in the nation (1867) took place in Kansas. Populists, prohibitionists, and progressives all found positions of great power within the state. T h u s social questions and r e f o r m c a m p a i g n s were part of the milieu of Kansas. However, the state, parts of which were frontier until at least 1910, did not become urbanized and never, except for some geographical pockets, attracted large industries. Because of these conditions, it is possible to investigate reform in a nonurban, nonindustrialized state. T h e few studies of women's organiza5. Jeffrey, Frontier Women, 79. For the most recent discussion of the growth and work of women's organizations nationally, see Anne Firor Scott, "On Seeing and Not Seeing: A Case Study of Historical Invisibility," Journal of American History 7 (June 1984): 7 - 2 1 . See also Katherine Harris, "Feminism and Temperance Reform in the Boulder [Colorado] W C T U , " Frontiers 4 (1979): 1 9 - 2 4 .

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tions and reform activities which have been done focus on urbanization as the catalyst for such activities. Yet Kansas, without an urban crisis, was in the foref ront of founding and supporting reforms hitherto seen as urban. In examining the activities of Kansas women's organizations, however, it is important to note that no claim is made that they were radical or unique. T h e reforms the women advocated were reforms, not revolutions. T h e radical ideas which coexisted with their reform sentiments would have acted as stimulants to thinking, but, as shall be shown, did not affect the women's collective actions. T h e rapid organization and functioning of the women's groups in Kansas was undoubtedly a result of the pervasive nature and functioning of such groups back east. By 1850 newspapers and magazines were readily available throughout the nation, and by 1870, the railroads had begun building their Kansas networks. Kansas was linked in communications, economics, and ideology to the rest of the country, and its women shared that linkage. Women's work in the abolition movement, the sanitary commissions of the Civil War, the temperance campaigns, and the veterans' relief auxiliaries was part of frontier women's heritage. Thus, the women of Kansas, like its men, took on the nation's most modern ideas and concerns. T h e importance of women combining for social welfare and self-improvement has been recognized by historians of women's history. Mary P. Ryan, for example, in Womanhood in America, has this to say about the growth and development of women's organizations nationally: By the turn o f the century women's clubs were not only investigating social conditions but conducting social reforms — forming corporations to build sanitary housing in the slums, reconstructing the judicial system for juvenile offenders, and endorsing factory and child labor legislation. T h e Women's Trade Union League founded in 1903 devoted less and less time to bringing middle-class culture to working girls and became deeply embroiled in union activities and strikes.

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Meanwhile, traditional women's groups had become careless of their ladylike ways. As early as the 1870's, the Women's [«' (Fall 1 9 7 9 ) : 5 1 2 - 2 9 , n . 7, a r g u e s t h a t t h e b o n d i n g b e t w e e n w o m e n , e x h i b i t e d in t h e w o m e n ' s o r g a n i z a t i o n s , is a n e s s e n t i a l q u a l i t y o f f e m i n i s m a n d s u g g e s t s t h a t " a n y f e m a l e - d o m i n a t e d activity t h a i p l a c e s a p o s i t i v e v a l u e o n w o m e n ' s social c o n t r i b u t i o n s , p r o v i d e s p e r s o n a l s u p p o r t , a n d is not c o n t r o l l e d by a n t i f e i n i n i s t l e a d e r s h i p h a s f e m i n i s t p o l i t i c a l p o t e n t i a l " a n d is " p r e f e m i n i s t . "

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ties are all but ignored. Only in contemporary documents — n e w s p a p e r articles, conference schedules, magazine reports — and in letters and diaries do the extent and impact of the clubs reveal themselves. And after 1920 or so these same documents reveal the changed n a t u r e of the women's organizations. Women's clubs in frontier Kansas a d a p t e d themselves to the social environment and proceeded to reform it. Thev did so collectively, not individually, and in doing so formed the base for a h u m a n e society. Members studied problems, like alcoholism, that defied easy solutions. In doing so they enriched their own and others' lives. T h e y were feisty, intelligent, thoughtful, and h a r d working. As civilizers they succeeded in being the conscience of the frontier. |kh)

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Jewish Women of the Club: The Changing Public Role of Atlanta's Jewish Women (1870-1930) Beth S. Wenger At the end of the nineteenth century, American Jewish women inaugurated an era of unprecedented community involvement. As fundraisers, organizers, and dispensers of charity, women became a "volunteer army," dedicated to serving the needs of the Jewish community. Almost every communal history contains a passing reference to women's volunteer services, praising the Jewish woman's profound dedication to her community.1 But few Jewish historians have explored the inner dynamic of organizational activity as a force that shaped women's development and transformed their status and roles. Through club life, women gained a sense of self-confidence and self-worth, while they acquired leadership and organizational skills. Organizational activity provided the first opportunity for women, both Jewish and nonJewish, to affect the public sphere. While the club movement has been recognized and documented as a crucial turning point in American women's history, little attention has been given to the parallel development of the Jewish women's club.2 Jewish women joined their nonJewish counterparts in broadening the definition of their "proper

1 June Sochen, Consecrate Every Day: The Public Lives of American Jewish Women mO-1980 (Albany: 1981), p. 47. 2 Historians of the women's club movement have traced a progression from literary societies and church groups, to missionary and charitable associations, to temperance and reform societies, and finally to women's clubs. Women's historians cite the club movement, which burgeoned in the 1890*s, as a force that brought American women to the center of social, political, and educational reform and paved the way for suffrage. Among the works that have shaped my thinking about the development of the American women's club movement are Nancy F. Cott, The Bonds of Womanhood: "Woman's Sphere" in New England, 1780-1835 (New Haven: 1977); Gerda Lerner, The Majority Finds its Past (New York: 1979); Keith Melder, "Ladies Bountiful: Organized Women's Benevolence in Early 19th Century America," New York History, 48 (1967); Mary P. Ryan, "The Power of Women's Networks," in Sex and Class in Women's History (London: 1983); and Anne Firor Scott, Making the Invisible Woman Visible (Chicago: 1984) and The Southern Lady: From Pedestal to Politics, 1830-1930 (Chicago: 1970). Some treatment of Jewish women's organizations can be found in June Sochen, Consecrate Every Day and Charlotte Baum, Paula Hyman, and Sonya Michel, The Jewish Woman in America (New York, 1975); a comprehensive history of the National Council of Jewish women is Ellen Sue Levi Ellwell's, T h e Founding and Early Programs of the National Council of Jewish Women" (unpublished dissertation, Indiana University, 1982).

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place" to include the larger society. As social housekeepers, women gained the right to address the social and political issues of their day. In the process, they were to redefine radically their own societal roles.1 By exploring the experience of German Jewish clubwomen in Atlanta, Georgia, during the decades immediately before and after the turn of the century, this essay aims to provide a starting point for understanding the evolution of club life among Jewish women.4 The case of Atlanta's Jewish women is distinct from the histories of other Jewish women's organizations in several respects. The Southern Jewish population remained significantly smaller than the northern. Jewish women in Atlanta and throughout the South founded their organizations later than their Northern counterparts and were often chronologically behind the North in developing institutions. Moreover, Atlanta's Jewish women established organizational ties with nonJewish women at a surprisingly early stage in their club development, a move rarely paralleled in the North. These differences notwithstanding, Atlanta's Jewish clubwomen joined their Northern sisters as well as their non-Jewish counterparts in extending their nurturant role beyond the home, making gradual inroads into the public arena.

As in most communities, Atlanta's earliest women's organizations began as benevolent societies associated with religious institutions. In the case of Atlanta, the key synagogue was the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation, a Reform congregation commonly known as The Temple.5 The Hebrew Ladies' Benevolent Society, chartered in 1870, concentrated its efforts on charity and fundraising. By the end of the nineteenth century, in response to the arrival of Eastern European immigrants, the Ladies' Society organized a program to supply new immigrants with food, coal, and clothing and offer financial assistance 3

Paula Hyman, T h e Volunteer Organizations: Vanguard or Rear Guard?" Liliih, 5 (1978), 17. 4 Most information about Jewish women's organizations in Atlanta has never been systematically organized. The bulk of my source material is drawn from collections which I have recovered from the local office of the National Council of Jewish Women and the storerooms of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation. An uncataloged collection containing material from the Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs is housed at the Georgia Department of Archives and History, Atlanta, Georgia (hereafter abbreviated GDAH). 5 Steven Hertzberg, Strangers Within the Gate City: The Jews of Atlanta, 1845-I9IS (Philadelphia, 1978), pp. 23, 283. There is a discrepancy regarding the year of the congregation's founding. Hertzberg explains that the original founding took place in 1862, although Rabbi David Marx and Janice Rothschild erroneously place the founding date in 1867 when the congregation was incorporated. David Marx, "History of the Jews in Atlanta" Reform Advocate, Nov. 4,1911, p. 19; Janice O. Rothschild, As But a Day, The First Hundred Years, 1867-1967 (Atlanta, 1966), pp. 2-3.

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to Jews interested in becoming peddlers. The Society also taught Russian women the techniques of Southern cooking. When the Temple erected its own building in 1877, the Ladies' Society used the basement as a makeshift soup-kitchen. That same basement functioned as a night-school and temporary housing facility where immigrants could begin the process of Americanization. By 1889, the Ladies' Hebrew Benevolent Society had over one thousand dollars in its treasury, which it used both to fund welfare work and to furnish The Temple.4 The Temple's minutes refer to several other women's organizations such as the Ladies' Temple Guild, Young Ladies' Auxiliary Society, and Ladies' Hebrew Aid Association, whose duties also included charity work and fundraising, as well as decoration of The Temple and arrangements for special programs. No records from these organizations have survived, but The Temple's minutes provide some clues as to the nature of their activities. For example, in 1894, the Tfemple Board adopted a resolution stating that, "three ladies be appointed each month to see that those whose duty it is to keep the Temple in good condition perform their duty properly," and the next month a letter of thanks, "for services rendered in further ornamenting the Temple," was sent to the Young Ladies' Auxiliary Society.7 In short, clubwomen of this period became behind-the-scenes workers in Templeaffiliated organizations. They had little voice in the decisions of The Temple, yet their activities funded, supported, and coordinated many welfare programs and Temple functions. Other Jewish women's clubs of a more social nature also listed philanthropic contributions within the scope of their activities. A Jewish Grandmother's Club of the 1890*s, made up entirely of Temple members, regularly collected contributions for charity at meetings centered around social and cultural events. Interestingly, the Constitution, a daily Atlanta paper, described the club as "one of the most exclusive in the city."* Another "exclusive" organization of the period was the "Riesday Afternoon Club, which limited its membership to twelve women. Its weekly Kaffeeklatsches were social gatherings where each member donated a set amount to the local Hebrew Orphans Home. The method of contribution was simple: "members are pledged to pay, when present, a dime - and double that amount, when ab-

6

Hertzberg, Strangers, p. 127; Rothschild, As But A Day p. 55; methods of fundraising usually varied from the sponsorship of concerts and balls to a collection of membership dues. 7 Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Minutes, Sept. 3, 1894 and Oct. 28, 1894, Microfilm, American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati. 8 Atlanta Constitution, Jan 17, 1898, p. 4; Hertzberg, Strangers, p. 119.

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sent."* In this way, social clubs also took up the cause of charity. Both social clubs and Temple-affiliated associations of the late nineteenth century demonstrated a primary concern with fundraising and philanthropy. These small associations were the forerunners of what became a sophisticated Jewish women's club movement beginning in the 1890"$. A comparison with the general women's club movement reveals that prior to 1890, Jewish and non-Jewish women's organizations differed in their interests and activities, but also shared some common developmental traits. In describing the Southern Christian woman, Anne Scott explains that, "In the 1870*s came the rapid growth of missionary societies, in the 1880's of the WCTU [Woman's Christian Temperance Union], and in the 1890's women's clubs."10 Jewish women had no connection to missionary societies and never expressed great concern over the temperance issue. More importantly, the very makeup of the Jewish community prompted women to take up different causes. As members of a small, young community with a growing immigrant population, Jewish women were preoccupied with raising funds to build the physical and institutional structures necessary for communal life. Charity rapidly became their priority as immigration continued to increase. Furthermore, Atlanta's Jewish women were thrust more rapidly into the club movement than were their non-Jewish counterparts who had participated in women's societies years before a Jewish population arrived in the city. However, the commonality of the Jewish and non-Jewish experience should not be overlooked. The early organizations of both Jewish and Gentile women attempted to affect the public sphere through an extension of the female nurturant role. The religious institution, whether church or temple, usually served as the center of women's activities, enabling women to participate in the public arena as an outgrowth of their inherently "spiritual" characters.11 Although nonJewish women began creating associations long before Jewish women had arrived in the United States, both groups extended their sphere of influence from the home to the "church" and finally to the society at large. In 1895, seven German Jewish women met at The Temple to found the Atlanta chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women, the 9

TheMagnet l,4(Oct., 1894),311. The Magnet was a quarterly magazine published in Atlanta for the benefit of the Hebrew Orphan's Home. 10 Scott, The Southern Lady, p. 136. My work relies heavily on Scott's research, both because she deals specifically with Southern women and because she places great emphasis on clubs and voluntary associations. 11 On the "spiritual" character of women and the role of religious piety in club life see Scott, Making the Invisible Woman Visible, pp. 190-211 and Baum, The Jewish Woman in America, pp. 28-31.

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first nationally affiliated women's organization of Atlanta Jewry.12 National affiliation was an important step for Council women. As ideas filtered down from the national movement, Atlanta women were confronted with larger issues affecting the role of the Jewish woman in America. As the Council's vice-president proclaimed, "the Jewish women of the South welcome the opportunity to join our sisters of other parts of this great Union" in order to "make the bond between 3 Jewish women stronger.*" Not only did the Council foster a broader conception of Jewish womanhood, but it also raised the status of a member to that of a legitimate clubwoman. Membership in a women's club carried with it significantly greater prestige than participation in a benevolent society, particularly in the South where the women's club was quickly becoming a well-respected institution. Despite its national affiliation, the Council's earliest activities continued to be directed toward meeting the needs of the local community. Like the organizations that proceeded it, the Council originally served as an adjunct of The Temple. "A unique relationship existed between it and The Temple. It met at The Temple It assumed responsibility within The Temple. Its president until 193S was automatically a member of The Temple Board. . . ,"14 In essence, the Council performed the duties of a Temple Sisterhood until a separate Sisterhood organization was founded in 1912. The Council also worked, either in cooperation with the Ladies' Hebrew Benevolent Society or through its own activities, to aid newly arrived immigrants through financial assistance, educational programs, and the provision of food and clothing.15 In these respects, the Council appeared very similar to the Templeaffiliated women's societies that proceeded it, concentrating its efforts on fundraising and charity. However, even in its early years, the Council laid the groundwork that enabled it to develop into a sophisticated Jewish women's organization. From the outset, the Council's 12 Preamble of Statement of Purpose, History of the Atlanta Section NCJW (New York: Central Files NCJW, 1970); Rothschild, As But a Day, p. 54; The National Council was founded two years earlier in 1893. 13 Mrs. Joseph Hirsch, "Report of Atlanta Section Vice-President at the First THennial Convention of the National Council of Jewish Women" (New York: Central Files NCJW, 1896). In the 1890's, Jewish women's organizations proliferated throughout the country. Fbr details about the establishment of such organizations, see June Sochen, Consecrate Every Day, pp. 49-60. 14 Rothschild, As But A Day p. 54. 15 Ibid., pp. 52-57; Atlanta Section NCJW Collection, 1895-1906. Information taken from the collection includes newsletters, newspaper clippings, photographs, and program summaries. Items are often undated or grouped in a section covering several years. All material housed at section office, Atlanta; hereafter referred to as Atlanta Section NCJW Collection.

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leadership structure was highly developed. Its board of directors, officers, and chairpeople were responsible for presiding at meetings, planning programs, and delivering regular reports. The experience that women gained in organizing and directing programs that they had created was crucial in fostering a measure of self-confidence which would enable them to assume greater political and social involvement. Another regular feature of early Council activities, too often overlooked, was the study group. In the 1890's, discussions usually focused on Bible study, religious issues, or subjects related to motherhood and home life. The Council's Home Influence Circle discussed a different topic each week pertaining to such issues as "purity in the home" or "problems of child rearing." While these themes hardly seem to deviate from traditional definitions of the woman's role, it was not long before the concern with purity in the home led to a concerted effort to protect home life through social and political reform. Through study groups, women learned about history, politics, economics, and new techniques of social work. Thus, the study group became a crucial means of informal self-education." The feature that most distinguished the Council from the organizations that preceded it was its respected position among the many women's clubs of Atlanta. In 1896, the Council joined the newly formed Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs (G.F.O.W.C.), becoming part of a city- and state-wide sphere of women's activity. The G.F.O.W.C. was an umbrella organization whose membership consisted of a wide range of religious, civic, and social clubs throughout the state. At the turn of the century, federations of women's clubs were forming across the South, all linked together under the national leadership of the General Federation of Women's Clubs. The proliferation of federations attested to the growing size and power of the women's club movement. As one historian commented, "In union there was strength. Perhaps even more important was the stimulating effect of exchanging ideas, another example of the tendency of association to carry people beyond their original goals."" Through the G.F.O.W.C., Jewish women gained access to a diversity of women's associations. The G.F.O.W.C. was composed of its subsidiary clubs and not structured to accept individual memberships, so that the Atlanta Chapter of the Council joined as a group. This enabled Jewish women, who probably would not have joined individually, to participate in a vast network of female activity. Although in its early years the Council participated only peripherally in the G.F.O.W.C., usually through donations to its projects and occasional 16 Atlanta Section NCJW Collection, 1895-1906. 17 Georgia federation of Women's Clubs collection, 1896-1907, GDAH; on federations forming throughout the South see Scott, The Southern Lady, p. 161.

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reports in its publications, membership in the G.F.O.W.C. represented the first formal interaction between Jewish and non-Jewish women in the city. It is interesting to note that local NCJW chapters in the North seldom, if ever, joined the General Federation of Women's Clubs, indicating that Southern Jewish clubwomen may have been able to establish more extensive associational ties with their non-Jewish counterparts than could their Northern sisters.1· Despite membership in the G.F.O.W.C., most of Atlanta's NCJW activities continued to be directed toward the Jewish community. Council women had become the chief executors of Jewish benevolence and had taken on, almost single-handedly, the responsibilities of dispensing charity, a duty that consumed most of their time and energy. But twentieth century developments in the Atlanta Jewish community signaled a new phase in Council programming. When the Council began its activities in 1895, approximately 1,200 Jews lived in Atlanta; by 1910 the population had risen to 4,000" In its early years, the Council held primary responsibility for assisting the immigrant population. However, as needs increased and charitable organizations multiplied, Atlanta Jewry developed a city-wide institutional structure designed to coordinate immigrant services. In 1905, the newly created Jewish Educational Alliance became the center of Eastern European activity and the chief recipient of German benevolence. The Council had long provided relief to immigrants on a smaller scale, often on an individual basis. The Alliance represented a new, more sophisticated form of immigrant service. In 1906, the process of communal organization continued as Atlanta Jewry established the Federation of Jewish Charities, an umbrella organization designed to coordinate the activities of the city's many Jewish charitable associations, including the Council. 10

18 In 1900, the G.F.O.W.C. newspaper which boasted itself "the only newspaper in the South owned and edited by a stock company of women" included an article entitled, "In the Hebrew Field." Rebecca Alexander, the Council's first president, contributed to the issue and was listed, along with the Council secretary, in the Federation Club directory. The G.F.O.W.C. newspaper was originally entitled The Georgian and New Era, but later renamed The Southern Woman. The Georgian and New Era, Nov. 24, 1900, pp. 4, 7; The Southern Woman, March 11, 1901, p. 7; one of the earliest G.F.O.W.C. projects to which the Council regularly donated was a school for rural children which was founded, organized, and completely funded by the G.F.O.W.C. Atlanta Section NCJW Collection, 1902-1904; on the history of the Tkllulah Falls Industrial School, see Atlanta Constitution, April 2, 1911, Women's Club page. 19 Hertzberg, Strangers Within the Gate City, p. 232. 20 Ibid., p. 134; Atlanta Section NCJW Collection, 1905-1907; Minutes, Atlanta Jewish Welfare Federation, containing minutes of the Jewish Educational Alliance, 1909-1915. Drawer no. 242, Microfilm, no. 53, p. I. GDAH.

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The creation of the Federation of Jewish Charities and Jewish Educational Alliance was a mixed blessing for Atlanta's Jewish women. On the one hand, Jewish women became prominent participants in these newly formed organizations. Council members served on the Boards of both the Alliance and the Federation of Jewish Charities, marking the first time that women had held leadership positions in any organizations other than their own.21 Indeed, Jewish women played an active role in Atlanta's city-wide Jewish organizations and welcomed the arrival of more sophisticated forms of immigrant service. The Alliance provided a permanent home and central location for Council programs. In an annual report, the Council explained: For the coming year our greatest energy will be directed to the new Jewish Educational Alliance . . . New and modern, we have every facility for conducting sewing classes, mothers' clubs, English classes, girls' improvement clubs, etc."

One Council woman proclaimed, "the Alliance was our salvation."" On the other hand, despite the improvements in immigrant service and charity that city-wide organization brought, Jewish women's clubs suffered as a result of the structural and attitudinal changes in the community. By joining city-wide organizations, the Council sacrificed a certain degree of independence. "Having joined the Federation [of Jewish Charities], the Council minutes explain, "the Section was restricted by the laws of this organization."24 No longer did women have complete control over charity dispensation, for they were regulated by a parent organization. More importantly, women, who had been the innovators of social service, were gradually deemed unqualified to carry out that responsibility by communal leaders who advocated the "scientific" approach to social work. Social work in the twentieth century became a profession which required education and training, thereby excluding the majority of women who had previously been at the forefront of social reform. In 1894, one Jewish male had praised women as particularly qualified to supervise charity dispensation: Nowhere has [the Jewish woman] performed her duties and obligations more faithfully, more energetically and practically than when dealing with the vexed question of how to distribute relief to the poor . . . the fact

21 Women serving on the Board of the Federation of Jewish Chanties included Melanie Feibelman, Rose Sugarman, and Bertha Montag. Ms. Feibelman and Ms. Montag also served on the Alliance Board along with Clara Sommerfield; Ibid. 22 "Good Work Accomplished by Jewish Council", Atlanta Constitution, Dec 11, 1911, Women's Club Page. 23 Statement by Mrs. Charles Herman, Atlanta Section NCJW Collection, 1910. 24 Atlanta Section NCJW Collection, 1905-1907.

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But the "personal service" that had won women such high acclaim in the 1890*s was to become outdated in the first decades of the twentieth century. As trained, male professionals assumed positions in social service, female volunteers were criticized for their sentimental motivations and unscientific methods. Leaders of the Atlanta Jewish community insisted that relief be dispensed in a manner "sympathetic, but not too sentimental; gently, but firm." Joseph Hyman, superintendent of the Jewish Educational Alliance, explained, "The destinies of the poor are too precious to be placed in the hands of persons whose only qualifications are their willingness to act as social workers."" New attitudes about social service along with the growth of citywide organizations significantly altered the nature of women's activities within the Jewish sphere. The Council remained an active participant in the Alliance and Federation of Jewish Charities and also retained its duties within The Temple: But, in the coming years, it began to take a greater interest in the civic, social and politically oriented projects of the Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs. That is not to suggest that exclusion from certain duties within Jewish life was the sole motivation for greater participation in the Atlanta women's community. The Council had already laid the groundwork for involvement in the G.F.O.W.C.; new developments in Atlanta's Jewish community simply fueled the process. In the years between 1905 and 1909, the Council became more visible within the Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs. For the first time, the Council not only donated to G.F.O.W.C. programs, but took an active role in their planning. In 1907, the Council minutes report The Atlanta Section was accorded a place on the 'Child Labor Convention' Program, giving a program and reception. The officers and members of the City Federation were guests at the reception which was held at The Temple."

Not only did the Council host the Child Labor program, but it held the city-wide women's event in The Temple. Moreover, the convention's theme indicates the way in which G.F.O.W.C. programming came 25 Jacob Furth, "Personal Service", The Magnet 1, 1 (Jan. 1894), 4-5. 26 H. Joseph Hyman, "The Problem of Jewish Charities in the South," American Jewish Review, April 1914, p. 11; also quoted in Hertzberg, Strangers Within the Gate City, p. 135. The conflict between volunteers and professionals was by no means unique to Atlanta. June Sochen describes the same phenomenon in other cities. Consecrate Every Day, p. 50. 27 Atlanta Section NCJW Collection, 1907.

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to educate Council women about social issues that extended beyond the specific needs of Atlanta Jewry. In evaluating the event, the Council secretary described the meeting as crucial in "awakening interest in the Child Labor question."" Through the medium of the G.F.O.W.C., Atlanta's Jewish women encountered a new realm of social and political involvement. The leaders of the Council gradually began to appear as chairpeople and members of G.F.O.W.C. committees. Eleanor Marx, wife of The Temple rabbi, chaired the committee on Welfare Work and several other prominent Council members served on committees whose projects ranged from preventing tuberculosis to beautifying the city's parks. From 1915 until 1920, the position of Atlanta G.F.O.W.C. second vice-president remained successively in the hands of Council women." As leaders of the Council became more involved in the G.F.O.W.C., civic, social, and political issues began occupying an increasingly prominent role within Council programming. After 1907, Council women not only lobbied for Federal Child Labor Laws, but also urged the appointment of physicians to the public schools, helped found the Atlanta Free Kindergarten, worked to establish city playgrounds, and endorsed the eight-hour labor law for women in the District of Columbia. By the second decade of the twentieth century, the Council had become not only a fundraising and charitable organization, but a prominent women's club working for social and political reform." In describing the reform efforts of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, William Chafe explains that "By the turn of the century, . . . the club movement had caught the contagious spirit of reform . . . State clubs started nursery schools, lobbied for conservation, initiated experiments in juvenile clinics, and provided a constant stream of support for Progressive legislation."11 In Atlanta, Jewish women had become a part of that larger female reform movement. The Council placed great importance on creating and participating in projects for social welfare, political reform, and educational improvement. Their programs were often specifically geared toward meeting the needs of women and children, as well as other traditionally 28 Ibid. 29 Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs collection, 1896-1907. Other Jewish committee members in the Federation included: Mrs. William Bauer, Mrs. Ben Elsas, Mrs. Victor Kriegshaber, Mrs. Dan Klein, Mrs. Isaac Schoen, and Mrs. Clara Sommerfield. All were active members of the Council. Those holding the office of second vice-president were Mrs. Clara Sommerfield (1915-18), Mrs. Eleanor Marx (1918-19), and Mrs. Ben Elsas (1919-20). 30 Atlanta Section NCJW Collection, 1907-1914. 31 William H. Chafe, The American Woman: Her Changing Social, Economic, and Political Roles, 1920-1970 (New York: 1972), pp. 16-17.

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ignored constituencies ranging from immigrants to the mentally and physically disabled. 12 As Jews and as women, Council members came to view their duties as including the needs of both the Jewish community and the larger society. The Council valued both realms of activity and, in fact, seldom differentiated between the two when establishing priorities. In short, Council women had internalized the notion that it was a Jewish as well as a female responsibility to work towards bettering both Jewish and civic life. The Council concentrated on creating an image of the Jewish woman as a concerned and involved citizen in the Atlanta community. At the same time, its members redistributed certain responsibilities within their own organizations, so as to manage the increased work-load that resulted from their expanding list of activities. In the second decade of the twentieth century, Jewish women redefined their roles within the Jewish and secular spheres and shaped their organizational activities accordingly. In 1912, Council women decided to relinquish their responsibilities to The Temple, establishing an independent Sisterhood organization to oversee Temple activities. Although officially separate after 1912, the Council and Sisterhood maintained a close relationship. In fact, since the Council was made up almost entirely of Temple women, the same names appear on the membership rosters and officers lists of both organizations." Several factors contributed to the decision to create a separate Sisterhood. Certainly the Council's heavy work-load was largely responsible for the split. Equally important, however, was a strong desire to free the Council from responsibilities to The Temple so that it could pursue other activities. In 1915, a Sisterhood representative reports: While we have kept our endeavors within the narrow confines of the Temple itself, the results of our labors have been felt in many other Jewish organizations. Working side by side with the Council of Jewish Women, we have relieved them of much of their religious work and left them free to widen the scope of their philanthropic activities.14 The Sisterhood was a vehicle for allowing the Council to take a more active role outside The Temple. Although the Sisterhood also joined 32 Council women were active in numerous programs directed at these constituencies including: lobbying for child labor laws, limited wording hours for women, immigration reforms, creating kindergartens, donating to the Home for Incurables, and working with the blind - just to name a few. For an overview of these programs see "History" available at the Atlanta Section NCJW office, Atlanta. 33 "Atlanta Section Council Jewish Women", American Jewish Review IV, 9 (May, 1915), 9; Rothschild, As But A Day, p. 66; Report of the President, Atlanta Section NCJW Collection, 1915. 34 Mrs. David Marx, "Interesting Report of Atlanta Sisterhood," American Jewish Review IV, 9 (May, 1915), 8.

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the City and State Federation of Women's Clubs and thus became linked to the Atlanta women's club network, by design, the Council remained the more active participant in secular affairs. Keeping in mind that Sisterhood and Council members were, for the most part, one and the same, the creation of a separate Sisterhood took on added significance. Through organizational restructuring, women gave themselves license to "widen the scope of their philanthropic activities." It is clear from Council programs after 1912, that those philanthropic activities included work within both the Jewish community and the Federation of Women's Clubs." Participation in the G.F.O.W.C. was a means through which Jewish women not only exchanged ideas with other clubwomen, but also demonstrated their loyalty to the secular community. The Jewish women of Atlanta wanted to prove that they, as Jews, were "civicly useful". As one Southern Jewish woman explained: the gentile community expects the Jews to have their own community and be loyal to it. . . . Jews who are "civicly useful" and "declare themselves as Jews" will be the most respected by the gentile community." The Council often functioned as an "ethnic broker" between Jewish and non-Jewish women by gaining "the respect of [its] community while developing a working relationship through behavior patterns acceptable to the outside circle."17 Through organizational interaction, Jewish women were able to have contact with their nonJewish counterparts. The shared interest in social, political, and educational reform served as a bond between the two groups. Moreover, as middle and upper-class women, German Jews moved more easily than Eastern Europeans into organizations like the G.F.O.W.C.3* 35 Temple Sisterhood Collection, pamphlet dated 1913-1921. The source material for the Temple Sisterhood that is housed at The Temple, Atlanta, will hereafter be referred to as Temple Sisterhood Collection. A record of Sisterhood minutes from 1912-1918 can be found in the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Collection, Box no. 7, Atlanta Historical Society, Atlanta. 36 Eli N. Evans, The Provincials, A PersonaI History of Jews in the South (New York: 1973), p. 94. 37. In his analysis of Atlanta Jewry, Mark Bauman has provided a useful model for understanding the role of prominent Jews in the community as ethnic brokers. The ethnic broker is a communicator who is respected by his group and acts as a spokesman in intergroup relations." Many individual Council women, as well as the organization as a whole, functioned as ethnic brokers in the Atlanta community. Mark K. Bauman, "Role Theory and History: The Illustration of Ethnic Brokerage in the Atlanta Jewish Community in an Era of Transition and Conflict," American Jewish History LXXI1I, 1 (September, 1983), 78. 38 Esther Tkylor, Personal Interview, December 1984; an interest in social reform was not exclusive to women in the Jewish community. By the twentieth century, the Reform movement had already begun advocating social justice as part of its platform. As members of The Temple, Council women were surely influenced by the

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Council women in Atlanta placed significant emphasis on their involvement in the G.F.O.W.C., yet participation in the Federation of Women's Clubs was not characteristic of NCJW chapters in the North. It may be that Atlanta's German Jewish women, because they were a considerably smaller group than their Northern counterparts, were not perceived as a threat by Gentile women. Atlanta's Council members certainly worked more diligently for acceptance in the non-Jewish sphere than did their Northern sisters. However, it would be inaccurate to suggest that Atlanta's women simply shed their Jewish identity in order to achieve that acceptance. None of Atlanta's Jewish clubwomen in this period ever abandoned the Council or Sisterhood in order to devote themselves solely to the Atlanta women's community. They did, however, begin to assign equal priority to activities conducted in the Jewish and non-Jewish spheres. Council women considered their concern with broader issues of political, social, and educational reform not as a betrayal, but rather as a fulfillment of their duties as Jewish women. This attitudinal shift was motivated by their desire for acceptance in the secular community as well as their gradual reassessment of women's societal roles. Another factor that motivated Atlanta's Jewish women to strive for legitimation within the secular community was the threat of antiSemitism. At the very time that the Council was becoming more involved in activities with non-Jewish women, Atlanta was in the midst of its most severe anti-Semitic episode. Like all non-Protestant (and non-white) groups, Jews had always been labeled as outsiders in Southern society. The combination of increased Eastern European immigration and German Jewish economic success had fueled Southern xenophobia and anti-Jewish sentiment. In 1913, latent hostility was given overt expression during the Leo Frank case German Jewish women, like their male counterparts, maintained a low public profile during the ordeal. 3 ' German Jews reacted to the threat of anti-Semitism by making a concerted effort to improve the public image of the Jew. Likewise, Atlanta's Jewish women consciously portrayed Jews and their organizations in a dignified manner. Relief projects for Eastern European growing progressivism of the Reform movement. For more on Reform Judaism's relationship to the social justice movement see Naomi W. Cohen, Encounter with Emancipation: The German Jews in the United States, 1830-1914 (Philadelphia: 1984), pp. 195-202. 39 No mention of the Frank case occurs in either Sisterhood or Council records; for a full account of the events of the Leo Frank case, consult Leonard Dinnerstein, The Leo Frank Case (New York: 1968) as well as his "Atlanta in the Progressive Era: A Dreyfus Affair in Georgia," in Jews in the South (Baton Rouge: 1973), pp. 170-197; Hertzberg, Strangers Within the Gate City, p. 211.

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Jews, consistently described as aid to "immigrants" or "foreigners", was not listed as a service specifically for Jews.40 On June 4, 1913, not even a week after Leo Frank had been arrested, Council women took part in a G.F.O.W.C. project to issue a "Women's Edition" of the Atlanta Constitution. Jewish women made no mention of the Frank case in their articles and the Council's report emphasized its non-Jewish as well as its Jewish activities. Articles written by Jewish women that did not report on Jewish organizations contained no indications that their authors were Jews. In order to demonstrate that Jewishness need not pervade women's participation in non-sectarian projects, Jewish women carefully chose when and where to emphasize their Jewishness. On the one hand, the reaction of Jewish women in Atlanta demonstrates that anti-Semitism was a constant factor in their participation in the city's women's community. On the other hand, Jewish women's ability to achieve a level of acceptance in the secular sphere during an era plagued by anti-Semitism suggests that the interests in social, political, and educational reform common to both Jewish and non-Jewish women enabled a degree of organizational interaction despite latent anti-Semitism.41 At no time was the Jewish woman's desire to demonstrate commitment to secular society more apparent than during the First World War. The Council boasted itself among the first G.F.O.W.C. organizations to contribute to the war effort. Preceeded only by the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and one other Atlanta women's club, the Council became Auxiliary No. 3 to the local Red Cross, an accomplishment which it proudly advertised. Support of the war effort, as Council women were well aware, meant taking part in the united efforts of women throughout the city and the nation. The War was both an opportunity to demonstrate their patriotism as well as to raise their status in the community. Clara Sommerfield, president of the Council, continually stressed the importance of participating in the war effort: In the community we are recognized as a potent factor and are asked to cooperate in every movement. At present we are very much interested in the National League for Women's Service and in the Red Cross, being Auxiliary No. 3 to the Atlanta Red Cross, the third club to join as a body to do this work . . . Each member [must] do their [sic] utmost, and not wait to be conscripted, for we are needed, and badly so, to help win this war.41 40 For a detailed discussion of anti-Semitism in the feminist movement as well as the use of the unqualified term "immigrant" to include Jewish immigrants, see Elinor Lerner, "American Feminism and the Jewish Question, 1890-1940," in Anti-Semitism in American History (Chicago: 1986), pp. 305-328. 41 Atlanta Constitution, June 4, 1913. 42 Clara Sommerfield, "President's Report", Altanta Section NCJW Collection, 1917.

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The Temple Sisterhood also participated in the war effort. As a religiously affiliated organization, the Sisterhood perceived its primary duty as serving the needs of Jewish men in the military. However, anxious to avoid "narrow lines being drawn on account of religious belief," the Sisterhood women provided for the needs of non-Jewish soldiers as well. As the Sisterhood social service chairwoman explained, "We told the ladies representing the various religious organizations that while Christmas was not a Jewish holiday, we were willing to do all we could in helping to provide joy and happiness to those to whom the day is of great significance." Sisterhood and Council women remained eager to combat the notion that Jews only cared for Jews and to demonstrate their commitment to the larger Atlanta community. In the process, they solidified what was already a growing bond between themselves and their non-Jewish counterparts." For Jewish women, the war meant more than greater acceptance within the secular women's community. Like their non-Jewish counterparts, Jewish women's involvement in the War required them to take on further responsibilities, to organize and balance a long list of activities, to manage a complex financial budget, and to educate themselves in matters of national and international politics. As their activities became more complex, women's organizational skills, leadership abilities and self-confidence also increased. As the Council's national president, Janet Simons Harris proclaimed, through the war, men have learned . . . to respect women . . . and that is great and glorious; but there is something infinitely greater than this which has happened: women have learned to respect women. 4 4

The war years marked an important juncture in the development of both Jewish and non-Jewish clubwomen. In 1918, the Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs ran an article in its paper entitled, "What War is Doing to Club Life" that described women's advances in the areas of reform and social service as well as their growing personal and organizational sophistication.45 While Atlanta women (and clubwomen across the country) were reflecting on their accomplishments, suffrage supporters were already mounting a strong campaign to give women even greater influence in affecting the public sphere.44 43 Mrs. Helen D. Felheimer, "Report - Committee on Social Service", Temple Sisterhood Collection, March 7, 1919. 44 Janet Simons Harris quoted in Paula Hyman, "The Volunteer Organizations: Vanguard or Rear Guard?", p. 22. 45 Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs Collection, 1916-1920, article dated January 6, 1918, GDAH. 46 For a brief summary of the history of the suffrage movement, see Chafe, The American Woman, pp. 3-22; an account of the early suffrage campaign is EUen Carol

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Southern women, as a group, were among the least enthusiastic supporters of suffrage, yet they had long ago internalized the notion that women had a unique societal contribution to make. As the struggle for suffrage reached its peak, what Southern women sometimes called the "woman question" and their male counterparts often labeled the "woman problem" began to crop up in all sorts of ways within club life. Atlanta's Jewish women confronted the woman question within the Jewish community as well as in the American political arena. 4 ' Overt support of suffrage is only one means by which to gauge Jewish women's involvement in the struggle for women's rights. Most Atlanta Jewish clubwomen, like their non-Jewish counterparts, never became outspoken advocates for the right to vote. The major women's organizations of Atlanta, Jewish and non-Jewish, refused to endorse the campaign formally. Yet, Jewish women did exhibit an interest in the suffrage movement and, perhaps more importantly, began to demand representation through other means which may ultimately have proven more significant than suffrage itself.4* Since the Sisterhood's founding in 1912, Temple women had assumed a heavy burden for behind-the-scenes planning and financing of Temple activities. In 1916, in response to a letter from the Sisterhood, the Board of Trustees agreed to allow the Sisterhood president to serve as an ex-officio member of the Temple Board.4® By the 1920's, the Sisterhood was no longer willing to settle for a non-voting position. In a powerful speech, Stella Bauer, speaking on behalf of the Sisterhood, issued one of the clearest demands for formal inclusion made by Atlanta's Jewish women. While we are proud of the progress the Sisterhood has made, we still have much to learn f r o m others in the matter of Congregational government. We should have representation on the Temple Board — not the figure-head type we now have that permits us to be present and talk, but gives us no power to vote. In this age of woman's suffrage, the Sisterhood should demand the right to have a real working voice in the deliberations of the

DuBois, Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women's Movement in America, 1848-1869 (Ithaca: 1978); see also Aileen Kraditor's Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement, 1890-1920 (New York: 1965) and Anne F. Scott and Andrew M. Scott One Half the People: The Fight for Woman Suffrage (Philadelphia: 1975). 47 On the attitude of Southern women toward suffrage, See Scott, The Southern Lady, pp. 165-184. 48 As Scott points out, "The concrete manifestation of the growth of feminism cannot be wholly measured by the minority of Southern women who openly espoused suffrage." Making the Invisible Woman Visible," p. 349; see also pp. 222-242 in the same work. 49 Rothschild, As But A Day, pp. 66-67; Minutes of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation, American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati.

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Temple Board and be given the power to aid materially in the growth of the congregation. 50

If Atlanta's Jewish women were reluctant to endorse national suffrage, they showed no hesitation in working for the formal inclusion of women in the community's activities. Women won the right to vote on the Temple Board and in 1921, the first woman was elected to the Board of Trustees, not as a Sisterhood representative, but as a member in her own right. That woman was none other than Rebecca Alexander who, in 1895, had served as the Council's first president.51 One factor that encouraged Jewish women to assert their demands within Jewish life was the contact that they had established with other organizational women in Atlanta. Stella Bauer, who articulated the Sisterhood's demand for a voting voice on the Board, was herself a charter member of the Atlanta League of Women Voters. Moreover, while it is impossible to determine to whom Ms. Bauer referred when she stated that the Sisterhood had much to learn from "others" in the matter of congregational government, Jewish women's longstanding relationship with the Atlanta women's community suggests a probable source. Even the language of her argument is reminiscent of suffrage debates." Yet, even Stella Bauer's forceful words did not advocate women's formal inclusion on the basis of equality between the sexes. She explained that women needed to play a part in decision-making in order to better serve the Temple community. Women's organizations, both Jewish and non-Jewish, had initially been founded with the expressed purpose of bringing the female nurturant role to the larger society. "The one motive, behind and beneath the multiple and multifarious activities of the woman's club, is set forth in one word, 'Service,' " wrote one Federation woman. 53 Indeed, the notion of service continued to lie at the root of women's activities, but the means of service had undergone significant revision, developing into a forceful movement for social, educational, and political reform. Despite these changes in women's "service", Southern women remained hesitant to support suffrage. Many women sincerely believed 50 Stella Bauer, "Address to the Sisterhood", Temple Sisterhood Collection, n.d., p. 6. Although the document is not dated, Bauer refers to the Sisterhood as existing for eight years, indicating that her address was delivered in 1920; As early as the turn of the century, a few prominent Jewish women in the North, such as Rebekah Kohut and Rosa Sonneschein, had already expressed similar dissatisfaction with the role of women in Jewish life See June Sochen, Consecrate Every Day, pp. 56-61. 51 Rothschild, As But A Day, p. 82. 52 List of League charter members, Georgia League of Women Voters Collection, Series 9, Folder 1, GDAH. 53 History of the General Federation of Women's Clubs (New York: 1912), p. 4.

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that they had more power without the ballot. They had already developed a sophisticated means for influencing the public sphere by acting as the moral caretakers of society. For all their political activity, none of Atlanta's major women's organizations, including the G.F.O.W.C., Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Sisterhood, and Council ever formally announced support for suffrage. One Federation woman explained, I am against woman suffrage. Women's Clubs of Georgia have had no difficulty in getting their measures passed by the legislature. We are the power behind the throne now and would lose, not gain, by a change"

Despite their refusal to endorse the movement, both the Sisterhood and Council frequently discussed the campaign and educated their members about the issues involved. At one Council event, four position papers, entitled, "right to vote", "one recently converted", "teacher's viewpoint", and "mother's viewpoint" were presented for discussion. The Council decided not to endorse any particular position, either in favor of or in opposition to suffrage, but rather to publish the different viewpoints in its newsletter. 55 The Sisterhood also declined to take an official stand on the issue, but explained that with or without suffrage, women would remain a powerful force in society. Woman has always had and will always maintain a commanding position in the affairs of the world. It may be that some will conclude that this station can only be asserted by playing a prominent part in the politics of the State, by demanding her rights through the ballot . . . It may be that others will decide that the power of woman comes through the radiation of love . . . The opposing schools will wage combat, with the former now in ascendancy. But after all, without attempting to decide the momentous question, woman has a status, a purpose, a hope that cannot be disputed."

Although Atlanta's Jewish women's clubs did not officially support the suffrage campaign, they had already internalized the notion of female worth upon which the movement rested. "These attitudes did not make the Jewish women's organizations into hotbeds of feminism . . . But they were feminist in a larger sense, in that they enhanced the self-worth of women and worked on their behalf." 5 ' While neither the Council nor Sisterhood formally supported the suffrage campaign, several individual members were active participants in the struggle. Since 1890, the Georgia Suffrage Association (a 54 A. Elizabeth Taylor, T h e Last Phase of the Woman Suffrage Movement in Georgia", Georgia Historical Quarterly XVIII, 1 (March 1959), 14; on Southern women's opposition to suffrage, Scott, The Southern Lady, pp. 169-170. 55 Atlanta Section NCJW Collection, 1917-1920. 56 Mrs. Monte Hirsch, "The Temple Sisterhood", Temple Sisterhood Collection, n.d„ foreword. 57 Hyman, T h e Volunteer Organizations: Vanguard or Rear Guard?", p. 17.

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predecessor of the League of Women Voters) had been working, with little success, to establish a strong state coalition. The early records of the Suffrage Association reveal that some of the most active Sisterhood and Council women were not only members, but also officers and chairpeople in the organization. 5 · In 1920, two Council members were among five G.F.O.W.C. women invited to comment to the Atlanta press after the State of Tennessee ratified the nineteenth amendment. In the paper, the women were identified as "progressive Georgia women who have contributed of their time, brains, influence, and money to help the cause of women."59 After the suffrage battle had been won, several other German Jewish women joined the newly formed League of Women Voters. The Jewish women involved in the League were, for the most part, an elite group of Council and Sisterhood members, several of whom became prominent League leaders. One Council woman became associate editor of the League newspaper. Another served consecutively as the League's secretary, second and third vice-presidents; by the 1930's, two Jewish women had assumed the League's presidency.*0 Although only a minority of Council and Sisterhood members actually joined the League, they represented the leadership stratum of Jewish women's organizations. Once their leaders became involved in League projects to register female voters and educate women about political issues, Jewish women's clubs became increasingly politicized. In 1925, the Council's legislation committee invited the League president to speak to its members about the structure of city government and discuss pending bills "of great interest to women". The Council 58 Georgia Women's Suffrage Collection, Box 1, Folders 1-4, GDAH. Mrs. Harry Schlesinger served as secretary of the Equal Suffrage Party of Georgia. Other Council members involved in the early suffrage movement include: Mrs. Ben Elsas, Mrs. Charles Goodman, Miss Rhoda Kaufman, Mrs. Victor Kriegshaber, and Mrs. Edgar Neely. 59 "Views of Well-Known Georgia Women on Recent Enfranchisement Made by Tennessee Legislature," Atlanta Constitution, Aug. 29, 1920, p. 10D. The two women quoted in the article are Mrs. Victor Kriegshaber and Mrs. Edgar Neely. It is significant that the article offers no indication that the two women were Jews; the women's movement often ignored the Jewishness of its constituents and similarly, German Jewish women almost never made mention of their religious affiliation in their activities in the League and early suffrage movement. For more on this, consult Elinor Lerner, "American Feminism and the Jewish Question, 1890-1940." 60 No official membership records from the League have survived from this period. However, the treasurers' records listed members as they paid their annual dues. TYeasurers' records 1922-28, Georgia League of Women Voters Collection, Box 6, Series 2, Folders 9-17, GDAH; A copy of The New Citizen listing Bea Holzman as associate editor can be found in the Rhoda Kaufman papers. Box 2, Folder 9, GDAH; officers lists from the League of Women Voters to be found in Georgia League of Women Voters Collection, Series 9, Folder 1, GDAH.

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also pledged its support to "work to secure a large registration of women"." The suffrage era left its mark on Atlanta's Jewish women. By the 1920's, women like Stella Bauer were demanding a voice in Jewish communal affairs and the Council had formally entered the political arena. However, suffrage itself was not a turning point in women's organizational development, but rather another step in a continuing process of involvement in public life. Perhaps more significant than political enfranchisement was the symbolic victory and the extent to which women had come to value their own societal contributions, as social and educational reformers, and as women. By the 1920's, Council and Sisterhood members saw themselves as modern Jewish women with an indispensable role to play in Jewish and civic life. In the 1920's, Jewish clubwomen continued to increase their involvement in public life, but they also faced a challenge from members of the Jewish community who did not always approve of their expanding list of responsibilities. Those who objected to women's role in the public sphere almost always pleaded for the sanctity of the home, expressing fears that the Jewish woman's participation in communal life was causing her to neglect her home and family. Rabbi David Marx, leader of The Temple, joined the ranks of those urging Jewish women to return to their homes. In 1927, he gave a sermon beseeching his female congregants to reaffirm their duties to the home. He proclaimed, Women who seek happiness and honor out in the busy world with no purpose eventually to preside as mothers at their own fireside, are seeking the impossible as much as if they were searching for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow . . . Eventually, every woman will find out that her happiness lies at the family fireside . . . Judaism emphasizes the hearth and woman's place in the h o m e . "

Rabbi Marx clearly stated that Jewish women's involvement in public life was the cause for the deterioration of home life. He quoted from Song of Songs, '"My mother's sons have made me keeper of the vineyard but my own vineyard I have not kept' . . . No matter what the world may need let us not lose sight of what our own need.""

61 The Atlanta Constitution, January 15, 1925; Atlanta Section NCJW Collection, 1912-22,1924-25; For further details about the programs of the League of Women Voters, Georgia League of Women Voters Collection, Box 1, Folders 1-13, GDAH; the League was an important vehicle for involving Jewish women in the American political scene, but it seldom addressed specifically Jewish issues. For a lengthy treatment of the relationship of American feminism to its Jewish constituents sec Elinor Lerner, "American Feminism and the Jewish Question, 1890-1940". 62 Atlanta Section NCJW Collection, 1927; The Atlanta Journal, February 20,1927. 63 Ibid.; Interestingly, Rabbi Marx's wife, Eleanor, was one of the most prominent

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Marx had always been supportive of Jewish women's organizations; in fact, he had been instrumental in the founding of both the Council and Sisterhood. Yet even he was wary of women's growing public participation. At least one Jewish woman agreed with Marx's assessment and also urged women to return to their homes. In an article published in the Southern Israelite, the local Jewish newspaper, she pleaded with women "not to build up the synagogue at the expense of the home," maintaining that, "if we recreate the Mothers of Israel we shall reestablish Jewish home life."*4 Her arguments notwithstanding, the Jewish women's clubs of Atlanta showed no signs of heeding the warning. A brief look at Council activities in the 1920s shows that Jewish women had taken up the cause of social welfare and reform more vigorously than ever before. Council women were lobbying for a children's code committee bill as well as a national immigration proposal. They also had opened a complete circulating library. They sponsored free hygiene programs for school children, worked with the mentally retarded, raised money to support the Illiteracy Board, and even urged ratification of a multi-lateral peace treaty/The Council had lobbied forcefully for the creation of a State Board of Public Welfare which would be headed eventually by Rhoda Kaufman, one of its own members. All this occurred in concert with their regular activities in the Jewish Educational Alliance and Federation of Jewish Charities. In short, Jewish clubwomen in the twenties were at the forefront of social welfare and reform, still concentrating their efforts on women and children's issues as well as other traditionally ignored constituencies. They showed no intention of relinquishing their public role in order to return to the home.45 The leaders of Jewish women's clubs stressed that public involvement enhanced rather than endangered their duties to the home. In 1931, Beatrice Haas, a prominent worker in the Sisterhood and Council and a future president of the Atlanta League of Women Voters, encouraged her counterparts not to cease their participation in public life. We hear on all sides: What will become of the home? . . . Yes, the Jewish mother has been a splendid homemaker throughout the ages. To keep that reputation she cannot rest on her laurels. There is a new meaning to that and active members of the Sisterhood, Council, Federation, and League of Women Voters. 64 The Southern Israelite, (Magazine), July, 1932, p. 17. 65 Atlanta Section NCJW Collection, 1919-1930; Rhoda Kaufman, who became Executive Secretary of the Georgia Board of Welfare in 1923, was a pioneer of social welfare and one of the few women who achieved professional status in social work. For more on Kaufman, see Patricia E. Smith, "Rhoda Kaufman: A Southern Progressive's Career, 1913-1956," Atlanta Historical Bulletin (Spring-Summer, 1973), 43-50; and Rhoda Kaufman Papers, GDAH.

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

word home and the Jewish woman has new work to d o . . . The intelligent modern mother realizes that she must be more to her children than a conscientious nursemaid . . . Don't miss the thrill of having done something. If you privileged Jewish women do not engage in a big part of the work of the world today, W H O W I L L ? "

Ms. Haas' speech, ironically entitled, "Women and Their Leisure," actually had less to do with Filling women's leisure hours than it did with eliminating their spare time altogether. Her insistence that Jewish women refuse to abandon their role in public life bespeaks the commitment that Jewish clubwomen had emphasized since their days in benevolent societies. German Jewish clubwomen in Atlanta had established an identity and purpose for themselves in the Atlanta community. From the words of their leaders and the activities of their organizations, it is clear that Jewish clubwomen had no intention of relinquishing the public role which they had struggled so long to attain. At its very inception, club life provided a vehicle for the American Jewish woman to move from the home to the public sphere. Since the late 1800's, Atlanta's Jewish clubwomen had contributed to Jewish communal life while also participating, with ever increasing zeal and regularity, in the activities of the city's women's community. Well before the suffrage era, Atlanta's Jewish women had become outspoken advocates of political, social, and educational reform both inside and outside the Jewish community. The club movement was as crucial for Jewish women as it was for other American women. Through organizational activity, women effected dramatic changes in their societal roles. Jewish clubwomen shared certain developmental traits and common concerns with their non-Jewish counterparts. At the same time, the Jewish women's club remained unique, not only because it addressed specifically Jewish interests, but also because it represented an immigrant group struggling for acceptance on the American scene as well as in the women's community. The experience of Atlanta's Jewish women also reveals some intriguing differences between Northern and Southern Jewish clubwomen. On the most basic level, Southern Jewish women were a smaller group and often lagged behind the North in establishing organizations and institutions. More importantly, Georgia's Jewish clubwomen created and maintained formal associational ties with their non-Jewish counterparts at a more rapid and extensive rate than did their Northern sisters. They expressed great concern about their standing in the Atlanta women's community. The desire to achieve acceptance in the secular sphere suggests two, somewhat contradictory, 66 The Southern Israelite, December 15, 1931.

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strands of Southern Jewish history. German Jewish women were a highly acculturated group, generally respected in Atlanta's women's community, but they maintained a careful public posture, remaining profoundly aware of the threat of anti-Semitism. In sum, Atlanta's Jewish clubwomen were simultaneously integrated within and marginal to their cultural surroundings. For all their participation in secular women's activities, it would be inaccurate to portray Atlanta's Jewish clubwomen as a group which shed its Jewish identity in order to achieve acceptance. Participation in the G.F.O.W.C. and the League of Women Voters led Jewish women to evaluate a wide range of women's issues from the role of women in social reform to their demands for suffrage. Just as Jewish women included issues affecting the broader society in their domain, so too did Jewish life become subject to the criteria of that society. Atlanta's Jewish women consistently transferred their growing consciousness of women's issues into the Jewish sphere, reassessing their status and roles in synagogue life and in Jewish communal affairs. The study of Atlanta's Jewish clubwomen reveals that while the experiences of Jewish women in the South were not identical to those of their Northern counterparts, they do reflect a roughly parallel developmental pattern. The gradual extension of the Jewish woman's proper place from the home to public arena was largely the work of the clubwomen's volunteer army. At the turn of the century, forging a public role for Jewish women meant securing a legitimate and respected position for the female volunteer. The Jewish women's club, whether in the North or the South, provided one generation of Jewish women with an entrance into the public sphere. The gradual devaluation and decreasing status of volunteers would present new challenges for the next generation of Jewish clubwomen.

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MARY CHURCH TERRELL A N D THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COLORED WOMEN, 1896 to 1901 Beverly W. Jones* After the Civil War, several-black women worked autonomously to improve the status of blacks. Francis Jackson Coppin, a graduate of Oberlin, founded Cheyney Training School f o r Teachers in Pennsylvania, then known as the Institute of Colored Youth, in the 1870s. Francis Ellen Watkins Harper, a noted abolitionist and educator, became a p r o m i n e n t lecturer in the South. She spoke in colleges, churches, and homes on sundry subjects such as education, temperance, money, and morality. Years later, black w o m e n shifted away from their independent approach toward the institutionalization of women's clubs that were designed to foster social interaction and selfeducation. However, in the 1890s, the New W o m a n eschewed such traditional groups as sewing circles, church clubs, and sisterly orders and organized reform-oriented women's clubs. O n e of the leading associations that sought to combat racial discrimination and to express a sense of identity and solidarity a m o n g black women on a national level was the National Association of Colored Women [ N A C W ] . 1 Recently historians have begun to reexamine the history of women in America. Many of these historians are women working partly to discover the historical roots of their identity. T h e early nineteenth-century women's movement in particular has received a great deal of study and analysis f r o m several perspectives. There have been histories of the suffrage movement and biographies of its leaders. There have been histories tracing changes in the legal and economic status of women, of their struggle f o r education, a n d of their position in the family, society, industry, and the professions. 2 Unfortunately, these divergent forms of inquiry have left largely unexplored a salient aspect of the early women's movement—the experience of the black female. This e x a m i n a t i o n of the NACW's strategy and leadership, specifically the role of Mary Church Terrell, one of its founders and the first president, will attempt partially to fill this void. F r o m 1890 to 1895 the proliferation of black women's clubs and other "self-help" organizations owed their genesis to the peculiar circumstances of black life in general and specifically to discrimination against black women. 3 By the end of the nineteenthcentury the comparative fluidity of race relations in the Reconstruction era dissipated into increasingly rigid discrimination—legally, physically, and culturally. The last decade of the nineteenth and the first years of the twentieth century marked what Rayford L o g a n has called the "nadir of the Negro," the lowest point of black citizenship. C. Vann W o o d w a r d , an authority on Southern history, described the period as the Age of J i m C r o w . States enacted Jim Crow legislation that often simply confirmed long-honored customs but stood nevertheless as open and insistent declarations that •Beverly W. Jones is an Associate Professor of History at North Carolina Central University. North Carolina.

Durham,

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the South was a white man's country. Specifically, these laws disfranchised blacks and prohibited racial mixing in public facilities and other spheres of American life. 4 The laws and widespread desertion by N o r t h e r n whites f r o m the black cause after Reconstruction forced blacks to embark on several organized efforts f o r racial betterment. 5 Cast back upon themselves, self-help became the shibboleth that applied to the whole spectrum of black activity. F r o m sisterly organization and social clubs to reformoriented women's clubs, black women looked to their own groups as vehicles for advancing the entire race. The social difficulties that faced some middle-class black w o m e n were also factors in the emergence of reform-oriented women's clubs. Long excluded from the political and business circles of the nation, these women felt a timidity in entering these affairs. Affected by social aura that presumed male superiority and relegated women to a domestic role, some black women drew together, organizing clubs around social reforms that would prove their capabilities outside the h o m e . These organizations became both institutions for providing social services f o r black women and children and laboratories for training w o m e n for leadership roles in a society traditionally dominated by males. Fannie Barrier Williams, a noted black club w o m a n and activist, later recalled that "the club movement a m o n g colored w o m e n had grown out of the organized anxiety of women w h o have only recently become intelligent enough to recognize their social condition and strong enough to initiate a n d apply the forces of reform." 6 One of these women was Mary Church Terrell, w h o became an organizer and the first president of the N A C W . Mary Church Terrell was b o r n into the black elite in Memphis, Tennessee, just as the Civil War was coming to a close. Her earliest years were spent in a city rocked by violence and bitter racism. She was sheltered as far as was possible f r o m discrimination by parents who attempted to obliterate any trace of their slave status. However, after the divorce of Mary's parents, her mother sent her to Ohio f o r schooling, where she encountered racism. Her study of the Emancipation P r o c l a m a t i o n and the Civil War helped her to understand discrimination better. She later excelled academically at Antioch College and Oberlin College. M a r y graduated f r o m Oberlin in 1884 and later took a teaching position at Wilberforce University in O h i o and then at Μ Street Colored [ D u n b a r ] High School in Washington, D. C. At Μ Street she met future husband, Robert H. Terrell.' During the years between 1888 and 1896 Mary Church had to m a k e at least two major decisions: first, as an intellectual, whether to remain in the United States, a world where she would be a marginal individual, or to seek a world free of prejudice where recognition of one's ability would be given. Second, she had to decide whether to resign herself to live by the rules of the "cult of true w o m a n h o o d " or to break out of this o r t h o d o x Victorian role. After spending two years of travel a n d study in Europe, she decided not only to remain in the United States but to strive t o elevate her race.' T h e women's club movement of the late nineteenth century in general, and the NACW in particular, became the major vehicles through which she fulfilled her desires for herself, her sex, and her race. Although the N A C W was concerned with attacking racism affecting all blacks, discrimination against black females contributed directly t o the founding of the N A C W . On July 21, 1896, in the !9th Street Baptist Church in W a s h i n g t o n , D. C., the

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

NACW was f o r m e d f r o m the union of the National Federation of Afro-American Women ( N F A A W ) and the Colored Women's League [CWL]. The C W L was organized in Washington in 1928, with Helen Cook as president. The Ν FAAW was organized in Boston in 1895 by Josephine Pierre R u f f i n , w h o was then president of the Woman's Era Club. Margaret Washington, wife of Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee Institute in A l a b a m a , was elected president. Both organizations had as their chief objective the improvement of the condition of black women. Their programmatic emphasis was similar in that they accentuated the cultural development of black women and children. Night schools were established in which classes in literature, language, and other subjects were taught by women volunteers. Mary Church Terrell of the C W L taught a class in German and one in English literature. Kindergartens were also established that provided maternal care to children of working parents.* These two clubs—the C W L and the N F A A W — w e r e by no means the only bodies representing the "self-help" efforts of black w o m e n in the 1890s. From 1890 to 1895 the propensity of black women for organizational development permeated the country. In the East, the Loyal Union of Brooklyn and New York was organized in December, 1892; and the Belle Phoebe League of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was organized in November 1894. In the West, the Harper's W o m a n ' s Club of Jefferson City, Missouri, was organized in 1893; and the Woman's Club of O m a h a , Nebraska, was organized in February 1895. In the South, both the Phyllis Wheatley Club of New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Woman's Mutual Improvement Club of Knoxville, Tennessee, were organized in 1894. In the North, the S o j o u r n e r Truth Club of Providence, Rhode Island, was organized in 1896. 10 An important question is, What motivated black women to fuse the National Federation of Afro-American Women and the Colored Woman's League into one central agency, the National Association of Colored Women? Perhaps the most obvious answer is that club women of the late nineteenth century were influenced by the c o m m o n d e n o m i n a t o r of sexual oppression. T h e 1895 Annual Report of the C W L stated: T h e idea of a n a t i o n a l organization has been embodied in the Woman's League of W a s h i n g t o n f r o m its f o r m a t i o n . It existed fully developed in the minds of the original m e m b e r s even before they united themselves into an association, which has national union f o r its c e n t r a l t h o u g h t , its inspiring motive, its avowed purpose—its very reason for being."

However, the actual establishment of the N A C W , the systematizing and unifying of independent clubs, was done under the aegis of the Woman's Era Club of Boston. The W o m a n ' s Era Club first organized the National Federation of Afro-American Women [ N F A A W ] , It then took the lead in fusing with the Colored Woman's League. In the summer of 1894, the Woman's Era Club utilized its journal, appropriately called the Woman's Era, to arouse local interest in holding a national convention. The response was positive as m a n y clubs became committed to an 1895 convention. However, the catalyst that sensitized several lethargic clubs was the disclosure of a scurrilous letter that attacked the morality of black women written in 1895 by James W. Jack, president of the Missouri Press Association, to Florence Belgamie of England, secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society. Jack stated that "the Negroes of this country were wholly devoid

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of m o r a l i t y , the w o m e n were prostitutes and were n a t u r a l thieves and liars." T h e letter was not published in the Woman's Era, but copies of it were disseminated to leading blacks, both men and w o m e n , to gauge their opinions. N u m e r o u s mass meetings were held to denounce the scandalous charges of the editor. 1 2 Capitalizing u p o n this emotional fervor, the W o m a n ' s Era C l u b convened the first national conference of black women in Boston in July 1895. A b o u t one h u n d r e d delegates representing twenty clubs f r o m ten states participated in this historic meeting. Josephine Pierre Ruffin, president of the W o m a n ' s Era C l u b , opened the event and set the tone of the convention. Her stellar a d d r e s s s o u n d e d the hope that the women's clubs that had sprung up all over the c o u n t r y would crystallize into a large union and f o r m a national organization. She declared: Years after years, Southern [white] women have protested against (he admission of colored women into any organization on the ground of the immorality of our women and because our reputation has only been tried by individual work, the charge has never been c r u s h e d . . . . It is'most right,'and our boundless duty to stand forth and declare ourselves and principles to teach an ignorant suspicious world that our aims and interests are identical with those of all aspiring women." Heeding Ruffin's p r o n o u n c e m e n t , black w o m e n assiduously d r a f t e d policies and resolution essential to the elevation of black people of their sex. T h e delegates o r g a n ized the N F A A W at this time. Since the C W L of W a s h i n g t o n , D.C., was conspicuously absent, there were now two organizations that claimed to be national in scope— the C W L and the N F A A W . Realizing how impractical it was to have two national organizations working for the same objectives, a c o m m i t t e e of seven members f r o m each g r o u p met and effected the union of b o t h o r g a n i z a t i o n s into the National Association of Colored W o m e n on July 21, 1896. 14 T h e most a r d u o u s task of the committee was the selection of a president. Since both the C W L and N F A A W had members with o u t s t a n d i n g leadership ability, it took several hours to choose the first president. A f t e r n u m e r o u s ties of 7-7 (each organization was represented by seven delegates), Mary C h u r c h Terrell, at age thirty-three and p r e g n a n t , was elected president. 1 5 Nine years prior to the establishment of the N A C W , white w o m e n had effected their national organization in 1887, the General F e d e r a t i o n of W o m e n ' s Clubs [ G F W C ] . While the N A C W was similar in function to the G F W C , there were i m p o r t a n t variations between them in rhetoric and goals—differences that reflected the divergent experiences of women of various middle-class, ethnic, racial, and religious backg r o u n d s . " Both organizations provided social services to the c o m m u n i t y and worked f o r the betterment of the situation of w o m e n , but the black g r o u p also worked specifically for the betterment of the members of their race. White women generally had no need to vindicate their dignity in the midst of f l a g r a n t a t t a c k s as, for example, the Jack letter, that they were wanton, immoral, and socially inferior. White w o m e n did not have the severe problems of racial discrimination that c o m p o u n d e d the plight of black women in e m p l o y m e n t and education. Black w o m e n even encountered discrimination f r o m white w o m e n in the G F W C . In 1900, the G F W C discriminated against both R u f f i n and Terrell. Ruffin, a w o m a n of fair c o m p l e x i o n , who represented b o t h the black W o m a n ' s Era Club and the p r e d o m i n a n t l y white New England Federation of W o m e n ' s Clubs, thwarted an a t t e m p t to bar her f r o m the G F W C convention

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

because she w a s black. Nevertheless, the c o n v e n t i o n voted to recognize her as a delegate f r o m t h e white g r o u p , while her credentials f r o m t h e black g r o u p were rejected. At the s a m e c o n v e n t i o n , M a r y C h u r c h Terrell, t h e n P r e s i d e n t of the N A C W , was denied the c o u r t e s y of bringing greetings on behalf of her a s s o c i a t i o n because several club m e m b e r s f r o m S o u t h e r n states objected a n d t h r e a t e n e d to resign f r o m the o r g a n i z a t i o n if she were allowed on the floor. 1 7 In S e p t e m b e r , 1896, f o u r years prior to the G F W C c o n v e n t i o n , M a r y C h u r c h Terrell h a d lost her t h i r d child, w h o died shortly a f t e r b i r t h . A p p a r e n t l y in her e f f o r t to a d j u s t t o this t r a u m a t i c incident, she p o u r e d herself into o r g a n i z i n g black w o m e n . In m a n y ways the N A C W b e c a m e a s u r r o g a t e child for Terrell as she nursed it into one of the viable social i n s t i t u t i o n s in the black c o m m u n i t y . A l t h o u g h in 1898 Terrell was f o r t u n a t e to give birth to a d a u g h t e r w h o survived, in an article published by her in 1900, she still referred t o herself as one of the m o t h e r s of the N A C W . S h e m a i n t a i n e d : S o t e n d e r l y h a s this child of the o r g a n i z e d w o m a n h o o d of t h e race b e e n n u r t u r e d , a n d so wisely m i n i s t e r e d u n t o by all w h o h a v e w a t c h e d p r a y e r f u l l y a n d w a i t e d p a t i e n t l y f o r its d e v e l o p m e n t , t h a t it c o m e s b e f o r e y o u t o d a y a child h a l e , h e a r t y , a n d s t r o n g , of w h i c h its f o n d m o t h e r s h a v e every r e a s o n to be p r o u d . "

T h e e m b r y o n i c d e v e l o p m e n t of the N A C W was s p e a r h e a d e d by Terrell. As president f r o m 1896 t o 1901, she developed a p r o g r a m t h a t a d d r e s s e d racial p r o b l e m s t h r o u g h the elevation of black w o m e n . She believed t h a t the a m e l i o r a t i o n of discrimination was c o n t i n g e n t u p o n " t h e elevation of black w o m a n h o o d , t h u s b o t h struggles are the same."" With this a p p r o a c h , president Terrell created p r a g m a t i c objectives and tactics. T h e s e strategies a n d objectives can be viewed as a m i x t u r e of b o t h c o n s e r v a t i s m a n d radicalism. T h e N A C W was radically new because it was a n a t i o n a l i z e d e f f o r t exclusively created a n d controlled by black w o m e n . S e c o n d l y , it established the first cohesive n e t w o r k of c o m m u n i c a t i o n a m o n g black w o m e n t h r o u g h o u t the United States. T h i r d l y , its r e f o r m e m p h a s i s was a n a s s e r t i o n of the role of e d u c a t e d w o m e n in the drive f o r social r e f o r m . Lastly, it became a l a b o r a t o r y that fostered leadership skills among women.20 T h e N A C W was conservative first of all, in that it was not feminist in the m o d e r n sense of the t e r m . It a i m e d not to alter the d o m e s t i c n a t u r e of the social position of its m e m b e r s b u t to m a k e t h e m better wives a n d m o t h e r s . N e x t , it was devoted to the b e t t e r m e n t of the entire race, not j u s t the i m p r o v e m e n t of the s t a t u s of black w o m e n . T h e radical n a t u r e of the N A C W can best be seen in the first a d d r e s s of President Terrell, a n d in the c r e a t i o n of the national n e t w o r k . In 1897, she asserted: We h a v e b e c o m e N a t i o n a l , b e c a u s e f r o m the A t l a n t i c t o t h e P a c i f i c , f r o m M a i n e t o the G u l f , we w i s h t o s e t in m o t i o n i n f l u e n c e s t h a t shall s t o p the r a v a g e s m a d e by p r a c t i c e s t h a t s a p o u r s t r e n g t h , a n d p r e c l u d e the possibility of a d v a n c e m e n t . . . . We call o u r s e l v e s a n A s s o c i a t i o n t o s i g n i f y t h a t we h a v e j o i n e d h a n d s o n e with the o t h e r , t o w o r k t o g e t h e r in a c o m m o n c a u s e . We p r o c l a i m t o the w o r l d t h a t the w o m e n of o u r r a c e h a v e b e c o m e p a r t n e r s in the g r e a t firm of p r o g r e s s a n d r e f o r m . . . . We refer t o the fact that this is a n a s s o c i a t i o n of c o l o r e d w o m e n , b e c a u s e o u r p e c u l i a r s t a t u s in this c o u n t r y . . . s e e m s t o d e m a n d t h a t we s t a n d by o u r s e l v e s . . . . O u r a s s o c i a t i o n ' i s c o m p o s e d of w o m e n . . . b e c a u s e the w o r k w h i c h we h o p e t o a c c o m p l i s h c a n be d o n e b e t t e r . . . b y the m o t h e r s , wives, d a u g h t e r s , a n d sisters of the r a c e . "

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Terrell used several strategies to create an interlocking network among black women in the United States. First, she established communications by a monthly newsletter, the National Notes, to channel information about the programs and objectives of the organization. Each issue contained editorial comments from President Terrell inviting all existing clubs "with well-defined aims for the elevation of the race for membership."" Second, Terrell organized the biennial conventions in cities highly populated with blacks. In 1897 the meeting occurred in Nashville, Tennessee; in 1899 in Chicago, Illinois; and in 1901 in Buffalo, New York. 21 In addition, she highlighted each convention session with such topics as "Modesty in Manners and Dress," "Mothers and Children," and "Woman and the Home." Exhibits of paintings and of literature further enhanced the interest of participants in the association's gatherings. Thus, the programs probably contributed to an increase in attendance generally, in the attraction and participation of more educated women specifically, and in the strength of the organizational structure. By 1901 the attendance had increased from 100 to 250 delegates. Of the 250 delegates, there was a larger percentage of women who, in Terrell's opinion, were educated, refined, and cultured. Also by 1901 there were thirty local branches and fifteen federations, each subdivided into twelve "well-organized" departments headed by a superintendent and committe head. 24 The creation of a cadre of elite women to head local affiliates was another ingredient in Terrell's network. Ideologically, Terrell's framework of leadership embraced the Talented Tenth philosophy of W.E.B. DuBois that the well-educated, when provided with opportunities to develop their native capabilities, would rise and eventually carry the untalented along with it. 25 The NACW attracted a heterogeneous band of elite women—educators, business women, doctors, and social status personages. From 1895 to 1901, the years that embraced Terrell's tenure as president, of the fifty officers of the national and state affiliates whose educational backgrounds could be recovered, thirty completed college. Of that number, seven held graduate degrees and six held professional degrees in medicine or law. A more extensive study done by Tullia Brown Hamilton on the typology of club women attracted to the NACW from 1896 to 1920 has revealed some interesting findings. From information compiled on 108 women. Brown found that 36 of the 49 women for whom date of birth was available were born between 1860 and 1885, a period marked by the optimism of Emancipation and Reconstruction and the pessimism of post-Reconstruction. Also, these women had long histories of activism in both the Abolitionist and Women's Rights Movement. Seventy-five percent of the leaders were married. Finally, 70 women for whom information on place of birth was available were born in the South but migrated to the North in the early nineteenth century. 26 To prepare these women for their new leadership roles. President Terrell taught a class on parliamentary procedure. Also the nation's press helped to promote the development of the network. Its liberal policy of allowing the NACW to place columns in its newspapers widened the public's interest in the club. A "Woman's World" department was established in the Colored American, a black newspaper, in Washington, D. C. This attention highlighted the NACW's concern for the emerging problem of black women. 27 The enthusiastic reports of the convention in such leading newspapers as the Boston Transcript, the Springfield Republic, the Chicago Daily News, the Evangelist, and the Los Angeles

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Times popularized the N A C W as the leading organization for black women in the nation. Commenting on the Chicago Convention in 1899, the Daily News of Chicago contended: Of all the c o n v e n t i o n s t h a t h a v e m e t in this c o u n t r y this s u m m e r , t h e r e is n o n e t h a t h a s t a k e n hold of t h e b u s i n e s s in h a n d w i t h m o r e g o o d s e n s e a n d j u d g m e n t t h a n the N a t i o n a l A s s o c i a t i o n of C o l o r e d W o m e n , n o w a s s e m b l e d in this city. T h e s u b j e c t s b r o u g h t u p , t h e m a n n e r of t h e i r t r e a t m e n t a n d t h e d e c i s i o n s r e a c h e d e x h i b i t w i d e a n d a p p r e c i a t i v e k n o w l e d g e of c o n d i t i o n s c o n f r o n t i n g c o l o r e d p e o p l e . "

In analyzing the caliber of leaders, the Times admitted:

Herald

of the same city candidly

T h e s e w o m e n w e r e a c o n t i n u a l r e v e l a t i o n , n o t o n l y as t o p e r s o n a l a p p e a r a n c e , b u t as t o i n t e l l i g e n c e a n d c u l t u r e . If by a bit of m a g i c t h e c o l o r of t h e i r s k i n c o u l d be c h a n g e d w h i t e , o n e w o u l d have w i t n e s s e d a c o n v e n t i o n of w i d e - a w a k e w o m e n , w h i c h in a l m o s t e v e r y p a r t i c u l a r w o u l d c o m p a r e f a v o r a b l y w i t h a c o n v e n t i o n of w h i t e - s k i n n e d w o m e n . 2 9

Lastly, the programmatic emphasis of Terrell's N A C W further contributed to the creation of its national n e t w o r k . As stated in Article II of the constitution, the prime objective of the N A C W was " t o secure harmony of action and cooperation a m o n g all women in raising to its highest plane, home, moral, and civil life." 30 In essence, Mary C h u r c h Terrell, not unlike her black counterpart, Charlotte Hawkins Brown, founder of the Palmer Institute in N o r t h Carolina, and her white counterpart, J a n e Addams, f o u n d e r of Hull House in Chicago, maintained that the female's monopoly on virtue obligated her to be the pivotal force in the advancement of society. Unlike Brown, whose educational and social institution fulfilled the needs of a minority of women— the educated—but like A d d a m s , Terrell established an institution that sought to enhance the lives of the masses. "Believing that it is only through the home that a people can become really good and truly great the N A C W had entered that sacred d o m a i n , hoping to inculcate right principles of living and to correct false views of life. Homes, more homes, better homes, purer homes." 3 1 This ideological formulation of President Terrell was most conservative. In a Victorian vein, her advocacy of the domestic role of the w o m a n indicated the nonfeminist nature of the organization because it did not unequivocally espouse the social equality of women. Yet, in addition to its avowed objective, the N A C W succeeded in shifting the interests of its leaders, who were of middle-class status, outside of the home and settling them in the center of the national social spectrum. Once the institutional structure had been set u p and the actual network was underway, Terrell placed less emphasis on what she derided as "paper organization" and more on concrete programs as tools to improve the race through women. Terrell's tenure as president of the N A C W f r o m 1896 to 1901 was characterized by innovative and progressive programs. In her first address, she cogently argued for the creation and institutionalization of kindergartens, day nurseries, and mothers' clubs. She stated that f r o m these institutions "one reaches both the source of many race problems and an intelligent solution of the same, through the home, the family life, and the child." Her closing remarks accentuated the sufferings perpetrated upon children of mothers who were wage-earners. She stated:

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When one reflects on the slaughter of the innocent which is o c c u r r i n g with pitiless persistency every day and thinks of the multitudes who are m a i m e d for life through neglect, how many there are whose intellects are clouded because of the t r e a t m e n t received during their helpless infancy, establishing day nurseries can seem neither unnecessary nor far-fetched; but must appeal directly to us a l l . "

Terrell's interest in the establishment of social institutions such as kindergartens and day nurseries clearly indicated her awareness of the preponderance of black married women in the work force. In 1890, about 1.2 million w o m e n worked as domestics: one-fourth were black, and a b o u t 100,000 of that 300,000 were m a r r i e d . " At the biennial convention in Chicago in 1899, Terrell implemented her program. She raised enough money to a p p o i n t a kindergarten advisor, whose duty was to "arouse the consciences o f . . . women to the necessity of kindergatens."' 4 Even before the appointment was made, Terrell's pronouncement of the necessity of kindergartens inspired the Progressive Club of Kansas City to initiate measures to establish a kindergarten in their city. Upon returning from the Chicago convention, the club appointed a committee that persuaded the School Board to a p p r o p r i a t e money for the establishment of a black kindergarten. In September 1900, the Board established a kindergarten and employed the first graduates of the St. Louis N o r m a l Kindergarten Training School as t e a c h e r s . " T h e yearly report of the local clubs given at the Buffalo convention in 1901 indicated that kindergartens and day nurseries had been established in Kansas City, Missouri; Montgomery and Ophelia, A l a b a m a ; Charleston and Orangeburg, South Carolina; New Orleans, Louisiana; Galveston, Texas; Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia and Moorestown, Pennsylvania; and Butler and Mission near Chicago." Financial support for kindergartens and day nurseries were derived f r o m divergent sources—church donations, state funds, school board a p p r o p r i a t i o n s , and from individual members of the N A C W . As president, Terrell d o n a t e d f u n d s f r o m the proceeds of her pamphlet "The Progress of Colored W o m e n . " It was sold to delegates at the NACW's conventions and in 1899 at the 30th Annual C o n v e n t i o n of the National American Suffrage Association in Washington, D. C . " The development of mothers' clubs was an activity corollary to Terrell's interest in the advancement of the status of blacks, especially women a n d children. These clubs functioned as depositories and disseminators of pertinent i n f o r m a t i o n on the best methods for rearing children and conducting homes. Terrell also hoped that mothers' clubs would improve the moral standards of the "less favored and more ignorant sisters" because the world "will always judge the w o m a n h o o d of the race through the masses of our women." 3 1 Terrell's view was an attempt to refute the false accusations that had been applied to black women. The most pernicious of these was the belief a m o n g some whites that black women were promiscuous a n d thus incapable of monogamy and morality. After the Civil War, some Northern whites placed the blame for a high illegitimate birthrate on black women. One Northern white w o m a n declared: They are still the victims of the white m a n under a survival of a system tacitly recognized which deprive them of the s y m p a t h y and help of the S o u t h e r n w h i t e w o m a n , a n d to meet such temptations Negro w o m e n can only offer the resistance of a low m o r a l s t a n d a r d , an inheritance f r o m the system of slavery, made lower f r o m a life-long residence in a one-roomed c a b i n . "

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

H o w e f f e c t i v e were m o t h e r s ' clubs? O n e may suspect that the elite cast of the N A C W ' s l e a d e r s h i p minimized the effectiveness of this r e f o r m institution. H o w e v e r , T e r r e l l a n d o t h e r l e a d e r s were a w a r e t h a t the s u p p o r t of the masses was essential to t h e e f f i c a c y of all of N A C W ' s p r o g r a m s . T h e A s s o c i a t i o n ' s m o t t o , " L i f t i n g As We C l i m b , " i n d i c a t e d this a w a r e n e s s . President Terrell declared: In n o w a y c o u l d we live u p 10 such a s e n t i m e n t belter t h a n by c o m i n g i n t o closer t o u c h w i t h t h e m a s s e s of o u r w o m e n . . . . Even t h o u g h we wish t o s h u n t h e m , a n d hold o u r s e l v e s e n t i r e l y a l o o f f r o m t h e m , we c a n n o t e s c a p e the c o n s e q u e n c e s of their acts. S o , t h a t , if the call of d u t y w e r e d i s r e g a r d e d a l t o g e t h e r , policy a n d self p r e s e r v a t i o n w o u l d d e m a n d t h a t we d o g o d o w n a m o n g t h e lowly, the illiterate, a n d e v e n the v i c i o u s t o w h o m we a r e b o u n d by t h e ties of r a c e a n d sex, a n d p u t f o r t h e v e r y p o s s i b l e e f f o r t t o u p l i f t a n d c l a i m t h e m . 4 0

T h i s s t a t e m e n t by P r e s i d e n t Terrell indicates not only the reasons why the N A C W c o n c e r n e d itself w i t h u p l i f t i n g t h e less f o r t u n a t e m e m b e r s of the sex b u t reveals the class biases of w o m e n elites. Implicitly, she m a i n t a i n e d that t h e leaders, w h o were not g e n u i n e l y c o n c e r n e d with the welfare of t h e masses n o r desired to be associated with t h e m , p u r s u e d t h e e l e v a t i o n of the masses of w o m e n as a vehicle f o r e n h a n c i n g their o w n social p o s i t i o n in society. In other w o r d s , m o d i f y i n g the p h r a s e o l o g y of R u d y y a r d K i p l i n g , a British p o e t a n d storyteller, w h o s e w o r k s implied t h a t it was the d u t y of G r e a t B r i t a i n t o c a r r y t h e white m a n ' s b u r d e n by civilizing b a c k w a r d s races, t h e w o m e n elites of t h e N A C W saw the "lowly a n d illiterate" black w o m e n as the "Black Woman's Burden." In spite of t h e i r a v o w e d maternalistic bias, m o t h e r s ' clubs b e c a m e viable institutions in t h e S o u t h . T h e yearly r e p o r t of t h e T u s k e g e e , A l a b a m a ' s m o t h e r s club in 1901 p r o v i d e d a m i c r o c o s m i c view of t h e a p p r o a c h a n d m e t h o d o l o g y of one club. P r e f a c i n g its r e p o r t w i t h t h e s t a t e m e n t that it " h a d b r o u g h t the light of k n o w l e d g e a n d the gospel of c l e a n l i n e s s t o h u n d r e d s of p o o r b e n i g h t e d sisters on t h e p l a n t a t i o n , " the c l u b used " h e a r t t o h e a r t t a l k s " a n d d e m o n s t r a t i o n s of new h o m e - m a k i n g t e c h n i q u e s . T h e s e ideas were called t h e " A , B, C of living." T h e y spelled o u t t h e best ways to "sweep, d u s t , c o o k , a n d iron a n d c l o t h e children by m a k i n g or m e n d i n g clothes.'"" Because of c o n t i n u o u s c o n t a c t between m o t h e r s ' clubs a n d t h e masses of w o m e n a n d of the rapid loss of j o b s held by blacks, President Terrell b r o a d e n e d t h e f u n c t i o n of m o t h e r s ' c l u b s t o i n c l u d e the social as well as the e c o n o m i c c o n c e r n s of blacks. S h e advised t h e d i r e c t o r s of m o t h e r s ' clubs to study the l a b o r q u e s t i o n , not only as it a f f e c t e d t h e w o m a n , b u t also as it a f f e c t e d the m a n . In a d d i t i o n , she launched a f u n d - r a i s i n g c a m p a i g n t o establish s c h o o l s of d o m e s t i c science. In 1897, the Phyllis W h e a t l e y C l u b of New O r l e a n s established a t r a i n i n g school f o r n u r s e s at its public s a n i t a r i u m . F r o m its yearly report given at the 1901 c o n v e n t i o n , t h e c l u b stated t h a t the m u n i c i p a l g o v e r n m e n t h a d agreed to a p p r o p r i a t e "$250 a n n u a l l y t o w a r d its d e v e l o p m e n t b e c a u s e of its i n d i s p u t a b l e p r o o f of its utility a n d necessity d u r i n g the yellow fever e p i d e m i c s of 1898." 4 2 A n o t h e r g r a v e c o n c e r n of President Terrell w a s the i m p a c t of city life o n the y o u n g , specifically t h e m i g r a t i o n of single girls into u r b a n areas. In her first a d d r e s s , she had s t a t e d t h a t m a n y girls w h o c a m e t o cities w i t h o u t relatives a n d m o n e y b e c a m e " w a y w a r d a n d f a l l e n . " S h e a l s o lucidly discussed t h e d e m o r a l i z i n g influence of the theater, s a l o o n , a n d t h e d a n c e hall on the y o u n g . 4 5

315

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HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

President Terrell's attempt to c o n f r o n t the ills that flourished in an industrialized and urbanized environment characterized the social welfare a n d / o r social settlement e m p h a s i s of the Progressive era in America at large. T h e Progressive era, the years between the turn of the century and the First World War, had been the first reform period of the twentieth century. Many progressives were influenced by the theory of p r a g m a t i s m that repuditated all fixed doctrines, including Social Darwinism, a popular way of thinking during the nineteenth century that had scorned reform efforts as heresy a n d held fast to the doctrine of the survival of the fittest. The pragmatic philosophy encouraged the power of human will in which people could shape their own destiny and led those who were dissatisfied with society to work for change. 4 4 As a social-welfare pfogressive imbued with the theory of pragmatism, President Terrell assisted affiliates in the implementation of measures designed to ameliorate real and pressing urban problems. In 1896 the Illinois Federation of Colored Women's Clubs opened the Phyllis Wheatley H o m e for Girls. It provided living a c c o m m o d a tions, social facilities, and employment bureaus for girls who found themselves excluded f r o m the Y W C A and similar white organizations. The home also operated classes in domestic arts for nonresident women. In 1899 the Chicago W o m a n ' s Conference established a "Police and Investigating Committee" to maintain surveillance on all saloons in order to determine the names of children who went in to buy beer. For this herculean task, the committee divided the city into four districts and assigned two members to each. These members were responsible for compiling a record on each child, informing parents of his conduct, and making periodic visits to the home. 4 5 O t h e r social-welfare institutions were spearheaded by Terrell. In 1898, the Illinois Federation opened a home for the aged and infirm. By 1900, this institution had thirteen occupants and was administered by a permanent board of trustees. The A l a b a m a Federation organized the M o u n t Meig's Institute in 1898 to benefit blacks on p l a n t a t i o n s in the black belt counties of Alabama. The curriculum of the school addressed the basic needs of the people. Girls were taught everything pertaining to the m a n a g e m e n t of the home, while boys learned wheeling, blacksmithing, carpentry, and practical farming. 4 6 T h o u g h the N A C W placed priority upon the enhancement of a wholesome life f o r blacks, especially women, President Terrell also considered the aestheticenrichment of black life. Believing that "music in colored people was a heavenly born gift that should be cultivated," she urged both the formation of musical clubs and of temperance organizations, because she considered intemperance to be one of the "greatest foes to the progress and development of blacks." 4 7 Several affiliates of the N A C W adapted the m e t h o d s and specific problems of the national to the special needs of the local communities in which they operated. Clubs in Louisiana and Tennessee took more direct steps toward the eradication of racial discrimination. They petitioned the state legislature to repeal the o b n o x i o u s J i m Crow laws and to condemn the barbarity of the convict lease system that m a d e "female prisoners one of its principal victims." 4 * T h e failure of the national organization to address directly the problem of segregation served to heighten its conservatism and its reluctance to deal with political issues. T h o u g h the N A C W tended to eschew political issues in its.early years, many of its leaders had addressed the issue of suffrage and political equality during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 4 ' In spite of its conservatism, Mary Church Terrell's tenure

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WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

a s p r e s i d e n t s u g g e s t s t h a t t h e Ν A C W s u c c e s s f u l l y t r a n s l a t e d its o b j e c t i v e s i n t o i m p o r tant reform programs. S t a t e m e n t s from the yearly reports of clubs to the Ν A C W in 1 8 9 7 , 1899, 1 9 0 1 , s u p p o r t t h i s v i e w : T h e free clinic at t h e N e w O r l e a n s s a n i t a r i u m h a s b e e n visited daily by the p o o r . The W o m a n ' s M u t u a l I m p r o v e m e n t C l u b of K n o x v i l l e , T e n n e s s e e , p r o v i d e s c l o t h i n g a n d f o o d f o r n i n e t y - s e v e n families. T h i r t y h o m e s , in t h e alleys a n d s l u m s , h a v e b e e n visited, a n d this class of p e o p l e s e e m e d b e n e f i t t e d . T h e M u t u a l I m p r o v e m e n t C l u b of S e l m a , A l a b a m a , h a s p a i d t h e t u i t i o n of several children of w i d o w e d m o t h e r s in schools of t h e c i t y . ' 0 F r o m kindergartens, nurseries, mothers' clubs, a n d h o m e s f o r girls, the a g e d a n d i n f i r m , the Ν A C W e m e r g e d a s a l e a d i n g w o m e n ' s o r g a n i z a t i o n e n h a n c i n g t h e b e t t e r m e n t of the lives o f the m a s s e s a n d a l s o p r o v i d i n g a v e h i c l e f o r t h e e n e r g i e s

of

middle-class w o m e n . Apart f r o m any specific p r o g r a m that she devised, the very existence of the N A C W e m b o d i e d the major strategy of M a r y C h u r c h Terrell: a n organization of black w o m e n , y o u n g and e d u c a t e d , organized for the a v o w e d purpose o f race e l e v a t i o n . 'Theexpression "New W o m a n ' became popular in the late nineteenth century when traditional ideas about women's nature and role were proving inadequate in the light of changing economic conditions. The new technological time-saving inventions—factory-produced clothing, commercial laundries, prepared foods—provided leisure for the middle-class woman, both black and white. Many women were outrightly questioning and rejecting old standards and trying to define new ideas and lifes styles better suited to their altered culture and new aspirations. Journalists used the idea of the New Woman to describe changes that they sensed were taking place among women, changes important not so much in women's real situations as in their outlooks and expectations. For excellent work on the history of women in America, see Ida Husted Harper, ed., History of Woman Suffrage. 1883-1900 (New York: Arno Press and the New York Times. 1969); Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1959; paperback edition. New York: Atheneum, 1973); Aileen Kraditor. The Ideas of the Women's Suffrage Movement. 1890-1920 (New York: Anchor Books, Doubleday and Company, 1971); Anne F. Scott, The American Woman: Who Was SAe .'(Englewood Cliffs, N.J.; Prentice-Hall, 1971); Carl Degler, "Revolution Without Ideology: The Changing Place of Women in America," in Robert Lifton, ed.. The Woman in America (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965); William O'Neil, Everyone Was Brave: The Rise and Fall of Feminism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971); Alma Lutz, Created Equal· A Biography of Elizabeth Cady Stanton (New York: The John Day Company, 1940); and Robert Smuts, Women and Work in America (New York: Columbia University Press, 1959). Gerda Lerner's Black Women in White America (New York: Vintage Books, 1973) is a good documentary history that chronicles the experiences of black women from slavery to the present. 'Self-help organizations of the nineteenth century are discussed in W.E.B. DuBois' Efforts for Social Betterment Among Negro Americans (Atlanta: Atlanta University Publication, No. 14, 1909). ' Rayford Logan, The Betrayal of the Negro: From Rutherford B. Hayes to Woodrow Wilson (New York: Collier Books, 1965), p. 62; C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow (New York: Oxford University Press, 1955), Chapter 3. For more information on the genesis of segregation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, see Joel Williamson, After Slavery: The Negro in South Carolina During Reconstruction. 1865-1890 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1965); George Brown Tindall, South Carolina Negroes. 1877-1900 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1962); Charles H. Wynes, Race Relations in Virginia. 1870-1902 (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1961); Vernon Lane Wharton. The Negro in Mississippi. 1865-1890 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1947); Richard C. Wade. Slavery in the Cities: The South. 1820-1860 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974) Ira Berlin, Slaves Without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South (New York: Pantheon Books. 1975); and Howard N. Rabinowitz, Race Relations in the Urban South: 1865-1890 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978).

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HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

' For an analysis of the relative desertion of Northern whiles from the black causes after Reconstruction, see Stanley Cohen,"Northeastern Businessmenand Radical Reconstruction," Mississippi Valley Historical Review 46 (June Ι959):67-90; William 8. Hesseltine, "Economic Factors in the A b a n d o n m e n t of Reconstruction," Journal of Soulhern History 41 (February Ι975):39-58. * Fannie Barrier Williams, "The Club Movement Among Colored Women," Voice of the Negro I (March 1908): 101. ' M a r y Church Terrell, A Colored Womanina While World (New York: Ransdell C o m p a n y , 1940), pp. 2-5. 10-20. 1 Ibid., pp. 94-99. '"Colored Woman's League," Mary Church Terrell Papers, hereinafter cited as M C T P , Box 102-3, Folder 60, Moorland Spingarn Collection, hereinafter cited as MSC, Washington, D. C ; Terrell, "History of the National Association of Colored Women," typewritten, MCTP, Container 38, Reel 27, Library of Congress, hereinafter cited as LC; Terrell, "Club Work Among Women," New York Age, J a n u a r y 4, 1900; Williams, "Club Movement A m o n g Colored Women," pp. 386-90; J. Silone Yates, " R e p o r t of National Federation of Colored Women's Clubs to the National Council of Women," Colored American. January 190S, p. 258; Gerda Lerner, " C o m m u n i t y Work of Black Club Women." Journal of Negro History 59 (April. 1974): 161-62. 10

Williams, "Club Movement Among Colored Women," pp. 392-93. " President's Report to Members of the Colored Woman's League of Washington, D. C., 1895, typewritten, MCTP, Container 20, Reel 14, LC; Terrell,"Woman's League History," M C T P . Container 20, Reel 14, LC. "Terrell, "Colored Woman's League." M C T P , Box 102-3. Folder 60 M S C . "Elizabeth L. Davis, Lifting As We Climb (Chicago: Race Relations Press, 1933), p. 18. " " H i s t o r y of the Club Movement," Afro-American Journal, in M C T P , Container 31, Reel 22. LC; Terrell, "Reasons for Using Clubs," M C T P , Box 102-5. Folder 146. MSC. "Terrell, A Colored Woman in a White World, p. 151. 14 For a history of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, see Jennie J u n e Croly, The History of the Woman's Club Movement in America (New York: Henry G. Allen, 1898) and Mary 1. Wood, The History of the General Federation of Women's Clubs (New York: Norwood Press, 1912). "Terrell, "General Federation of Club Women." M C T P , Box 102-5. Folder 69. M S C ; J o h n W. Gibson and William H. Crogman, Progress of a Race. Or the Remarkable Advancement of the Colored American (Illinois: J.L. Nichols, 1902), pp. 216-20. "Terrell, "Duty of the National Association of Colored Women to the Race," ΑΜΕ Church Review, January 1900, p. 240. "Ibid. 10 From the list of women included in the article, "The Ten Living Negro Women W h o Have Contributed Most to the Advancement of the Race," Fisk News, May-June 1936, pp. 5-6, at least six, including Mary Church Terrell, had been affiliated with the National Association of Colored W o m e n . Mary McLeod Bethune, a noted educator and a member of the New Deal Black Cabinet of President Roosevelt, was President of the N A C W , 1926-1928; Ida B. Wells Barnett, a n activist in the anti-lynching movement, was a member of the N A C W , 1900-1920; Charlotte Hawkins Brown, founder of the Palmer Memorial Institute in Sedalia, N.C., in 1902, wasa member of N A C W . 1900; Nannie H. Burroughs, f o u n d e r of a Training School for Girls, was a member; and Hallie Queen Brown, an educator, lecturer, and publicist, who brought worldwide recognition to Wilberforce University in Ohio as a center of Negro education, was a member.

"Terrell, "First Presidential Address to the National Association of Colored W o m e n , " Nashville, Tennessee. September 15, 1897, M C T P , Box 102-5, Folder 127, MSC also in Container 30. Reel 21, LC. " National Notes, 1896-1899, M C T P , Container 23, Reel 17, LC. " U n i t e d States Bureau of the Census, Negro Population 1790-1915 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1918), pp. 36-37. These cities were a m o n g the top twenty cities with the largest percentage of blacks. "Terrell, Colored Woman in a While World, p. 152; Terrell, "Club Work A m o n g W o m e n , " N e w York Age, Paris Exposition Edition, No. 19, J a n a u r y 4 , 1 9 0 0 , in M C T P , Box 102-5, Folder 141, M S C ; " C o n v e n tion A Success," Nashville Evening Star, September 12, 1899, p. 12. " O n DuBois' philosophy, see Elliott M. Rudwick, W.E.B. DuCois, Propagandist of the Negro Protest (New York: Atheneum. 1968).

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

" T h e n a m e s below were c o m p i l e d f r o m the early r e p o r t s of the N a t i o n a l Association of C o l o r e d W o m e n , 1890-1901, N A C W h e a d q u a r t e r s , W a s h i n g t o n , D. C. V a r i o u s articles in the M C T P c o n f i r m e d that these w o m e n were leaders e i t h e r on the n a t i o n a l or state level. Biographical i n f o r m a t i o n was derived f r o m v a r i o u s e d i t i o n s of Who's Who in America. Who's Who in Colored America, o b i t u a r i e s in the Washington Bee, 1930-1960, o t h e r specialized b i o g r a p h i c a l d i c t i o n a r i e s , a n d F a n n i e E. Williams's article, " C l u b M o v e m e n t A m o n g C o l o r e d W o m e n . " H o l d e r s of b a c h e l o r a n d g r a d u a t e degrees: A n n a J. C o o p e r , B.A., 1884, M . A . , 1887. O b e r l i n College; J u l i a C. J a c k s o n Harris, B.A.; A t l a n t a University, 1894. M . A . H a r v a r d College, 1904; E l i z a b e t h R o s s H a y n e s . B . A . , S t a t e N o r m a l S c h o o l , M o n t g o m e r y . A l a b a m a . 1900, M . A . , Fisk University, 1903; M a r y J a c k s o n M c C r o r e y , B.A., A t l a n t a University, Μ. Α., H o w a r d University; Alice R u t h N e l s o n , Β Α.. S t r a i g h t College. Μ . Α., University of P e n n s y l v a n i a ; Minnie M c A l p h i n Pickens. B.A., Μ. Α., T o u g a l o o College, P h . D . ; S a d i e T a n n e r Mossell A l e x a n d e r . B.S., University of Pennsylvania. 1918, M . A . . 1919, P h . D . , 1921; C o r a l i e F r a n k l i n C o o k , B.S.. S i o r e r College; L a u r a C r o f t e n F r a n k l i n . Scotia S e m i n a r y ; E v a n g e l i n e Evelyn H a r r i s . Β. Α.. I n d i a n a S t a t e T r a i n i n g S c h o o l ; Georgia D o u g l a s J o h n s o n , B.A.. A t l a n t a University; ICathryn J o h n s o n , B.A., W i l b e r f o r c e University. 1900; Maria Coles Perkins L a w t o n , B.A., H o w a r d University; Ethel H e d g e m a n Lyle, B.A., H o w a r d University; F l o r i d a R u d d i n Ridley. B.A.. Boston T e a c h e r s College, 1880; M a r i o n Ρ S h a d d , B.A., H o w a r d University. 1877; M a r y E. V a u g h n . B S . Tuskegee I n s t i t u t e ; A'Lelia W a l k e r . Β. A , K n o x v i l l e College. M e t a V a u x W a r r i c k . Pennsylvania School of Industrial A r t s . 1899; M a r g u a r i t e J. M u r r a y W a s h i n g t o n . B.S., T u s k e g e e Institute. 1893; S a r a h A. Blocker. B.A., F l o r i d a S t a t e Baptist College; A n n a J o n e s . Β. Α.. University of M i c h i g a n ; Henriette Μ. A r c h e r . B S.. A & M College. N o r m a l , A l a b a m a ; M a r y C. J a c k s o n , B.S.. T u s k e g e e Institute, 1890, professional degrees: Lucille Bragg A n t h o n y . Β. Α.. O b e r l i n College. M e h a r r y Medical S c h o o l . 1902-1907; Alice Woodley M c K a n e , B.A.. H a m p t o n Institute, 1886; M e d i c a l College of P e n n s y l v a n i a , 1892; Mabel Whiting, Duff Burenen College; J. E v a n s , C h i c a g o B u r n s C o l l e g e , 1899; Violette Ν. A n d e r s o n , LL.B., C h i c a g o Law School; a n d Lavinia M a r i a n F l e m i n g , L L . B . . H o w a r d University. T u l l i a B r o w n H a m i l t o n . " T h e N a t i o n a l A s s o c i a t i o n of C o l o r e d W o m e n . 1896-1920" ( P h . D . d i s s e r t a t i o n , E m o r y University, A t l a n t a , Georgia, 1978), pp. 39-53. " Colored American, M a r c h 6, 1891. "Daily News. A u g u s t 16. 1899, in N C T P . C o n t a i n e r 46, Reel 31, LC. " Times-Herald. A u g u s t 16. 1899, N C T P . C o n t a i n e r 23. Reel 16. LC and Box 102-12. Folder 242. 243. MSC. " N A C W ' s C o n s t i t u t i o n . M C T P , B o x 102-12, F o l d e r 249. M S C a n d C o n t a i n e r 23, Reel 17. LC. " Terrell. " F i r s t P r e s i d e n t i a l A d d r e s s , " M C T P , B o x 102-3, F o l d e r 127, M S C ; e x c e r p t s f r o m the a d d r e s s delivered at the N a t i o n a l C o u n c i l of W o m e n C o n v e n t i o n , April 6. 1905, W a s h i n g t o n , D. C., M C T P , C o n t a i n e r 28. Reel 21, LC. O n B r o w n a n d A d d a m s , see C h r i s t o p h e r Lasch, The Social Thought of Jane Addams ( I n d i a n a p o l i s : B o b b s Merrill, 1964); C h a r l o t t e H. B r o w n , The Correct Thing To Do ( B o s t o n : C h r i s t o p h e r P u b l i s h i n g H o u s e . 1941). B r o w n was the f o u n d e r a n d h e a d m i s t r e s s of P a l m e r M e m o r i a l I n s t i t u t e in S e d a l i a , N . C . , n o t f a r f r o m G r e e n s b o r o . It was a n exclusive p r e p a r a t o r y s c h o o l f o r the wealthiest a n d b e s t - b o r n black c h i l d r e n in t h e United S t a t e s . A d d a m s was the f o u n d e r of a social-settlement house, Hull House, in C h i c a g o . It a i m e d t o i m p r o v e the lot of the d e p r i v e d u r b a n dweller. " T e r r e l l , " F i r s t P r e s i d e n t i a l A d d r e s s ; " Terrell, " D u t y of N A C W to Race." " United S t a t e s B u r e a u of t h e C e n s u s , Eleventh Census of the United States: 1890 ( W a s h i n g t o n , D. C.: G o v e r n m e n t P r i n t i n g Office, 1893), pp. 36-45; United S t a t e s Bureau of the Census, Negro Population 1790-1915. pp. 509, 526. " A d d r e s s delivered at the Biennial C o n v e n t i o n of N A C W , M C T P , C o n t a i n e r 28. Reel 21, L C ; Terrell. " E f f o r t s a n d A i m s of O u r N o t e d W o m e n , " The Freeman: An Illustrated Colored Paper. I n d i a n a p o l i s . I n d i a n a . D e c e m b e r 24. 1898, in M C T P . Box 102-12, Folder 243. M S C ; J o s e p h i n e Silone Yates, " K i n d e r g a r t e n s a n d M o t h e r s ' C l u b s As Related to the W o r k of the N a t i o n a l Association of C o l o r e d W o m e n , " Colored American. 1905, pp. 305-7. " Progressive S t u d y C l u b ' s Yearly R e p o r t , 1899, M C T P , C o n t a i n e r 23. Reel 17, LC. " Yearly C l u b R e p o r t s , N A C W C o n v e n t i o n , B u f f a l o , New York, 1901, M C T P . C o n t a i n e r 23. Reel 17. LC. " T e r r e l l , Colored Woman in a White World, p. 153. See Reels 21, 26. 27. LC, for the c o m p l e t e text of the p a m p h l e t . F o r letters r e q u e s t i n g f u n d s f o r the e s t a b l i s h m e n t of k i n d e r g a r t e n a n d d a y nurseries, see C o r r e s p o n d e n c e File, 1901-1903. M C T P , C o n t a i n e r 4, Reels 3, 4, LC. " T e r r e l l , " D u t y of the N a t i o n a l A s s o c i a t i o n of C o l o r e d W o m e n to the R a c e , " p. 345. " Q u o t e d in F l e x n e r , Century

of Struggle,

p. 187.

319

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"Terrell, p. 341; "Report to President. Officers, and Members of the NACW from Tuskegee Women's Club," September 15, 1901, MCTP, Container 23, Reel 17, LC. "Terrell, "Some Aspects of the Employment Problem As It Concerns Colored People, MCTP, Bo* 102-3. Folder 114, MCS; "Report of the Phyllis Wheatley Club of New Orleans to the NACW," September 15, 1901, Container 23, Reel 17, LC. "Terrell, "First Presidential Address." 44 Samuel P. Hays, Response to Industrialism, pp. 74-75,79-82: Robert Wiebe, Search for Order, pp. 151, 168, 170,174-82,292; George Mowry, Progressive Era. 1900-1920: The Reform Persuasion (Washington. D. C.: American Historical Association, 1972). "Yearly Reports of Clubs, 1897, 1899, 1901, MCTP, Container 23. Reel 17, LC. 44 Terrell, "Club Work Among Women;" Elizabeth Davis, The Story of the Illinois Federation (Chicago: [n.p.], 1922), pp. 95-101. "Terrell, "Duty of the NACW to the Race." 4 'Yearly Reports of Clubs, 1897, 1899. " F o r an analysis of the NACW leaders' views on the suffrage issue, see Tullia Hamilton. "NACW, 1896-1920," pp. 29-31,40, 104, 105. w Yearly Reports of Clubs, 1897. 1899, 1901, MCTP. Container 23, Reel 17, LC.

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Toward a Broader Angle of Vision in Uncovering Women's History: Black Women's Clubs Revisited Lynda F. Dickson

It is often assumed that feminist historians in the 1980's have a n u m b e r of advantages over earlier writers who shared the goal of uncovering women's history. Not the least of these supposed advantages is that earlier writers have experienced and articulated the various "pitfalls" that had to be avoided before we could arrive at more accurate, less biased accounts of the historical experiences of women. I would argue, however, that mere articulation of the pitfalls is insufficient for ensuring their future avoidance. This is not to say that everyone must go through an experience to learn f r o m it, but that what is needed is a "flushing o u t " of these problems as well as an enumeration of the factors leading to their resolution. T o that end, the purpose of this paper is to draw f r o m a specific example— my doctoral dissertation on black women's clubs in Denver—and to examine each of the pitfalls that I encountered, as well as the methods that I employed to resolve them. According to G e r d a Lerner, 1 contemporary historians whose subject is women are often influenced by several factors: 1) Few primary sources by women, which means either that other sources must be uncovered or that existing sources must be examined f r o m a different "angle of vision";

Lynda Dickson is currently an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Her teaching and research areas include the family— especially single parent families—the feminization ofpoverty, and, more recently, the issue of comparable worth. This article stems from her doctoral dissertation on black women's clubs in Denver, and represents her attempt not only to preserve the rich history of Denver's black clubwomen, but also to acknowledge her admiration for their contributions to Denver's black community.

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2) The tendency to engage in "compensatory" research, which may lead to an overemphasis on the "significant," to the neglect of the "mundane"; 3) The tendency to view women's history as merely the history of an oppressed group and to see only the history of its struggle against its oppressors. When minority women are the subject matter, these factors take on a special significance that is further exaggerated by the accompanying tendency to compare their activities, behavior, or reality with those of nonminority women. My awareness of these considerations was reinforced when I noted the absence of black women's club activities in both black and women's history. This oversight, I felt, served as an indication of social historians' tendency either to "not see" these activities or to consider them as insignificant and thus not worthy of study. My major goal, in fact, was to fill in the gaps left in both black and women's history. Bearing the broader goal in mind, I ask the reader to look over my shoulder during this historical examination of black women's club activities in Denver in order to gain a clearer sense of how Lerner's articulated "considerations" affected my research. More specifically, I ask you to examine with me the impact of initial clues that led to unrealistic expectations; to "see" the primary sources as I initially saw them; and to note the impact of personal bias, which I had preferred to describe as "commitment to uncovering the total range of activities and interests" of black women's clubs during the period in question. My initial interest in an historical examination of black women's clubs came when I ran across a passing reference to the significant—if largely ignored—contributions that black women have historically made to their communities through organized, collective efforts. Further investigation led to the discovery that there were several references to black women's club activities in local newspapers. For example, an 1885 issue of Denver's Rocky Mountain News referred to the Colored Ladies Legal Rights Association, which had called a meeting of black and white citizens to protest an incident in which a Negro male and his female companion were denied admission to the Tabor Opera House. Considerable coverage was given to this meeting and to the strong appeal made by the representative of this association, Mrs. Μ. M. Moss:

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I speak on behalf of my sex. So keenly do we deplore the insult of one of our number—one that is deserving of our respect, both morally and intellectually—that we feel we can tolerate this state of things no longer. We have borne, for many years, insults, rapine, and injustice, and now we appeal to you, and ask you, our countrymen, to arise and demand of our oppressors redress for the repeated wrongs and insults offered to your mothers, wives, sisters and lovers. All we ask is the right to exercise that liberty accorded us by nature, and we will give you all the aid we can in defense of these rights.2

This action on behalf of Negro rights culminated in a state civil rights bill in 1885 that provided penalties for denying equal rights in places of public accommodation. 3 It is not clear whether the Legal Rights Association simply disbanded or merged with another club, but there is no further reference to it. Still, another indication that black women were organizing for political purposes is found in an article by a Mrs. Ensley, the Denver correspondent to the Women's Era. In the June 9, 1894, issue, she describes the active interest of women in the first election in Colorado in which women voted (1894), noting further that The readers of the ERA will be interested to know what special part the Colored women have taken in the election. Most of them have done admirable work in the interest of the Republican party. They also formed clubs on their own and heroically helped their brothers to elect a representative to the legislature, although the majority of those brothers voted against women's enfranchisement.4

Mrs. Ensley also notes the important role played by Mrs. Olden, who was one of fourteen delegates sent from the Colored Republican Club to the county convention held the preceding summer. Mrs. Olden was elected president of the Women's League that was organized in 1894.5 The single indication of the activities of the League is found in the correspondence between this organization and what became the National Association of Colored Women. Mrs. Ida De Priest, Corresponding Secretary to the Women's League, wrote to the NACW in 18% expressing regrets for not sending a delegate to the national convention, and describing the productive work done during the previous year:

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

We have been represented in some of the most representative gatherings of the state and have deported ourselves only as earnest women can. Our strength has been felt in some of our civic problems in reform work and has been the means of saving one wayward girl from the penitentiary. The colored girls in the State Industrial School have also received some attention.6

The Women's League is listed as a member of the State Association of Colored Women's Clubs from 1904 through 1909, but there is no other reference to it after that period. Another indication of organizational efforts among black women in Colorado before 1900 is found in correspondence with the National Association. In 1896, the Women's Central Club also sent a letter expressing regret at not being able to send a delegate, but noting that Our hearts and hands are with you in this great work, for we feel that wherever the standard of purity, justice and progress is to be planted, the women of the race must be the standard bearer. The need for rescue work among our people is more apparent every day and appeals to every woman of the race. Already we are working along this line in our city.7

But, once again, there is no other reference to this club, either in newspaper announcements or in other sources. Nor is it listed as a member of the state association. A final clue that black women were actively involved in their community was the discovery that several black women's clubs formed around the turn of the century had, through combined effort, established a day nursery in 1916 that still exists today. 8 The purpose of the foregoing is to point out that there was enough evidence to suggest not only that black women's clubs existed but also that they were actively involved in Denver's black community. Thus, my excitement grew concerning the feasibility of providing a comprehensive historical examination of black women's club activities. But, more importantly, so did my level of expectation concerning other "significant" work that early clubwomen surely must have been doing. The clubs that I eventually selected for further investigation were those that were formed between 1900 and 1925 that still exist today. What should have given me reason to pause, even at this early stage in the research process,

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

was the apparent shift in emphasis between the clubs formed before 1900 and those that emerged after the turn of the century. Even the names of the clubs reflect this shift: from the Colored Ladies Legal Rights Association, the Colored Women's Republican Club, and the Woman's League—all formed before 1900—to Pond Lily Art and Literary Club (1901), Carnation Art Club (1903), SelfImprovement Club (1903), and Taka Art Club (1904). In retrospect, my unwillingness to focus on this shift represents an already formed bias toward political activism as the major indication of "significant" contributions that black clubwomen made to their community. In any event, I contacted club historians for selected clubs and enthusiastically, yet carefully, examined all club materials in their possession (including minute books, scrapbooks, ledgers, announcements of events, pictures, and miscellaneous items). Based on these materials, I found that the early clubwomen spent a tremendous amount of time engaged in literary activities, art, and needlework. As indicated above, even the names of the clubs reflected these interests. Current popular works were read and discussed; oral presentations were given on such topics as "How Can I Make Club Work More Interesting"; "What Am I Thankful For"; "Pleasant Features of My Summer Vacation." Art and needlework took up a large portion of three out of four meetings per month, and serious attention was directed toward having these works judged by both members and outsiders. Members gained considerable status within and among clubs for their excellent work. Were these activities of historical interest? Perhaps. Were they significant? Not as far as I could see. Sprinkled through the materials, furthermore, were constant references to social functions sponsored by the clubs. iMeticulous accounts were provided on who contributed what to the planning and preparation of these seemingly endless functions—teas, dinners, luncheons, card parties, rummage sales, bake sales, and parties during the holiday seasons. To my surprise (and irritation), much space was devoted in minute books to detailed listings of the specific contributions that each member had made to each function. For example, when the club minutes indicated that a bake sale was to occur, the picture that came to mind was one in which each member contributed a cake, pie, or some other item. Yet more often there were references such as: " . . . Canon [donated] sugar, . . . Caldwell

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

[donated] six eggs, . . . Waiden [donated] one p o u n d of butter. . . . " Again, although these activities may have been interesting—to someone—there was little that I could interpret as significant.

Perhaps, I thought, the "significant" contribution came from helping the less fortunate. Clearly clubwomen expressed an ongoing concern with helping the local poor; numerous references were made to individuals who received financial or material help. Taka An Club's 1915 minute book provides typical examples: "Aldine Allen given a pair of shoes"; "Lydia Hall given a ton of coal"; "Mrs. Clay's little boy needs shoes" ($2.00 was allocated); "Mrs. Jackson needs assistance" (her rent was paid for a month, and she was given a sack of flour). In 1916, $1.00 was allotted for a prescription for a sick woman; $5.00 was donated toward the purchase of artificial limbs for a Mr. Palmer; $1.50 was donated toward helping a woman secure a railroad ticket; and $2.00 was sent to a destitute family at 2528 California Street. In many instances only clothing or perhaps a bottle of cod liver oil was given. The clubs did not give indiscriminately; in fact, considerable discussion took place in an attempt to determine whether an applicant "really needed help." In many instances moral issues appeared to influence the decision. In 1921, for example, the case of a woman with two children whose parents were about to put her out was presented; the motion to find her a place to stay and pay part of her rent was denied. This moral concern was especially manifest in the activities surrounding the Negro Women's Club Home, founded in 1916 through the collective efforts of seven clubs. A modern, two-story, eight-room brick structure located at 2357 Clarkson Street, the Home provided a dormitory for "deserving girls" and a day nursery for children. The upper floor was used for the dormitory, while the lower floor housed the day nursery. Young working girls could rent a room in the dormitory for $1.25 per week including kitchen privileges. These "inmates," as the residents were called, were governed by strict rules that were upheld by a matron: they were not allowed to bring furniture, boxes, trunks, or pictures into the home; lights were to be out by 10:30 p.m.; all washing and ironing was to be done in the laundry room during specific days and hours; and electric irons were prohibited. Girls were responsible for making their own beds and keeping their portion of the room tidy, and they were "absolutely pro-

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

hibited" from lounging on vacant beds. In order to use the kitchen, the "inmates" had to make arrangements with the matron, and they had at all times to use the dining room for lunch hour, use club dishes, and leave the kitchen and dining room as found. Moreover, the rules clearly indicated the clubwomen's concern with instilling proper domestic training and grooming habits in the girls: specific requirements concerning the washing of dishes ("must use pan instead of sink; must use soap when washing dishes") or personal grooming ("arrangement of toilet, including the straightening of hair, must be done in one's own room") or entertaining ("must use the parlor and matron must be present") were rigidly upheld. The matron assigned beds as well as bath times, and she was required to evict any person not following the rules. Almost as an afterthought, the matron was admonished to "strive to make the home comfortable and at all times, take the place of mother for the girls entering the home." 9 In spite of the rigidity in the running of the Club Home, and what appeared to be an elitist or condescending attitude toward the "inmates," the frequent references to a waiting list for both the dormitory and the day nursery clearly suggested that the Home filled an important function for young black women and working mothers in the community. But to focus on the Home as " t h e " major contribution that black women's clubs made to the community was not really an available option for me since another researcher had just undertaken the task of providing a comprehensive history of the Home. Thus I was left with the "other" various activities that could be categorized as those directed toward selfimprovement, those directed toward helping the less fortunate, and social events. Given my concern with "significant contributions black women's clubs have historically made to their communities," I was thoroughly disappointed. The most detailed information centered on the social activities. Could I perhaps describe these activities in a manner that could reflect the function they filled not only for the members (developing skills, learning to work well with others toward a common goal) but also for the community (providing social outlets)? Perhaps. Did I want to? Absolutely not. Although I was interested in the social function, I assumed that it would fall in the category of a "latent" function given that the officially stated purpose of the clubs was nonsocial.

HISTORY O F W O M E N IN T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S

A major source of frustration at this point in my research process was not that there were no indications that the clubs were interested in broader issues: references were made to the clubs' contributions to the war effort, such as sponsoring entertainments for the "sammies," to their protests against the showing of Birth of a Nation in 1915, to their donations to the N A A C P ' s Anti-Lynching Fund in 1919. But the references to these activities were few compared to the attention paid to social activities. To say that I was disappointed is not to suggest that I was discouraged. Neither was I willing to put aside my concern with the significant. That I had f o u n d limited inf o r m a t i o n in the primary sources required simply that 1 examine other sources, including newspaper articles, for references to club activities, and that 1 conduct interviews with the eldest surviving members of the clubs. W h e n nothing emerged that I could consider " s i g n i f i c a n t " I still refused to put aside my initial line of inquiry. Questions such as " W h y focus on the significant?" or "Significant by whose s t a n d a r d s ? " did not occur to me. T h u s I began to look t o w a r d theories of voluntary associations in an attempt to explain what I considered to be limited findings. Perhaps sociologist G u n n a r Myrdal was right when he argued that black voluntary associations were pathological since, a m o n g other things, they accomplished so little of what they set out to accomplish. 1 0 In spite of an intuitive sense that there was something wrong with this interpretation, I proceeded to explore the possibility of interpreting my findings in terms of Myrdal's pathology thesis. O n e indication of this pathology, according to Myrdal, was the strong tendency of black organizations to " m i m i c " white organizations. Following this lead required that I examine early club activities a m o n g white women. Although the similarities were readily apparent (including names of clubs, types of activities, tendency to emphasize ritual), I knew that serious comparison would lead me into the same trap that J o h n J o r d o n " had so aptly described— and that Myrdal exemplified—in arguing that when black culture or behavior have been examined at all, they have usually been viewed as either "distorted d e v e l o p m e n t s " or "pathological conditions" of the dominant culture a n d behavior. Given my already limited perception of black w o m e n ' s club activities, I recognized that I would have a strong tendency t o view white w o m e n ' s club activities as the " n o r m " a n d black activities in terms of how well

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

(or poorly) they conformed to this norm. I was straying farther away from my original subject of interest. Though I eventually put MyrdaJ's thesis aside, one positive outcome of this diversion into white women's club activities was that I was left with a nagging question: assuming that I do not accept the "mimicry" hypothesis, what other possible explanations exist for the obvious similarities between the activities of the two groups? I consider this a positive outcome because, even though I avoided answering the question at the time, its nagging persistence eventually allowed me to recognize (and get out of) another "trap"—that of viewing racism as the major explanatory variable. Upon returning to my narrower focus of black women's clubs, I still felt that my "findings" left me with little choice but to assume that early clubwomen in Denver did little that could be interpreted (without stretching the imagination) as making "significant" contributions to the black community. Thus, the task remained to find alternative (more sympathetic?) explanations for these limited findings. The obvious explanatory variable, I felt, was racism, so I reexamined club activities in terms of the activities of the oppressed. Holding to the idea of racism as the major influence allowed for essentially two alternative views of black clubwomen: either they were "helpless victims" of a racist society whose lack of significant contributions were the best that they could do under the circumstances, or (assuming that I had found "significant" contributions) they were fighters for the race. In retrospect, my preoccupation with the significant represented my desire to view them from the latter perspective. It was at this stage of the research process that I was reminded of the (sometimes raging) debate among black intellectuals that took place from 1890 to 1925. This debate, most clearly manifest in the writings of Alan Locke and W. Ε. B. DuBois, centered on the question of whether black writers had an obligation to write about blacks only in terms of how they were influenced by, or reacted to, racism. Should they, as Locke emphasized, fulfill a propagandist function (that is, glorify blackness; explore African roots)? If so, this function could best be fulfilled by writing about the "greats" or "worthies" of the race, which implied that in spite of oppression there were some who made outstanding contributions. On the other hand, the DuBois camp called for agitation against racism through various means, including encouraging black

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writers to emphasize the negative consequences of racism by portraying blacks as poor, long-suffering victims of oppression. Both camps appeared to agree that, whatever black writers did, they should avoid portraying blacks as happy, fun-loving people who functioned in spite of racism. This concern was later manifest among black historians who agreed that their role was to strive zealously to erase the "selective facts" that whites had perpetrated—that blacks were lazy, unindustrious, the receivers rather than implementers of freedom—but cautioned against the tendency to provide selective facts to the opposite extreme. L. D. Reddick12 specifically argued that, in order to make an objective historical study of blacks, one must include all aspects of black history; the positive as well as the negative, the "important" as well as the "unimportant." By expanding the frame of reference to include all aspects of black life, a more comprehensive understanding is achieved. For reasons that are still unclear to me, Zora Neale Hurston's work had the greatest impact on my eventual (albeit reluctant) decision to put aside the oppression model as well as my preoccupation with the significant. Hurston, a novelist and apprentice anthropologist who wrote about Florida blacks during the 1920's and 1930's, is an excellent example of a writer who accepted racism as a given and proceeded to describe the black experience in such a way that the reader emerges with a greater sense of "knowing" how they lived and experienced each day. Whatever the reasons, I decided to follow Hurston's example: I moved away from the limited "oppression" model and stopped focusing on the "significant." Even though my initial purpose had been to fill in the gaps left by researchers of black and women's history, I had fallen into the same trap as had others who have written compensatory history—that tendency to insist (in this case) that black women's clubs not only existed, but also must have been doing something significant, rather than simply asking, "What did they d o ? " As I indicated earlier, my detour into white women's club activities had contributed to my gradual recognition that to focus on how black clubwomen felt about, reacted to, or were otherwise influenced by racism was a limiting perspective. Once I abandoned the oppression model, it was easier to see why there would be such similarity in activities between both groups: both consisted of women who were interested

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in improving themselves through the study of literature; they were mothers who were interested in finding better methods of child and home care; they were hungry for regular social interactions with women of similar interests; and they were conscientious community participants who felt the need to help those less fortunate than themselves. Although black clubwomen were no doubt influenced by racist attitudes and practices, it is not only doubtful but also somewhat naive to assume that they spent the majority of their time discussing, lamenting, or otherwise reacting to these attitudes and practices. To summarize, the problems that I initially encountered in my study of black women's clubs in Denver stemmed from initial clues that raised my level of expectations, fewprimary sources by black clubwomen, my desire to focus on the significant to the neglect of the mundane, and my tendency to view club activities as mere representations of the activities of the oppressed. How, then, to take these factors into account without overemphasizing them to the point that a limited picture emerges? It is here that I was reminded of Reddick's call for a broader frame of reference, which simply allows for the consideration of influences outside the immediate setting. This broader frame of reference encourages a refusal to take at face value the information found and a desire to dig deeper: to ask " w h y " as well as " w h a t " and " h o w . " The " w h a t " questions—specifically what did early black clubwomen do—could be answered through an examination of the primary sources; the " h o w " questions required leaving the local clubs and focusing on the Denver setting; the " w h y " questions required leaving the local setting entirely. Once I put aside the specific, detailed activities of the clubwomen, the question became, " W h a t were the forces exerting an impact on club formation and activities during the period in question?" The goal became to identify systematically both micro and macro level factors. At the micro level it was helpful to draw f r o m Gerda Lerner's discussion of preconditions for club development among black women: sizable black population, educated women with leisure time, and unmet needs of the black poor. 1 3 For our purposes, suffice it to say that these conditions existed in Denver by 1890, 14 although it is important to note that the precondition of "educated women with leisure time" had to be stretched somewhat. Information that I obtained on the characteristics of the early local club-

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women does indicate that most members had at least a high school education, but it also appears that most were employed, and in occupations ranging from elocutionists and musicians, seamstresses and milliners, to domestics and laundresses. The major indication that most of the early members were employed (and at domestic and laundry work at that) is the fact that meetings of clubs were held on weekdays (domestics and laundresses rarely had Saturdays off). As members of the Coterie Club were quick to point out, theirs was the only club that always held meetings on Saturdays—clearly implying that there were no domestics and laundresses in the club. Thus the amount of leisure time that the women had to devote to club work is perhaps less important than the level of their commitment to, and willingness to work for, the improvement of their community. In any event, Lerner's preconditions for club development explain only the local forces necessary for club formation. In order to understand why clubwomen engaged in specific types of activities, it is more important to step away from the local setting and examine macro level factors, two of which are especially significant: the dominant racial ideology that prevailed during this period and black reaction to this ideology. Racial ideologies during the period 1890 to 1925 ranged from the die-hard racism of the post-emancipation era, through the accommodationist-paternalism that pervaded the 1880's, to the Negro-phobia that had triumphed by the turn of the century. 15 But a specific strain of thought permeated all of these that Herbert Gutman calls "retrogressionism." Retrogressionist beliefs, which gained increasing support during the 1880's and 1890's, held that African "savages" were brought to American shores completely devoid of morality and acted according to instinct; slavery represented an attempt to restrain these impulses; emancipation ended these restraining influences, thus causing moral and social "retrogression" among the ex-slaves. Observers in the 1880's viewed the wanton sexual permissiveness among black women, the pervasiveness of venereal diseases within black communities, and the weak family ties as clear indications of retrogressionism. Philip A. Bruce's The Plantation Negro (1889) is particularly illustrative of retrogressionist thought. Bruce's work, which according to him was " a dispassionate and impartial" examination of southeastern Virginia blacks, found that blacks acted upon the impulses of their nature. Even

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children could not be expected to be controlled by their parents, since the "average" black parent was "morally obtuse and indifferent." Chastity among daughters was not encouraged, nor was sexual promiscuity viewed by either the men or the women as "impurity." Bruce was especially critical of black women who "really molded the institution of marriage among (N)egroes, and to them its present deterioration is chiefly ascribable." Bruce suggested that a major reason that black men were attracted to white women was the "wantonness of the women of his own race." 1 6 It is important to point out that Bruce's work, and others that followed, were seen as commentaries on all blacks. Since African blood flowed through the veins of all blacks these same weaknesses were to be found "in the delegate who sits in the legislature, the teacher who has graduated from college, the preacher who has studied the bible, and the common laborer who toils from morning to night." 17 For my purposes, the significance of retrogressionist thought became apparent when I considered the prevailing Victorian image of women as the bearers of culture, morality, purity, and cleanliness, whose major function was to instill and maintain these values within the home. The "twin evils" of sexual immorality and family instability fell specifically within the woman's domain, necessarily placing black women in a negative light. As one 1880's observer of blacks noted, "it is a hopeless task to endeavor to elevate a people whose women are strumpets." 18 That the early club movement among black women was strongly influenced by this ideology is clearly indicated at both the national and the local levels. At the national level it is significant that the early club leaders were educated and largely from the middle class, for we can then understand why they would so readily accept the prevailing Victorian image of the proper role of women—" 'Tis hers to uplift, purify and a d o r n . " It is also apparent that the indiscriminate nature of retrogressionist thought was particularly insulting to these women who were lumped into the same category as their lower-class sisters. Thus they had a vested interest in working toward the elevation of all black women. As Mrs. Rosetta Sprague, the daughter of Frederick Douglass, pointed out in her address to the Federation of Afro-American Women in 1896:

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We are weary of the false impressions sent broadcast over the land about the colored woman's inferiority, her lack of virtue, and other qualities of noble womanhood. We wish to make it clear in the minds of your fellow countrymen and women that there are no essential elements of character that they deem worthy of cultivating that we do not desire to emulate; that the sterling qualities of purity, virtue, benevolence and charity are no more dormant in the breast of the black woman than in the white woman. 1 9

It was assumed that a national organization of "representative" women could do more to "change public opinion concerning the character and worth of colored women" 20 than could individual efforts. These "representative" women were not only to guide "through precept and example" their less fortunate sisters, but also to actively work with them, as was clearly reflected in the motto of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs: "Lifting As We Climb." It is in this area that the major difference between black clubwomen and their white counterparts is manifest. As Mrs. Fannie B. Williams, an early club leader indicates, white women's club development meant "the forward movement of the best women in the interest of the best womanhood," while the black movement represented the "effort of the few competent in behalf of the many incompetent." 21 The major goal of uplifting the image of black womanhood is also indicated at the local level. Mrs. Augustavia Young Stewart, who founded the Pond Lily Art and Service Club in 1901, appeared to have received the impetus from a local newspaper article that had made derogatory statements about black women. She decided to form a club composed of young women who could, through thought, word, and deed, help dispel the negative stereotypes about women of color. Recognition of the major problem—the need to elevate the image of black womanhood—may or may not have led to a large scale club movement both nationally and locally. Certainly, however, the declining status of blacks that resulted from policies based on racist ideologies— and, more importantly, black reaction to the increased prejudice and discrimination—provided clubwomen with the ideological justification as well as the methods for coping with the problem. Recognition of increasing racism and the very real social problems that were rapidly becoming a part of the black

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experience had a tremendous impact on Negro thinking during this period. As early as the 1890's black optimism concerning full participation in mainstream society was gradually replaced with a sense of realism: perhaps, some said, the focus should first be placed on preparation for full participation. Economic advancement continued to be emphasized, but the earlier agitation for political and civil rights and for full assimilation was gradually replaced by the belief that blacks must first develop the virtues of cleanliness, thrift, and high moral character. The assumption was that once they had achieved wealth and morality—largely through their own efforts—blacks would gain the respect of whites and thus would be "worthy" of full citizenship: self-help and racial solidarity became the dominant theme of the day. Black women had a significant role to play in this goal and in the elevation of the race, and the club movement reflected an awareness of this role. To uplift the image of black womanhood, improve home and family life, focus on the welfare of black children, instill moral values, and develop personal skills became the movement's all-encompassing goals. Bearing this in mind, it was easier for me to return to the primary sources that indicate the specific activities of the clubs, to categorize them, and to describe the functions that these clubs fulfilled for the community—which included supporting educational and "racial uplift" values, serving as a major link in the community's communication network, and representing a positive example of what could be accomplished through united effort—as well as the functions (described earlier) that the clubs fulfilled for the individual members. But perhaps the most important function of club affiliation was to provide a support system that could continually reinforce the belief that the task at hand—uplifting the race, and improving the image of black womanhood—was possible. Although all of these are important in contributing to our understanding of the functions fulfilled by black clubwomen, as Jack Ross and Raymond Wheeler have noted, " . . . t o ascertain either the meaning or the cause [of the functions] is much more elusive." 23 It is the meaning and the cause of the purpose, activities, and functions of the clubs that better allow us to "understand" the movement, and these are derived from asking " w h y " questions, as opposed to "what" questions. The pursuance of "what" questions uncovers facts, but, as numerous researchers have noted, the facts may often obscure the truth.

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The "facts" are that these early clubs tended to spend an enormous amount of time focusing on ritual, following the rules of parliamentary procedure, and engaging in social activities. Furthermore, clubwomen were often patronizing and condescending toward those whom they helped. But the " t r u t h " is that these women were deeply committed to the belief that they had to "prove" themselves by presenting a positive image. They felt that they had to negate the dominant perception of them as loud, unorganized, and immoral, and they believed that the means of accomplishing these goals was to focus on formality, on rigid rules of conduct for members, and on following the club by-laws to the letter. The abundance of social activities no doubt fulfilled a recreational function for both the members and the community and served as well as a means of status attainment for the clubs. But they also served as the primary means of raising the funds necessary to help others within the community. That the women were often condescending to those whom they helped—as indicated in their concern with how ••worthy" the recipients were—and that they established rigid rules for the residents of the dormitory and nursery are also better understood in context. These clubwomen were aware that every black woman who did not behave herself in a "lady-like" manner and every child who was unruly and uncared for was a further indictment of all black women. These women were inextricably involved with those whom they helped; they recognized that they had not only to provide positive models through their own behavior but also to establish and maintain standards that could realistically be followed. The above interpretation of the "facts" is possible only through the pursuance of "why" questions that inevitably led me away from the immediate setting and allowed (perhaps forced) me to consider broader influences that had an impact upon this setting. This broader angle of vision, which is the basis of a holistic approach, allows for a greater understanding of the facts concerning the early clubs. Further, once we understand the broader context in which the clubs functioned, we may more readily recognize the limited angle of vision that interpretations such as Myrdal's pathology thesis provide. The term limited (as opposed to inaccurate) is used because there is an element of truth in this thesis. But these elements represent only part of the picture. The holistic approach

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allows for the uncovering of additional elements that, when taken together, provide a more complete picture of the early club movement among black women in Denver.

NOTES 1. Gerda Lerner, The Majority Finds lis Past: Placing Women in History (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1979), p. 64. 2. Rocky Mountain News. February II, 1885. 3. "Contributions by Blacks to Social Welfare History in the Early West," Group Thesis University of Denver 1974. 4. Women's Era, 1, No. 3 (1894). 5. Gerda Lerner, ed., Black Women in White America (New York: Random House, 1972), pp. 338-39. 6. National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, Inc. (NACW), A History of the Club Movement Among the Colored Women of the United Slates of America (Washington, D.C.: NACW, Inc., 1902), p. 83. 7. NACW, p. 72. 8. "Minutes," Negro Women's Club Home, 1920. 9. "Minutes," Negro Women's Club Home, 1920. 10. Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1944), p. 952. 11. John S. Jordan, "Beyond Contributions: Marcus Garvey as the Subject of a Case Study Approach to Understanding Afro-American Participation in American History and Culture," Diss. Columbia University 1976. 12. L. D. Reddick, " A New Interpretation of Negro History," Journal of Negro History, 22 (January 1937), pp. 17-28. 13. Lerner, Black Women, p. 436. 14. Lynda Dickson, "The Early Club Movement Among Black Women in Denver: 1890-1925," Diss. University of Colorado 1982, pp. 72-123. 15. August Meier, Negro Thought in America, 1880-1915 (Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press, 1971), p. 104. 16. Philip A. Bruce, The Plantation Negro (1889), quoted in Herbert G. Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925 (New York: Pantheon, 1976), pp. 1-28. 17. Bruce, quoted in Gutman, p. 83. 18. Wilkeson Dispatches, New York Sun, December 28, 1882. 19. H. F. Kletzing and William H. Crogman, Progress of a Race (1897; rpt. New York: Negro Univ. Press, 1969), p. 193. 20. Booker T. Washington, ed., A New Negro for a New Century (Miami, Fla.: Mnemosyne Publishing, Inc., 1900), p. 396. 21. Mrs. Fannie B. Williams, quoted in Washington, p. 383. 22. Personal interview with Mrs. Ora B. Harvey, historian for the Pond Lily Art Club, September, 1980. 23. Jack C. Ross and Raymond H. Wheeler, Black Belonging (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing Co., 1971), p. 6.

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Beyond the Classroom: The Organizational Lives of Black Female Educators in the District of Columbia, 1890-1930 Sharon Harley, Assistant Professor, Afro-American Studies Program, University of Maryland, College Park The availability of both professional and non-professional job opportunities, coupled with the lure of the city, encouraged the steady migration of professionally-trained and unskilled black workers to the District of Columbia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As was the case with black men, educated professional black women were drawn to the District by the greater opportunities for professional employment at such institutions as Freedmen's Hospital, Howard University, and the District's "colored" public school system. As the seat of the Federal Government, Washington, D.C., offered a large number of clerical positions to female jobseekers, especially during the years of World War I. The federal dicennial census taken of the District population in 1860 reported that the black female population totalled 8,402; ten years later, it had risen to 24,207, representing a three hundred percent increase. By 1890, the black female population numbered 41,581, and forty years later (1930), it had increased to 69,843. 1 Prevalent sexual attitudes as well as racial attitudes limited the job opportunities of educated black women. For black as well as 'Staffed by black and white professionals (and non-professionals), Howard University offered degrees in the liberal arts, medicine, dentistry, nursing, law, and several other professions to its largely black student body. Howard's Medical School was one of the few professional schools, black or white, to admit women during the late nineteenth century. The following census reports provide information about the District population, broken down by sex and race: U.S. Department of Interior, Census Office, United States Census of Population: 1860. Table 2, p. 588; U.S. Census of Population: 1890, pt.l,Table 22; and U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930-Population, vol. 3, Table 2, p. 99.

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339

white women, teaching was the primary professional occupation, and even some women with medical degrees held positions in the local school system. In 1890, 81.6 percent of all black teachers were females; forty years later they occupied 82.4 percent of all teaching positions in the local black schools. For varying reasons, it was argued that the teaching profession should remain predominantly female. Mrs. Alice Strange Davis, director of the Music Department of the D.C. Public Schools in the 1890s, was quoted in the black press as having said that "a female teacher would be better suited to children." 2 Others maintained that since there were so few professional opportunities open to black women teaching positions should be reserved for them. While the number of female teachers rose steadily from 1890 to 1930, and women comprised the largest percentage of all teachers in the black public school system, the profession never accounted for more than five percent o(. the total District black female work force. A few black women taught at Howard University and at the National Training and Professional School for Women and Girls; however, the overwhelming majority of black women teachers were employed in the public schools. Many normal school and college graduates in the District and from other parts of the country sought teaching appointments in the nation's capital. They wrote letters of inquiry not only to officials in the school system but to prominent black and white Washingtonians not directly associated with the public school system. 3 While the annual salaries of teachers never was commensurate with their high social standing in the black community, teaching Occupational figures taken from the Report of the Superintendent of the Public Schools found in the Annual Report of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1890 (hereinafter cited as D.C. Commissioner's Report. . . lyearj); and U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, United States Census of Population: 1930, Population, Vol. 4, Occupations, By States, Table 11, pp. 328-329. See the Washington Bee, May 23, 1896 and September 30, 1899. Lorenzo J. Greene and Myra Callis point out that black women in the nation's capital had limited job choices; see their Employment of Negroes in the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.: The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Inc., 1932). As the number of available positions within the District school system declined and the field of professional nursing developed, educated black women increasingly turned to nursing. Remarks about the growing interest among black women in the nursing profession at the turn of the twentieth century appear in the annual reports of the Freedmen's Hospital Training School for Nurses. See, forinstance, the 1896 report of the nursing school in the D.C. Commissioners' Report. . . 1896. Throughout the forty-year period of this study, the vast majority of the black female wage earners held domestic and personal service jobs in the District; primarily, they were laundresses, untrained nurses, midwives, servants, waitresses, and charwomen. 3 See, for example, Letter, Christian A. Fleetwood to Mary C. Terrell, June 14, 1906, Mary Church Terrell Papers, Ctr. 4, hereinafter Terrrell Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (hereafter L.C.); and Paul Laurence Dunbar to Alexander Crummell, 9 September 1894, Paul Laurence Dunbar Collection, R-1535, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, New York, New York.

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was a much sought after profession. For black women, a teaching position was highly desirable for the following reasons: (1) it represented an acceptable, even admirable, public extension of their domestic roles in the home; (2) it represented one of the few opportunities in which educated black women could perform duties commensurate with their professional training; (3) it provided one of the best salaries available to blacks in general; and, finally, (4) it carried considerable social prestige and status in the black community.4 It was not only as teachers, however, that these women served the black community. During much of this time period, the spirit of reform expressed in the Progressive movement animated the nation, particularly urban areas. A characteristic feature of that era was a tremendous increase in the number of women's voluntary associations devoted to improving conditions in the society. No longer merely mothers in the home, but now "mothers of the world," black and white women were thought to have brought to the public domain the domestic instincts and virtues traditionally deemed so important to the home. This essay explores the organized activities of black female educators in the nation's capital in terms of the roles that educated women played at the turn of the twentieth century in black urban community life. My argument is that the vast majority of local black teachers and former teachers who involved themselves in the women's club movement outside the traditional sphere of female public activities—the church—did so because they believed, as did most formally educated women at the time, that they had a special responsibility to their respective communities which they alone could fulfill. The fact that female educators in the local public school system were more often than not unmarried and, therefore, frequently lacked the domestic responsibilities of married women and mothers also contributed to their large involvement in community functions. Those who married, often had husbands who played active roles in black community life.5 v Barbara Wilier, " T h e Cull of True W o t (1966), 151-74; History· 1893, 1, 12; Conver Girls (New York: The Philanthropist, 1889

Ids: Women and the Family from the Revolution s, 1980). .nhood: 1820-1860," American Quarterly, 18 ·η 1890, 37; Grace Dodge, A Private Letter to Far and Near (Nov. 1891), 2.

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In fact, the pursuit of womanly virtues was so important to the clubs that special groups were formed for the promotion of what was called the Three P's—Purity, Perseverence, and Pleasantness. For Dodge, in particular, moral education was a pivotal function of the clubs. She never stopped being a Sunday school teacher, in both the literal and figurative sense of the term. The Three P's Circles were significant as the bastion of Victorian and middle-class mores in the clubs and were more religious in tone and content than the rest of the clubs' functions. Nonetheless, it is important to note that in the 1890s only two out of twenty-four New York area clubs had Three P's Circles, and one of them was the original club that Dodge directed. Be that as it may, there is no denying that the Working Girls' Clubs did not encourage rebellion against conventional prescriptions for femininity. Indeed, we may wonder whether, as Nancy Cott deduced for an earlier period, such prescriptions served to bolster "sex-group identity" through which women could compensate for a sense of "inferiority in the world of man." 42 Such traditionalism notwithstanding, the clubs did encourage a subtle shift in women's attitudes towards domesticity. While the members were not challenging the overall framework of Victorian mores, neither were they intent upon sitting demurely in the parlor. What they wanted, one member asserted, was an opportunity "to learn the best ways of doing things and the reasons for doing them [in order to] develop the hand with the head." Housewifery, after all, was not a bucolic, simplistic job. On the contrary, a woman required training if she was to serve effectively as "the head of a business which prospers only as her intelligence, resolution, and ingenuity were equal to adjusting the rarely adequate budget to daily demands." Indeed, there was a sense of practicality that permeated their discussion, suggesting a search for more realistic guidelines for daily life. Even Grace Dodge couched her moralisms in useful suggestions for hard-pressed young women trying to improve their lives and emphasized efficiency as the most important item in the catalogue of w. oianly virtues. Always aware of the constraints of time and money under ν v/ich the working women functioned, Dodge uq>ed them to be resourceful ami, above all, to use their "brains and common sense." She encouraged the \ omen to believe in their own abilities and to rely on their own intelligence : ixher than on habit or convention as the springboards of right behavior. the prison reformers discussed by Estelle Freedman, the elite in the V orking Girls' Clubs may have been promoting " a dual ideal of womanhooo ' which reinforced accepted definitions of femininity while simultaneous! promoting a spirit of self-sufficiency.

i2 The Three P's (1888-1899, 1899-1908, 190>> 1915), Dodge MS; Lagemann,/» Generalion of Women, 19; Katz, "Grace Hoadley Dodge Annual Reports (1891), 41; Cott, Bonds of Womanhood, 190.

427

428

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As the Lowell mill girls had discovered early in the century, being feminine did not necessarily mean being dependent. 4 3 Here we see the strain under which the late nineteenth-century working women were struggling. Their approach towards femininity revealed much that was sentimental and traditional, but it also suggested much that was rational and conducive to change. In essence, the Working Girls' Clubs were encouraging a new vision of woman as a more self-reliant female, as one who could begin to control rather than merely be controlled by her traditional roles. Yet the clubs were not rejecting those roles. They were careful to reassure doubters of their lack of interest in assuming " m a n ' s work or place" in the world, but this sentiment was more complex than it seems. It was not an expression of docility, but a desire to be recognized " a s distinct individuals, not to be included" in the definition of man. 4 4 From the very start, Dodge herself had appreciated the potential of the movement for redefining woman's sphere. Recording the formation of the New York Association of Working Girls' Societies in 1885, she noted that "it was an interesting gathering, as for the first time in New York, a thousand women of all classes met alone (without men) to discuss business matters." Thus the clubs represented an example of how "separate female institutions" could strengthen women's sense of dignity as women, while expanding their self-definition beyond the limits of the home by demonstrating organizational abilities usually attributed to men. Estelle Freedman has aptly described this as " t h e process of redefining womanhood by the extension rather than the rejection of the female sphere." Holding onto the past with one hand, the Working Girls' Clubs were reaching out to the future with the other hand. 4 5 In this and other ways, the spirit of the Working Girls' Clubs suggested that some "old time theories were due for reassessment." According to Aunt Jane, that was just as well because "[y]ou c a n ' t . . . have the thoroughly domesticated girl of the last century and the independent, bread-winning business girl of the present. A woman can't be a sweet, retiring violet . . . and a sturdy tomato plant, too." The Working Girls' Clubs recognized this

4, Page Smith, Daughters of the Promised Land (Boston: Little, Brown, 1970), 284-86; Grace Hoadley Dodge, A Bundle of Letters to Busy Girls on Practical Matters (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1887), 15, 23-31, 29, 53-62, 136; Welter, "Cult of True Womanhood," 173-74; Lagemann, Λ Generation of Women, 23; Convention 1890, 31, 37; Freedman, Their Sister's Keepers, 95; Thomas Dublin, Women at Work (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1979); History 1914, 12; Far and Near (Jan. 1891), 42-47. 44 Convention 1890, 78, 93, 94; Convention 1894, 174; Dodge, "Working Girls' Societies," 225. "'Maude Stanley, Clubs for Working Girls (London: MacMillan, 1890), 77-79; Berg, The Remembered Gate, 266; Estelle Freedman, "Separatism as Strategy, 1870-1930," Feminist Studies, 5 (1979), 514-18: Glenda Gates Riley, " T h e Subtle Subversion: Changes in the Traditional Image of the American Woman," Historian, 32 (Feb. 1970), 226-27; Cott, Bonds of Womanhood, 205.

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dichotomy and appreciated the fact that modifying the passivity and domestic dependence of women meant strengthening the individuality of women. With pride, one member declared that "[opportunity might be written in letters of gold on the walls of every Working Girls' Club. Opportunity for what? To grow—to develop hand, head and heart." 46 This expanding concept of self was also reflected in a dedication to "improve and cultivate ourselves in all possible ways," including intellectual development. This was a major reason for starting the club journal Far and Near which existed from 1890-94. In the first issue the editors acknowledged a sense of inadequacy in "making our thoughts clear," but asserted that " w e can, and do think" and would learn to express those thoughts "better and better" with practice. The clubs also held monthly talks on current events and explored aspects of urban life, including "the laws of our city and state . . . especially those relating to factories and tenement houses." Having been deprived of formal schooling, the members "longed for education" and were eager to talk about history, literature, and, appropriately enough, the role of women in history. Urging women to think for themselves, the Working Girls' Clubs were responsible for their members' sense o f ' 'awakening to a consciousness of faculties hitherto unsuspected.'' If the world thought that they had been demoralized and debilitated by their machines, these working women were determined that no such fate would actually befall them. Understandably, they took particular pride in disproving the "traditional idea that it is not worthwhile for girls to think much anyhow.' ' 4 7 Such discussions tell us a good deal about the orientation of the Working Girls' Clubs and reveal both the complexity of their concerns and the subtlety of their new departure. Like men, these women accepted America's individualistic faith in the importance of strong character as the building block of society and as the bulwark of personal success. In their modest pursuit of skills and of knowledge they were also sharing America's faith in popular education and suggesting that the self-made man need not be a man. In 1888, one member predicted that "when we learn that the least burden we can carry in life is a necessity for work, the greatest burden the necessity without the ability, we will hear of self-made women." Like their middle-class sisters, these working-class females were intent upon making " t h e most of ourselves" and were beginning that process by expanding

46 Convention 1890,93; Convention 1894, 174; Far and Near (Nov. 1890), 2; Cott, Bonds of Womanhood, 190-%. 47 Far and Near (Nov. 1890), 1; Riley, "Subtle Subversion," 226-27; Dodge, Personal Work, 31-33, 53-58, 151-56; Dodge MS; Campbell, "Associations in Clubs," 66-67; Convention 1890, 10, 29-30; Convention 1897, 94-95. Also see Kennedy, If All We Did, 78.

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current definitions of womanhood to include resourcefulness, self-reliance, and individuality, not to mention intelligence. 48 *

•

*

The Working Girls' Clubs were hardly the only group struggling to be heard in late nineteenth-century America. In fact, the Gilded Age was, as Grace Dodge put it, an "age of cooperation and organization." Men had a long tradition of reform effort in the United States culminating in the pre-Civil War crusade for the abolition of slavery. Middle-class women interested in reform had been compelled to create their own organizations in that period and had carried the tactic over to the post-Civil War era. In 1890, the General Federation of Women's Clubs was formed, ushering in a middleclass women's organizational boom. The females' effort paralleled that of the men in its diffusion and good intentions. It differed from the male approach in being more social, cultural, and political in emphasis. Where the men might work for civil service, sound money, or tariff reform, the women would labor for the promotion of art, education, civil beautification, household economy, pure food, and, of course, suffrage. To some degree there was overlap between the middle-class women's club movement and he Working Girls' Club movement. They both represented the emergence of women into the public arena coupled with the conscious adoption of men's techniques to women's concepts of how to improve society. A few of the activists in the Women's Federation were also the "seed money" women for the Working Girls' Clubs. However, there the similarity ends. Talk of sisterhood notwithstanding, the Working Girls' Clubs were a breed apart from other women's organizations. First and foremost, their population gave them a " u n i q u e " identity. Second, the raison d'etre of each group was quite different. While the middle-class women were reaching outward and sometimes down, the working-class women were reaching outward and up. Where the Women's Federation tended to pursue high-brow goals, the Working Girls' Clubs emphasized pragmatic, low-brow objectives. While the elite women's clubs were trying to do a little for others because they already had so much, the working women were trying to help themselves b e c a u s e they had so little. Nonetheless, both groups attest to the maturing position of women in the late nineteenth century and to the continuing redefinition of women's sphere in the world. Regardless of the specifics, any organization for and by women in the Gilded Age was an important step toward eventual equality

"»Dodge, "Working Girls' Societies," 225; Convention Near (May 1893), 146; Annual Report (1888), 21-22.

1890, 78-79, 93, 94, 97; Far and

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

between men and women. 4 9 The Working Girls' Clubs were also different from other late nineteenthcentury working-class oriented reform efforts. Among them, the Working Women's Protective Union provided free legal services to workers cheated out of their pay, but it was dominated by middle-class reformers. The Working Women's Society was a largely middle-class female organization, with some working-class participants, dedicated " t o secure better conditions for the working people." Its membership included a few women active in the Working Girls' Clubs but its emphasis was on long-range tactics such as collecting statistics, promoting labor organizations, and pressuring for labor legislation. 50 While they flourished, it was the special contribution of the Working Girls' Clubs to extend the concept of women's organizations to the lower classes and particularly to those women who found that "along with the poetry of home are stern lives of prose." The clubs confronted some of the most ordinary but most poignant problems of the late nineteenth-century young female urban worker through practical techniques that brought immediate results. However, the Working Girls' Clubs were less a solution than a methodology. " T h e end and aim of a young woman's existence is not to be a member of a Working Girls' C l u b , " one member aptly stated. " T h e club is a subordinate part of her life—an opportunity . . . to make the more important part of her life more comprehensive and satisfactory." Although the Working Girls' Clubs sprang out of a nineteenth-century context, they tried to grapple with the limitations of their era and of their circumstances. Defying convention, they pursued a useful alliance between rich and poor while also forging a realistic synthesis of their members' conflicting identities as women and as workers. On the one hand, they recognized their broad responsibility to " p r o m o t e the welfare of w o m e n " in general. On the other hand, they unashamedly appreciated their uniqueness as a "distinct on>anization for woman's work." Through their activities and in their attitudes, the Working Girls' Clubs succeeded in demonstrating that woman, especially the w o r k i n g w o m a n , w a s a " r e s p o n s i b l e , i n d e p e n d e n t personality" capable of self-determination and worthy of respect. 5 1 "'Dodge, Personal Work, 184; Helen M. Winslow, " T h e Story of the Woman's Club Movement," New England Magazine, 38 (1908), 549. The Working Girls' Clubs were proud to be invited to prepare an exhibit for display in the Woman's Building of the 1893 Columbian Exposition. See History 1893. '"Working Women's Protective Union, Twenty Five Years' History (New York: The Union, 1888); Alice Henry, The Trade Union Woman (New York: Burt Franklin, 1973), 44: Lagemann, A Generation of Women, ch. 3. The Consumers' League was represented at Working Girls' Clubs conventions, but was really an outgrowth of the Working Women's Society. It comprised elite women who refused to buy at retail stores that exploited working women. Conversion 1897, 117-18. 51 Convention 1897, 198; Far and Near (Jan. 1892), 45-46; (April 1892), 107-08; (March 1893), 86-88.

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STATES

"Sisterhood and Sociability": The Utah Women's Press Club, 1891-1928 BY LINDA T H A T C H E R A N D J O H N R. S I L L I T O

Writer USHS

and editor Emmeline

Β.

Wells founded

the Utah

Women's

Press

Club.

collections.

si, 1 8 9 1 , eight of Utah's most prominent women met in the offices of the Woman's Exponent to organize the Utah Women's Press Club. These women — Emmeline Β. Wells, Lula Greene Richards, Susa Young Gates, Ellis R. Shipp, Romania B. Pratt, Ruth May Fox, Julia I. MacDonald, and Lucy A. Clark —

O N

T H E EVENING OF O C T O B E R

Ms. Thatcher is a librarian at the Utah State Historical Society and president of the Utah Women's History Association. Mr. Sillito is the archivist at Weber State College, Ogden.

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433

were active in a wide range of social, civic, political, and religious endeavors. O n that October evening, however, they met to f u r t h e r another of their interests — writing. 1 T h e club they formed, as the records explain, was organized for the benefit of "women engaged in active journalistic or newspaper work in Utah Territory.'" T h e organization of the Utah Women's Press Club occurred at a time when other similar groups were being created throughout the country. Just two years before a woman's press club had been organized in New York by J a n e Cunningham Croly, one of the first women to be employed by a large metropolitan newspaper — the New York Herald..* Over the next thirty years, the Utah Women's Press Club played an important role in Utah's literary and journalistic history. An understanding of that role begins by examining the life of its founder and guiding spirit, Emmeline Β. Wells. Emmeline Blanche Woodward Harris Whitney Wells was born on February 29, 1828, in Petersham, Massachusetts. 4 She joined the Mormon church in 1842, at the age of fourteen, despite the opposition of friends. Following her conversion, Emmeline returned to the boarding school she had been attending and graduated with a teaching certificate. In 1843 she married James Harris and a year later traveled with him and his parents to Nauvoo, Illinois. Soon after arriving in the city tragedy struck the Harris family: an infant son died and Emmeline suffered a serious illness. Shordy thereafter, James Harris left both Emmeline and the Mormon church. In February 1845 the seventeen-year-old divorcee became the plural wife of Newell K. Whitney, a fifty-year-old bishop in the Mormon church. Whitney died six years later, leaving Emmeline with two small children. In 1853, at the age of twenty-four, Emmeline became a plural wife of another older man, Daniel H. Wells, a prominent Utah leader and counselor to Brigham Young.* Emmeline's third marriage was not as successful as she had hoped. But, 'Emmeline Β. Wells, Journals, October 31, 1891, Special Collections, Brigham Young University, Provo; Mary F. Kelly Pye, "Utah Women's Press Club History," MS, LDS Church LibraryArchives, Salt Lake City. See also Jane Cunningham Croly, History of Women's Press Club Movement m America (New York: Henry G. Allen, 1898), pp. 1109-10. •Pye, "UWPC History." * Cynthia E. Harrison, Women in American History: Λ Bibliography (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO Press, 1979), p. 131. 4 For information on Emmeline Β. Wells see Patricia Rasmussen Eaton-Gadsbv, "Emmeline Blanche Woodward Wells: Ί Have Risen Triumphant.' " in Vicky Burgess-Olson, ed.. Sister Saints (Provo: BYU Press, 1978), pp. 455-80. »Ibid., p. 461.

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despite her personal problems and disappointments, she contributed gready to the social and civic life of late nineteenth-century Utah. Emmeline Wells considered herself a person of destiny, which may be one reason she accomplished so much in her lifetime.* In addition to organizing the Press Club and the Reapers Club, Wells served as the editor of the Woman's Exponent from 1877 until its demise in 1914, was active in politics as president of the Utah Woman's Suffrage Association, served in various capacities in the Republican party, and was a prolific writer whose literary efforts included a volume of poetry, Musings and Memories, as well as numerous articles in magazines and newspapers. Throughout her life, Emmeline Β. Wells was an outspoken champion of the rights and status of women. T h e organization of the Utah Women's Press Club is one of many examples of her commitment to improving the place of women in society. Under Wells's directipn the first regularly scheduled meeting of the club was held on November 30, 1891. In her journal she recorded: Letter from Susa [Young Gates] that she could not come to the press club — made ready for twenty or so. Only three came, but we held the meeting. Had papers & letters read and had refreshments daintly served. I am astonished that so few take an interest in these things. Sister Fox, Dr. Shipp, and Sister McDonald each did well. Chocolate cakes, apples, bananas, grapes etc. Very dainty repast.7

Despite this small turnout, the group was undaunted and continued with their efforts to make the club viable. Prior to the end of the year they selected their officers for 1892: Wells, president; Susa Young Gates, first vice-president; Lula Greene Richards, second vice-president; Martha A. Y. Greenhalgh, vice-president at large; Annie Wells Cannon, corresponding secretary; Dr. Ellis R. Shipp, recording secretary; Ruth May Fox, treasurer; and Dr. Romania B. Pratt, auditor.' One cannot help but wonder, looking at this long list of officers, if Wells might not have intended this as a strategy not only to spread the work load but to increase attendance at meetings. Three women — Gates, Pratt, and Lucy A. Clark (who was not an officer) — were appointed as a committee to write by-laws. Over ' I b i d . , passim. 'Wells, Journal, November 10, 1891. •Pye, - U W P C History."

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κ-

ΤΛ* Templeton Building on the southeast corner of Main Street and South housedfor a time the of/ices of the Woman's Exponent where Press Club held their monthly meetings. USHS collections.

Temple members

the years these by-laws were periodically changed, but the main points remained intact. Regular meetings of the club were held either once or twice a month. It was stipulated that the meetings would be held in the parlor of the Woman's Exponent office, "unless the date or the place of the meeting be changed by a two-thirds vote of the members present at a regular meeting."" After 1914, the year the Woman's Exponent ended publication, the club met in the Salt Lake City Public Library. 10 T h e by-laws also provided that the election of officers, would take place at the club's October meeting, which would also serve as the annual business meeting. Applications for membership were presented in writing and approved by the credentials committee. An applicant then had to be voted on by the entire membership. T h e club dues were one dollar per year, but club members were allowed to bring guests so long as they paid ten cents for the guests' refresh' Woman's Exponent, ]uiy 15. 1892, p. 10. 10 Utah Women's Press Club, "Report of the UWPC 1918." MS, LDS Church Library-Archives. This report was presented to the annual meeting of the Utah Federation of Women's Clubs.

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ments. No guest, however, could attend more than three times in one year." As stated in the by-laws, the Utah Women's Press Club's main purpose was to encourage women's literary efforts. Membership was open to any woman "who wrote for a creditable journal, newspaper or other publication. . . ."" As the years passed, however, this definition was considerably broadened. As Romania B. Pratt, the club's newly elected president, explained at the meeting held November 30,1897: "In a strict sense, the name of Press Club in our case is a misnomer, so few of us are regular or special correspondents or contributors to newspaper and periodicals, and only three of our number are bona fide editors." Pratt went on to say that the goal of the club had been expanded so that those "less skilled in journalism" could still participate in the discussion and activities of the organization." In examining the lives of those women who over the years affiliated with the Utah Women's Press Club, it is clear that almost all were Mormons. However, those members who were not Mormons were apparently as readily and cordially accepted as the other members. Most club members, regardless of religious affiliation, were active in civic and community work as well as interested in writing and literature. In reconstructing the membership of the club, it appears that the women who affiliated with the organization fell into three categories: a handful of professional writers who later worked for major newspapers outside of the state or whose works were published in national journals; a larger group consisting of women who were active in the local publishing scene as editors of newspapers or journals and as published authors of books, poems, short stories, and nonfiction; and, the largest number, women who had published something in order to join the club but were not primarily writers or editors. In the first category, three women stand out: Nevada V. Davis, who lived in Salt Lake in 1893 while teaching at the city high school and later went to work for the New York Herald; Ada Patterson, a reporter for the Salt Lake Herald in the 1890s who later worked for 11 Utah Women's Press Club, "Minutes 1894-1898," MS., Utah State Historical Society,Salt Lake City; Woman's Exponent, July 15, 1892, p. 10. "Pye, "UWPC History." Woman's Exponent, December 31, 1892, p. 2S0.

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

newspapers in St. Louis and San Francisco a n d eventually became the d r a m a critic for the New York Amencan and the a u t h o r of short stories and a biography of M a u d e Adams, the noted Utahn who became a f a m o u s Broadway actress; 14 a n d J o s e p h i n e Spencer, author of The Senator from Utah, a novel published in 1895, and several articles in national magazines including Pearsons, who ended her career on the staff of the Los Angeles Examiner.

Books by Press Club members included Augusta Joyce Crocheron's T h e C h i l d r e n ' s B o o k and Emmeline B. Wells's book of poetry, M u s i n g s a n d M e m o r i e s . USHS collections.

In addition to Emmeline Β. Wells, the second category of members included several of Utah's most p r o m i n e n t early twentiethcentury women writers. O n e of these is Susa Y o u n g Gates, a d a u g h ter of Brigham Young, who was an i m p o r t a n t force in fostering "literary appreciation and literary art" in Utah. Gates f o u n d e d and edited the Young Woman's Journal f r o m 1889 until 1901. Moreover, she a u t h o r e d many articles, short stories, and books, including/oAn "Salt LaJu Tnirnru, June 27, 1939, p. 10.

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Steven's Courtship, History of Lydia Knight, The Surname Book and Racial History, a n d The Princd of Ur, p u b l i s h e d posthumously in 1945. 15 A n o t h e r i m p o r t a n t writer and leader in the Press Club was Ellis Reynolds Shipp. In addition to her service as club presid e n t , Shipp was an important civic and literary figure in the community. She completed medical school in the East in 1878, despite many obstacles, a n d r e t u r n e d to Salt Lake City to set u p her practice. Along with her h u s b a n d and o n e of his o t h e r polygamous wives, Shipp f o u n d e d the Salt Lake SanitaAugusta Joyce Crocheron. rian, a medical publication, in USHS collections. 1888, with all t h r e e serving as editors. She c o n t r i b u t e d m a n y articles on health a n d medicine d u r ing the j o u r n a l ' s two-year existence. T o d a y she is best known f o r her m u c h - r e a d a u t o b i o g r a p h y , The Journal of Ellis Reynolds Shipp.'6 R u t h May Fox was a third significant contributor to the Utah literary c o m m u n i t y . B o r n in Westbury, England, in 1853, she and her family converted to M o r m o n i s m a n d immigrated to Utah in 1867. Fox served in every office of the Press Club, including presid e n t . D u r i n g those years she was also active as a m e m b e r of the Reapers Club (basically an organization for women with literary aspirations who could not qualify f o r the Press Club) a n d politically involved in the Utah W o m a n ' s S u f f r a g e Association, the Salt Lake C o u n t y Republican party, a n d the Ladies' Republican Club. Fox is best known, however, f o r h e r service as president of the Y o u n g Ladies Mutual I m p r o v e m e n t Association." Although h e r formal ,s R. Paul C r a c r o f i , 'Susa Y o u n g Gates: H e r Life a n d Literary Work" (Masters thesis. University of U t a h . 1951). p. 3; Sherilyn Cox B e n n i o n , " E n t e r p r i s i n g Ladies: Utah's N i n e t e e n t h - c e n t u r y Women Editors." Utah Historical Quarterly 49 (1981): 301. " S e e Gail F a r r CasterliJie. " D r . Ellis R. S h i p p : Pioneer Utah Physician," in Burgess-Olson,Sister Samts, p p . 363-82. " L i n d a T h a t c h e r , " Ί C a r e N o t h i n g f o r Polities': Ruth May Fox, F o r g o t t e n Suffragist," Utah Historical Quarterly 49 (1981): 240-41.

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

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education ended at an early age, she was a strong advocate of education and lifelong learning. Additionally, she was a prolific writer, composing hundreds of poems, which she often read at Press Club meetings. Many of her poems were collected in a book entitled May Blossoms, published in 1923. A number of other substantial local writers affiliated with the Press Club, including Augusta Joyce Crocheron, the author of Representative Women of Deseret: A Book of Biographical Sketches, which even today is an important source for biographies of many of the significant women of that time. Another was Lucy A. Clark, a newspaper writer and editor of the Farmington Flash Light. In 1918 she turned her attention to patriotic endeavors and wrote the lyrics for "The American Army Song of Freedom," which was adopted as the official song of the Fort Douglas Training Corps." Ellen Lee Jake' " U t a h W o m e n ' s Press Club. " M i n u t e s . " May 2 6 . 1 9 1 7 , M S . L D S C h u r c h Library-Archives.

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man, also a member of this group, worked as a typesetter and publisher. She wrote for local newspapers and magazines and served as a correspondent for national newspapers." Women such as Harriet Badger, Amanda Done, Rebecca H. Doolan, Emma Jenson, and others are examples of women in the third category. They left litde record of their literary efforts. Most published a small number of poems or stories, which allowed them to belong to the club as a participating member. For them the club funcdoned primarily as a place where they could meet socially with other more professional writers and receive advice on improving their literary skills. During the first year of the club's existence a pattern was set for future meetings "characterized by the reading of original poems, short stories, and [articles] from national magazines."" The latter usually dealt with some aspect of women's clubs, literature, or current events. A typical meeting consisted of opening remarks by the chair, an opening prayer, the reading of minutes from the previous meeting, and a roll call that club members frequently responded to with poetic sentiments. After discussion of current club business, original poems, stories, and papers were presented. The gamut of papers presented ran from such topics as "Prophecy Fulfilled" by Ruth May Fox to "A Trip to Alaska" by Nevada V. Davis. After the readings were completed, the evening ended with refreshments and a social chat. A main purpose of the meetings, however, was the opportunity afforded the writers to have their works critiqued by fellow club members. In a report to the Utah State Federation of Women's Clubs in 1918, the president of the Press Club noted that items read at "meetings [were]. . . commented upon and criticized in a spirit of friendliness and helpfulness."11 This spirit had characterized the club since its earliest days. In January 1892 Susa Young Gates suggested that "all original articles [presented at the club] be put in the hands of a good reader, without signatures, with the object of improvement."" During the meeting of July 31,1896, the membership decided that the club should have an official critic. The minutes note: "Woman's Exponent, October 15, 1892, p. 72. "Ibid., July 15, 1892, p. 72. " U W P C , " R e p o r t . . . 1918." " Woman's Exponent. February 15, 1892, p. 118; May 15, 1892, p. 165.

W O M E N TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

In accordance with our president's oft repeated wish that our club should have a critic, Mrs. E . J . McVicker was proposed by Miss S. L. Monroe as critic. T h e motion was carried unanimously. T h e nominee very modestly expressed thanks for the honor, and said she would try to excercise discretion in the duty, and desired all to feel free to criticize the critic."

As the system evolved, the responsibility of the critic was to evaluate original works the week following their presentation. Ultimately, a different critic was assigned each week. Not all of the club's activities were as formal and serious as the reading and critiquing of papers. At the November 20, 1892, meeting of the club Emmeline Β. Wells "called attention to the fact that the UWPC had been organized on Halloween" and hoped that the club members might celebrate anniversary meetings in an "original way" in years ahead." In this spirit club members decided that at the anniversary meeting they would come dressed in costumes representing a literary or historical figure or a famous story or poem. Probably the most memorable of these meetings occurred on October 30,1894. When called by name, the costumed member rose from her seat to give the others a chance to guess who she was representing. Given the descriptions in the minutes, some of the costumes must have produced applause and perhaps laughter. T h e characters were as follows — Dr. E. R. Shipp, Portia injudicial robes, where she makes her speech before the judge beginning the "quality of mercy is not strained," etc. Mrs. Ruth M. Fox, dressed in various gaudy colors, which is said to be characteristic of Dickens, her author, represented Sergeant Buzfuz. Miss Gladys Woodmansee, Hypaua, in Roman costume. Mrs. Ella W. Hyde adorned with fern leaves and a fern covered fan, represented Fanny Fern. Dr. R. B. Pratt, dressed as a nun, read from Longfellow's magazine; and by coincidence Mrs. Pheobe C. Young and Lizzie S. Wilcox chose to represent Lucile as a nun, even hitting upon the same selection for reading. But the matter was remedied by one of the ladies choosing another selection. . . . Mrs. Lucy A. Clark, with powdered hair, lace cap, and imitation snowflakes represented Mrs. Eliza R. Snow* with appropriate selections.... Mrs. E. J . Stevenson, with full blown roses, represented "Rose in Bloom" . . . Miss Ellis Shipp looked picturesque in her creamcolored gown bedecked with birds and feathers of brilliant hue, as she recited Longfellow's "Birds of Ellingsworth." Miss Pearl Russell was very sweet as Little Red Riding Hood and she gave a charming little solo from that opera. 15

" U W P C . "Minute Book, 1894-1898," p. 31. " Woman's Exponent, December 15, 1892, p. 95. " U W P C , "Minute Book. 1894-1898," p. 3.

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In addition to these activities the club often entertained famous guests traveling through the area. O n e of these was a Countess Wachmeister who visited in 1894 and discussed theosophy. T h e countess's lecture may have been a factor leading one club member, Dr. Ellen Brooke Ferguson, eventually to renounce Mormonism and become associated with theosophy." Another visitor, Phoebe Couzins, the first woman law graduate from Washington University in St. Louis, lectured on women's rights and the "late silver trouble in Colorado." 27 O t h e r prominent people of the time entertained by the club included the Countess of Aberdeen and Elizabeth Upton Yates, both active in the suffrage movement." Indeed, the issue of suffrage and the role of women in politics was clearly of great significance to the members of the U WPC. At the meeting of July 30, 1900, for example, Emmeline Β. Wells "by permission made a few remarks regarding women having suitable representation in political matters" and on state political tickets, especially as candidates for offices dealing with education." At an earlier meeting in 1895, Wells had "made a motion that the meeting be resolved into a meeting for the consideration of woman's suffrage" which was seconded and accepted unanimously. At this meeting, which several men attended, the subject of the article then before the state constitutional convention to give women equal civil and political rights was discussed. T h o s e present, including the men, accepted the suggestion of Wells that "we should do all we can individually by writing articles on the subject to the newspaper, signed by full name," and by circulating petitions." As these and other examples demonstrate, Emmeline Β. Wells was the dominant influence in the growth of the Utah Women's Press Club. As she began to age and was less able to involve herself actively in the organization, the club began to decline. After a spurt of activity d u r i n g World War I, when club members became involved with a n u m b e r of patriotic projects, the club lapsed into dormancy. Wells's death in 1921 was an important factor contributing to this situation. T h e last regular meeting of the club was held that year, and A m a n d a Done was chosen as president. When Done

" O l s o n , Sister Sainls, p. SS6. " P y e , "UWPC History." "Ibid. "Woman's Exponent, August 1. 1900, p. 2. " U W P C , "Minute Book, 1894-1898," p. 16-18.

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

These women attended thefinal meeting of the Press Club on December 6,1928, at the Lion House when the organization wasformally dissolved. US HS collections.

was unable to fulfill her commitment because of ill health, Lucy A. Clark, another long-time club stalwart, was asked to visit her to see what might be arranged. Clark failed to do so and the club remained inactive for several years." In October 1928 Lily T . Freese, one of the charter members of the club, suggested that it was not in keeping with the spirit of the club or its founders that the organization simply wither away and recommended that a formal meeting should be held to dissolve the club.32 Susa Young Gates, the first woman to serve as vice-president of the club, was asked to officiate and act as hostess at a meeting in the Lion House on December 6, 1928. T h a t meeting, labeled in the press as an "abandonment party," ended the club's thirty-seven-year involvement in literary, civic, and community affairs." In retrospect, the organization of the club came at a time when large numbers of literary clubs were being organized by women throughout America. While the UWPC was initially organized for women engaged in writing for "creditable" journals, newspapers, or other publications, it quickly became, in reality, a literary club as 11 Pye, " U W P C History." "Ibid. "Sail Lake Tnbum, D e c e m b e r 2. 1928, p. 24.

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opposed to a professional organization. Indeed, in terms of general format, program, composition of membership, and goals, the Utah Women's Press Club closely resembles the women's literary clubs examined by Karen Blair in The Clubwoman as Feminist. As Blair notes, although these literary clubs "did not often produce scholars, career women, social critics or avant-garde aesthetes," they often served as a "first step" for women "determined to improve their status." Moreover, these literary clubs, Blair asserts, gave their members "confidence, and skills in speaking, researching and writing, which gave all a new sense of worth. . . T h e Utah Women's Press Club provided members with additional tangible benefits. It served as a forum for the study of both literature and current events and gave many aspiring writers an opportunity to have their works read and critiqued. In addition, because of Emmeline Β. Wells's close association with the Woman's Exponent, club members not only had a friendly editor but an accessible vehicle for the publication of their works. Indeed, many of the writings of club members found their way into print in the columns of the Woman's Exponent. At the same time, the club helped members identify other markets for their works and, as in the case of Wells's Musings and Memories, provided funding for publication. In her introduction to The Clubwoman as Feminist, Annette Baxter offers an observation about the importance of nineteenthcentury American women's clubs: If the club served the cause of cultural enlightenment for masses of women, it clearly served another purpose as well; it taught women the value of their own autonomy. Like today's women's clubs, whether as diffuse in character as the National Council of Women, or as concentrated as the women's caucuses of professional societies, clubs strengthened collective confidence and afforded their members a more complete sense of individual identity. And they inevitably had the effect of cultivating in women an appreciation of each other. Sisterhood was the predictable outgrowth of such regular collaboration in sociability.'5

Baxter's observation about American women's clubs generally seems equally pertinent to the Utah Women's Press Club. For more than thirty years, the women of the Press Club met not only to promote their literary efforts and discuss the important issues of the day but also to promote sisterhood in an atmosphere of sociability. " K a r e n F. Blair, The Clubwoman As Feminist (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1980), p. 58. " I b i d . , p. xiii.

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SEPARATISM AS STRATEGY: FEMALE INSTITUTION BUILDING AND AMERICAN FEMINISM, 1870-1930

ESTELLE FREEDMAN

SCHOLARSHIP AND STRATEGIES

The feminist scholarship of the past decade has often been concerned, either explicitly or implicitly, with two central political questions: the search for the origins of women's oppression and the formulation of effective strategies for combating patriarchy. Analysis of the former question helps us to answer the latter; or as anthropologist Gayle Rubin has wryly explained: If innate male aggression and dominance are at the root of female oppression, then the feminist program would logically require either the extermination of the offending sex, or else a eugenics project to modify its character. If sexism is a by-product of capitalism's relentless appetite for profit, then sexism would wither away in the advent of a successful socialist revolution. If the world historical defeat of women occurred at the hands of an armed patriarchal revolt, then it is time for Amazon guerrillas to start training in the Adirondacks. 1

Another anthropologist, Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo, provided an influential exploration of the origins-strategy questions in her 1974 theoretical overview of women's status. 2 Rosaldo argued that "universal sexual asymmetry" (the lower value placed on women's tasks and roles in all cultures) has been determined largely by the sexually defined split between domestic and public spheres. To oversimplify her thesis: the greater the social distance between women in the home and men in the public sphere, the greater the devaluation of women. The implications for feminist strategy become clear at the end of Rosaldo's essay in which she says that greater overlap between domestic and public spheres means higher status for women. Thus to achieve an egalitarian future, with less separation of female and male, we should strive not only for the entrance of women into the male-dominated pubFeminist Studies 5, no. 3 (Fall 1979). θ 1979 by Feminist Studies, Inc.

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HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES lie sphere, but also for men's entry into the female-dominated domestic world. Rosaldo also discusses an alternative strategy for overcoming sexual asymmetry, namely, the creation of a separate women's public sphere; but she dismisses this model in favor of integrating domestic and public spheres. Nonetheless, the alternative strategy of "women's societies and African queens" deserves further attention. 3 Where female political leaders have power over their own jurisdiction (women), they also gain leverage in tribal policy. Such a separate sexual political hierarchy would presumably offer women more status and power than the extreme male-public/femaledomestic split, but it would not require the entrance of each sex into the sphere dominated by the other sex. At certain historical periods, the creation of a public female sphere might be the only viable political strategy for women. I would like to argue through historical analysis for the alternative strategy of creating a strong, public female sphere. A number of feminist historians have recently explored the value of the separate, though not necessarily public, female sphere for enriching women's historical experience. Carroll Smith-Rosenberg's research 4 has shown how close personal relationships enhanced the private lives of women in the nineteenth century. At the same time, private "sisterhoods," Nancy Cott has suggested, may have been a precondition for the emergence of feminist consciousness. 5 In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, intimate friendships provided support systems for politically active women, as demonstrated by the work of both Blanche Cook and Nancy Sahli.6 However, the women's culture of the past—personal networks, rituals, and relationships—did not automatically constitute a political strategy. As loving and supportive as women's networks may have been they could keep women content with a status which was inferior to that of men. 6 I do not accept the argument that female networks and feminist politics were incompatible. Rather, in the following synthesis of recent scholarship in American women's history, I want to show how the women's movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries provides an example of the "women's societies and African queens" strategy that Rosaldo mentioned. The creation of a separate, public female sphere helped mobilize women and gained political leverage in the larger society. A separatist political strategy, which I refer to as "female institution building," emerged from the middle-class women's culture of the nineteenth century. Its history suggests that in our own time, as well, women's culture can be integral to feminist politics. 7

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WHAT HAPPENED TO FEMINISM?

My desire to restore historical consciousness about female separatism has both a personal and an intellectual motivation. As a feminist working within male-dominated academic institutions, I have realized that I could not survive without access to the feminist culture and politics that flourish outside of mixed institutions. How, I have wondered, could women in the past work for change within a men's world without having this alternative culture? This thought led me to the more academic questions. Perhaps they could not survive when those supports were not available; and perhaps this insight can help explain one of the most intriguing questions in American women's history: What happened to feminism after the suffrage victory in 1920? Most explanations of the decline of women's political strength focus on either inherent weaknesses in suffragist ideology or on external pressures from a pervasively sexist society. 8 But when I survey the women's movement before suffrage passed, I am struck by the hypothesis that a major strength of American feminism prior to 1920 was the separate female community that helped sustain women's participation in both social reform and political activism. Although the women's movement of the late nineteenth century contributed to the transformation of women's social roles, it did not reject a separate, unique female identity. Most feminists did not adopt the radical demands for equal status with men that originated at the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. Rather, they preferred to retain membership in a separate female sphere, one which they did not believe to be inferior to men's sphere and one in which women could be free to create their own forms of personal, social, and political relationships. The achievements of feminism at the tum of the century came less through gaining access to the male domains of politics and the professions than in the tangible form of building separate female institutions. The self-consciously female community began to disintegrate in the 1920s just as "new women" were attempting to assimilate into male-dominated institutions. At work, in social life, and in politics, I will argue, middle-class women hoped to become equals by adopting men's values and integrating into their institutions. A younger generation of women learned to smoke, drink, and value heterosexual relationships over female friendships in their personal lives. At the same time, women's political activity epitomized the process of rejecting women's culture in favor of men's promises of equality. The gradual decline of female separatism in social and political life precluded the emergence of a strong women's political block which

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES might have protected and expanded the gains made by the earlier women's movement. Thus the erosion of women's culture may help account for the decline of public feminism in the decades after 1920. Without a constituency a movement cannot survive. The old feminist leaders lost their following when a new generation opted for assimilation in the naive hope of becoming men's equals overnight. To explore this hypothesis, I shall illustrate episodes of cultural and political separatism within American feminism in three periods: its historical roots prior to 1870; the institution building of the late nineteenth century; and the aftermath of suffrage in the 1920s. HISTORICAL ROOTS OF SEPARATISM

In nineteenth-century America, commercial and industrial growth intensified the sexual division of labor, encouraging the separation of men's and women's spheres. While white males entered the public world of wage labor, business, the professions and politics, most white middle-class women remained at home where they provided the domestic, maternal, and spiritual care for their families and the nation. These women underwent intensive socialization into their roles as "true women." Combined with the restrictions on women which denied them access to the public sphere, this training gave American women an identity quite separate from men's. Women shared unique life experiences as daughters, wives, childbearers, childrearers, and moral guardians. They passed on their values and traditions to their female kin. They created, what Smith-Rosenberg has called "The Female World of Love and Ritual," a world of homosocial networks that helped these women transcend the alienation of domestic life. 9 The ideology of "true womanhood" was so deeply ingrained and so useful for preserving social stability in a time of flux that those few women who explicitly rejected its inequalities could find little support for their views. The feminists of the early women's rights movement were certainly justified in their grievances and demands for equal opportunity with men. The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments of 1848, which called for access to education, property ownership, and political rights, has inspired many feminists since then, while the ridicule and denial of these demands have inspired our rage. But the equal rights arguments of the 1850s were apparently too radical for their own times. 10 Men would not accept women's entry into the public sphere, but more importantly, most women were not interested in rejecting their deeply rooted female identities. Both men and women feared

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the demise of the female sphere and the valuable functions it performed. The feminists, however, still hoped to reduce the limitations on women within their own sphere, as well as to gain the right of choice—of autonomy—for those women who opted for public rather than private roles. Radical feminists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony recognized the importance of maintaining the virtues of the female world while eliminating discrimination against women in public. As their political analysis developed at mid-century, they drew upon the concepts of female moral superiority and sisterhood, and they affirmed the separate nature of woman. At the same time, their disillusionment with even the more enlightened men of the times reinforced the belief that women had to create their own movement to achieve independence. The bitterness that resulted when most male abolitionists refused to support women's rights in the 1860s, and when they failed to include Woman Suffrage in the Fifteenth Amendment (as well as the inclusion of the term "male citizen" in the Fourteenth Amendment) alienated many women reformers. When Frederick Douglass proclaimed in defense that "This is the Negro's Hour," the more radical women's rights advocates followed Stanton and Anthony in withdrawing from the reform coalition and creating a separatist organization. Their National Woman Suffrage Association had women members and officers; supported a broad range of reforms, including changes in marriage and divorce laws; and published the short-lived journal, The Revolution. The radical path proved difficult, however, and the National Woman Suffrage Association merged in 1890 with the more moderate American Woman Suffrage Association. Looking back on their disappointment after the Civil War, Stanton and Anthony wrote prophetically in 1881: . . . Our liberal men counselled us to silence during the war, and we were silent on our own wrongs; they counselled us to silence in Kansas and New York (in the suffrage referenda), lest we should defeat "Negro Suffrage," and threatened if we were not, we might fight the battle alone. We chose the latter, and were defeated. But standing alone we learned our power: we repudiated man's counsels forevermore; and solemnly vowed that there should never be another season of silence until woman had the same rights everywhere on this green earth, as man.. . . We would warn the young women of the coming generation against man's advice as to their best i n t e r e s t s . . . . Woman must lead the way to her own enfranchisement.... She must not put her trust in man in this transition period, since while regarded as his subject, his inferior, his slave, their interests must be antagonistic."

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FEMALE INSTITUTION BUILDING The "transition period" that Stanton and Anthony invoiced lasted from the 1870s to tHe 1920s. It was an era of separate fe,male organization and institution building, the result on the one hand, of the negative push of discrimination in the public, male sphere, and on the other hand, of the positive attraction of the female world of close, personal relationships and domestic institutional structures. These dual origins characterized, for instance, one of the largest manifestations of "social feminism" in the late nineteenth century—the women's club movement. The club movement illustrated the politicization of women's institutions as well as the limitations of their politics. The exclusion of women reporters from the New York Press Club in 1868 inspired the founding of the first women's club, Sorosis. The movement then blossomed in dozens and later hundreds of localities, until a General Federation of Women's Clubs formed in 1890. By 1910, it claimed over one million members. Although club social and literary activities at first appealed to traditional women who simply wanted to gather with friends and neighbors, by the turn of the century women's clubs had launched civic reform programs. Their activities served to politicize traditional women by forcing them to define themselves as citizens, not simply as wives and mothers. The clubs reflected the societal racism of the time, however, and the black women who founded the National Association of Colored Women in 1896 turned their attention to the social and legal problems that confronted both black women and men. 1 2 The Women's Christian Temperance Union had roots in the social feminist tradition of separate institution building. As Ellen DuBois has argued, the WCTU appealed to late nineteenth-century women because it was grounded in the private sphere—the h o m e and attempted to correct the private abuses against women, namely, intemperance and the sexual double standard. 1 3 Significantly, though, the WCTU, under Frances Willard's leadership, became a strong prosuffrage organization, committed to righting all wrongs against women, through any means, including the vote. The women's colleges that opened in these same decades further attest to the importance of separate female institutions during this "transition period." Originally conceived as training grounds of piety, purity, and domesticity, the antebellum women's seminaries, such as Mary Lyon's Mt. Holyoke and Emma Willard's Troy Female Academy, laid the groundwork for the new collegiate institutions of the postwar era. When elite male institutions refused to educate

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women, the sister colleges of the East, like their counterparts elsewhere, took on the task themselves. In the process they encouraged intimate friendships and professional networks among educated women. 14 At the same time, liberal arts and science training provided tools for women's further development, and by their examples, female teachers inspired students to use their skills creatively. As Barbara Welter noted when she first described the "Cult of True Womanhood," 15 submissiveness was always its weakest link. Like other women's institutions, the colleges could help subvert that element of the Cult by encouraging independence in their students. The most famous example of the impact of women's colleges may be Jane Addams's description of her experience at Rockford Seminary where she and other students were imbued with the mission of bringing their female values to bear on the entire society. While Addams later questioned the usefulness of her intellectual training in meeting the challenges of the real world, other women did build upon academic foundations when increasingly, as reformers, teachers, doctors, social workers, and in other capacities they left the home to enter public or quasi-public work. Between 1890 and 1920, the number of professional degrees granted to women increased 226 percent, at three times the rate of increase for men. Some of these professionals had attended separate female institutions such as the women's medical colleges in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. The new female professionals often served women and children clients, in part because of the discrimination against their encroachment on men's domains, but also because they sincerely wanted to work with the traditional objects of their concern. As their skills and roles expanded, these women would demand the right to choose for themselves where and with whom they could work. This first generation of educated professional women became supporters of the suffrage movement in the early twentieth century, calling for full citizenship for women. The process of redefining womanhood by the extension, rather than by the rejection, of the female sphere may be best illustrated by the settlement house movement. Although both men and women resided in and supported these quasi-public institutions, the high proportion of female participants and leaders (approximately three-fifths of the total), as well as the domestic structure and emphasis on service to women and children, qualify the settlements as female institutions. Mary P. Ryan has captured the link which these ventures provided between "true womanhood" and "new womanhood" in a particularly fitting metaphor: "Within the settlement houses, maternal sentiments were further sifted and leavened until they became an entirely new variety of social

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reform." 1 6 Thus did Jane Addams learn the techniques of the political world through her efforts to keep the neighborhood clean. So too did Florence Kelley of Hull House welcome appointment as chief factory inspector of Illinois, to protect women and children workers; and Julia Lathrop, another Hull House resident, entered the public sphere as director of the United States Children's Bureau; while one-time settlement resident Katherine Bement Davis moved from the superintendency of the Bedford Hills reformatory for women to become in 1914 the first female commissioner of corrections in New York City. Each of these women, and other settlement workers who moved on to professional and public office, eventually joined and often led branches of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. 17 They drew upon the networks of personal friends and professional allies that grew within separate female institutions when they waged their campaigns for social reform and for suffrage. Separate female organizations were not limited to middle-class women. Recent histories have shown that groups hoping to bridge class lines between women existed within working-class or radical movements. In both the Women's Trade Union League and the National Consumers League, middle-class reformers strived for cooperation, rather than condescension, in their relationships with working women. Although in neither organization were they entirely successful, the Women's Trade Union League did provide valuable services in organizing women workers, many of whom were significant in its leadership. The efforts of the Consumers League, led by Florence Kelley, to improve working conditions through the use of middle-class women's buying power was probably less effective, but efforts to enact protective legislation for women workers did succeed. Members of both organizations turned to suffrage as one solution to the problems workers faced. Meanwhile, both in leftist organizations and in unions, women formed separate female organizations. Feminists within the Socialist Party met in women's groups in the early twentieth century, while within the clothing trades, women workers formed separate local unions which survived until the mid-1920s. 18 As a final example of female institution building, I want to compare two actual buildings—the Woman's Pavillion at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, analyzed recently by Judith Paine, and the Woman's Building at the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago. I think that the origins and functions of each illustrate some of the changes that occurred in the women's movement in the time interval between those two celebrations. Originally, the managers of the 1876 Centennial had promised

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE "a sphere for woman's action and space for her work" within the main dislpay areas. In return women raised over $100,000 for the fair, at which point the management informed the Women's Centennial Executive Committee that there would not be any space for them in the main building. The women's response surprised the men: they raised money for a separate building, and although they hoped to find a woman architect to design it, there was no such professional at the time. From May through October, 1876, the Woman's Pavillion displayed achievements in journalism, medicine, science, art, literature, invention, teaching, business, and social work. It included a library of books by women; an office that published a newspaper for women; and an innovative kindergarten annex, the first such day school in the country. Some radical feminists, however, boycotted the building. Elizabeth Cady Stanton claimed that the pavillion "was no true exhibit of woman's art" because it did not represent the product of industrial labor or protest the inequalities of "political slavery." 19 By 1893, there was less hesitation about the need for a woman's building and somewhat less conflict about its functions. Congress authorized the creation of a Board of Lady Managers for the Columbian Commission, and the women quickly decided on a separate Woman's Building, to be designed by a woman architect chosen by nationwide competition. Contests were also held to locate the best women sculptors, painters, and other artists to complete the designs of the building. The Lady Managers also planned and provided a Children's Building that offered nursery care for over ten thousand young visitors to the fair. At this exposition, not only were women's artistic and professional achievements heralded, but industrial organizations were "especially invited to make themselves known," and women's industrial work, as well as the conditions and wages for which they worked, were displayed. Feminists found this exhibit more agreeable; Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, and Susan B. Anthony all attended, and Anthony read a paper written by Elizabeth Cady ' Stanton at one of the women's symposia. The Board of Lady Managers fought long and hard to combine their separate enterprise with participation in the rest of the fair. They demanded equal representation of women judges for the exhibitions and equal consideration of women's enterprises in all contests. 20 While they had to compromise on some goals, their efforts are noteworthy as an indication of a dual commitment to separate female institutions, but only if they had equal status within the society at large.

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THE POLITICAL LEGACY

The separate institution building of the late nineteenth century rested on a belief in women's unique identity which had roots in the private female sphere of the early nineteenth century. Increasingly, however, as its participants entered a public female world, they adopted the more radical stance of feminists such as Stanton and Anthony who had long called for an end to political discrimination against women. The generation that achieved suffrage, then, stood on the border of two worlds, each of which contributed to its ideology and politics. Suffragists argued that women needed the vote to perform their traditional tasks—to protect themselves as mothers and to exert their moral force on society. Yet they also argued for full citizenship and waged a successful, female-controlled political campaign to achieve it. The suffrage movement succeeded by appealing to a broad constituency—mothers, workers, professionals, reformers—with the vision of the common concerns of womanhood. The movement failed, however, by not extending fully the political strengths of woman bonding. For one thing, the leadership allowed some members to exploit popular racist and nativist sentiments in their prosuffrage arguments, thus excluding most black and immigrant women from a potential feminist coalition. They also failed to recognize that the bonds that held the constituency together were not "natural," but social and political. The belief that women would automatically use the vote to the advantage of their sex overlooked both the class and racial lines that separated women It underestimated the need for continued political organization so that their interests might be united and realized. Unfortunately, the rhetoric of equality that became popular among men and women (with the exception of the National Woman's Party) just after the passage of the Suffrage Amendment in 1920 subverted the women's movement by denying the need for continued feminist organization. Of course, external factors significantly affected the movement's future, including the new Freudian views of women; the growth of a consumer economy that increasingly exploited women's sexuality; and the repression of radicalism and reform in general after World War I . " But at the same time, many women, seemingly oblivious that these pressures necessitated further separate organizing, insisted on striving for integration into a male world—sexually, professionally, and politically. Examples of this integrationist approach can be found in the

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universities, the workplace, and politics. In contrast to an earlier generation, the women who participated in the New York World's Fair of 1937 had no separate building. Woman, the Fair Bulletin explained, "will not sit upon a pedestal, n o t be segregated, isolated; she will fit i n t o the life of the Exposition as she does i n t o life itself— never apart, always a p a r t . " The part in this World's Fair, however, consisted primarily of fashion, f o o d , and vanity fair. 2 2 In the universities, the success of the first generation of female academics did n o t survive past the 1920s, n o t only because of men's resistance, but, as Rosalind Rosenberg has explained, "Success isolated women f r o m their culture of origin and placed t h e m in an alien and o f t e n hostile c o m m u n i t y . " Many academics who cut off their ties t o other women "lost their old feminine s u p p o r t s b u t had no other supports to replace t h e m . " 2 3 The lesson of women's politics in the 1920s are illustrated by the life of one woman, Emily Newell Blair, w h o learned first hand the pitfalls of rejecting a separatist basis for feminism. 1 4 Blair's life exemplified the transformation of w o m e n ' s roles at the turn of the century. Educated at a w o m a n ' s college, G o u c h e r , this Missouri born, middle-class woman returned to her h o m e t o w n to help support her family until she married and created her own home. Between 1900 and 1910 she bore t w o children, supported her husband's career, and joined in local w o m e n ' s club activities. In her spare time, Blair began writing short stories f o r ladies' magaazines. Because she found the work, and particularly the income, satisfying, she became a free lance writer. At this point, the suffrage movement revived in Missouri, and Blair took over state publicity, editing the magazine Missouri Woman and doing public relations. Then, in World War I, she expanded her professional activities f u r t h e r by serving on the Women's Council of the U.S. Council of National Defense. These years of training in writing, feminist organizing, and public speaking served Blair well when suffrage passed and she entered politics. In 1920, women faced three major political choices: they could become a separate feminist political force through the National Woman's Party, which few did; they could follow the moderates of the NAWSA into the newly f o r m e d , nonpartisan League of Women Voters, concentrating on citizen education and good government; or they could join the mainstream political parties. Emily Newell Blair chose the last, and rose through the Democratic Party organization to become national vice-chairman of the party in the 1920s. Blair built her political life and her following on the belief that the vote had made women the political equals of men. Thus, the

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surest path to furthering women's goals was through participation in the party structure. Having helped to found the League of Women Voters, Blair then rejected nonpartisanship, while she urged women not to vote as women but as citizens. In a 1922 lecture on "What Women May Do with the Ballot," Blair argued that "reactions to political issues are not decided by sex but by intellect and emotion. . . ." Although she believed that lack of political experience and social training made women differ from men temporarily, she expected those differences to be eliminated after a few years of political activity. To hasten women's integration into the mainstream of party politics, Blair set up thirty "schools of democracy" to train the new voters during the early twenties, as well as over one thousand women's clubs. Her philosophy, she claimed, was one of "Boring from Within." Blair rejected the "sex conscious feminists" of the Woman's Party and those who wanted "woman cohesiveness." Although she favored the election of women, she wanted them to be chosen not as women but as politicians. "Give women time," she often repeated, and they would become the equals of men in politics. By the late 1920s, however, women had not gained acceptance as men's political equals, and Blair's views changed significantly. Once she had claimed that the parties did not discriminate against women, as shown by her own powerful position. After she retired from party office in 1928, however, Blair acknowledged that the treatment of women by the parties had deteriorated since the years immediately after suffrage passed. As soon as male politicians realized that there was no strong female voting block or political organization, they refused to appoint or elect powerful women, and a "strong masculine prejudice against women in politics" surfaced. Now they chose women for party office who seemed easiest to manage or who were the wives of male officeholders. By 1931, Blair's former optimism had turned to disillusionment. She felt herself "ineffective in politics as a feminist," a term that she began to use positively. Blair realized that women could not command political power and the respect of their male colleagues unless, like the suffrage leaders, they had a visible, vocal following. "Unfortunately for feminism," she confessed, "it was agreed to drop the sex line in politics. And it was dropped by the women." In the pages of the Woman's Journal, Blair called for a revival of feminism in the form of a new politics that would seek to put more women into office. Reversing her former stance, she claimed that women voters should back women candidates, and use a women's organization to do so. They could remain in the parties,

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but should form "a new organization of feminists devoted to the task of getting women into politics." The development of Emily Newell Blair's feminist consciousness may have been unique for her time, but it is a familiar process among educated and professional women today. Having gained access to formerly male institutions, but still committed to furthering women's struggles, today's "new women" are faced with political choices not dissimilar to the generation that achieved suffrage. The bitterness of Stanton and Anthony in their advice to the younger generation in 1881, and the strategy that Emily Newell Blair presented in 1931, may serve as lessons for the present. THE LESSONS OF SEPARATISM

The strength of female institutions in the late nineteenth century and the weaknesses of women's politics after the passage of the Suffrage Amendment suggest to me that the decline of feminism in the 1920s can be attributed in part to the devaluation of women's culture in general and of separate female institutions in particular. When women tried to assimilate into male-dominated institutions, without securing feminist social, economic, or political bases, they lost the momentum and the networks which had made the suffrage movement possible. Women gave up many of the strengths of the female sphere without gaining equally from the man's world they entered. This historical record has important implications for the women's movement today. It becomes clearer, I think, why the separate, small women's group, organized either for consciousness raising or political study and action, has been effective in building a grass-roots movement over the past ten years. The groups helped to reestablish common bonds long veiled by the retreat from women's institutions into privatized families or sexually integrated, but male-dominated, institutions. The groups encouraged the reemergence of female networks and a new women's culture which in turn have given rise to female institution building—women's centers, health collectives, political unions, even new women's buildings, like the ones in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The history of separatism also helps explain why the politics of lesbian feminism have been so important in the revival of the women's movement. Lesbian feminism, by affirming the primacy of women's relationships with each other and by providing an alternative feminist culture, forced many nonlesbians to reevaluate their relationships with men, male institutions, and male values. In the process, feminists have put to rest the myth of female dependence

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HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES on men and rediscovered the significance of woman bonding. I find it personally gratifying that the lesbian feminist concept of the woman-identified woman 2 * has historical roots in the female friendships, networks, and institutions of the nineteenth century. The historical sisterhood, it seems to me, can teach us a great deal about putting women first, whether as friends, lovers, or political allies. I find two kinds of political lessons in the history of the separatist trend. In the past, one of the limitations of separate female institutions was that they were often the only places for women to pursue professional or political activities, while men's institutions retained the power over most of the society. Today it is crucial to press for feminist presence both outside and within the bastions of male dominance,.such as politics, the universities, the professions, the unions. But it is equally important for the women within mixed institutions to create female interest groups and support systems. Otherwise, token women may be coopted into either traditionally deferential roles, or they will assimilate through identification with the powers that be. In the process, these women will lose touch with their feminist values and constituencies, as well as suffer the personal costs of tokenism. Thus, in universities we need both to strengthen our women's centers and women's studies programs and to form women's groups among faculty as well as students. In all of our workplaces we need women's caucuses to secure and enlarge our gains. And unlike much of the movement in the past, we need to undertake the enormous task of building coalitions of women's groups from all classes, races, and cultures. I argue for a continuation of separatism not because the values, culture, and politics of the two sexes are biologically, irreversibly distinct, but rather because the historical and contemporary experiences that have created a unique female culture remain both salient for and compatible with the goal of sexual equality. Our common identities and heritage as women can provide enormous personal and political strength as long as we claim the power to define what women can be and what female institutions can achieve. I argue for renewed female institution building at this point in the contemporary women's movement because I fear that many feminists—faced with the isolation of personal success or dismayed by political backlash—may turn away from the separate women's politics that have achieved most of our gains in the past decade. And I argue as well for both greater respect for women's culture among political feminists and greater political engagement on the part of cultural feminists because we now face

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

both external resistance and internal contradictions that threaten to divide our movement. The contradictions faced by contemporary feminists are those experienced by an oppressed group—in this case, women—which needs both to affirm the value of its own culture and to reject the past oppression from which that culture in part originated. 2 6 To survive as a movement we must avoid two kinds of pitfalls. In this essay, I have concentrated on the dangers of rejecting our culture through individualist integration of the kind that undermined feminism after the first wave of political and educational progress. The other pitfall is that of embracing our culture too uncritically, to the point of identifying with the sources of our own oppression. Rayna Rapp has warned that "as we excavate and legitimize women's history, social organization, and cultural forms, we must not allow our own need for models of strong female collectivities to blind us to the dialectic of tradition" 2 7 in which women are both supported and constrained. Although we must be self-critical of women's culture and strive to use female institutions to combat inequality, not to entrench it, at the same time, we must not be self-hating of that which is female as we enter a world dominated by men. Even as women retrain in the skills that men once monopolized—in trades, professions, politics—we should not forsake, but rather we should cherish b o t h the values and institutions that were once women's only resources. Even if the Equal Rights Amendment someday legally mandates equality, in the meantime, and for some time thereafter, the female world and separatist politics will still serve the interests of women.

NOTES I would like to thank Irene Diamond for inspiring me to write about history and strategy; Mary Felstiner for the perceptive comments she and members of the graduate seminar in women's studies at San Francisco State University offered; the members of the women's faculty group at Stanford University and the members of the history of sexuality study group for forcing me to refine my thinking; and both Yolaida Duran and John D'Emilio for support and criticism as I rewrote this essay. 'Gayle Rubin, "The Traffic in Women: Notes on the 'Political Economy' of Sex," in Toward an Anthropology of Women, ed. Rayna R. Reiter (New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1975), pp. 157-58. 3 Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo, "Woman, Culture, and Society: A Theoretical Overview," in Woman, Culture and Society, eds. Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Lousie Lamphere (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1974), pp. 17-42. " . . . women's status will be lowest in those societies where there is a firm differentiation between domestic and public spheres of activity and where women are isolated from one another and

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placed under a single man's authority in the home." For a reconsideration of her views, see Μ. Z. Rosaldo, "The Use and Abuse of Anthropology: Reflections on Feminism and Cross-Cultural Understanding" (forthcoming in Signs). 3 Ibid., pp. 37-38. Rosaldo lists women's trading societies, church clubs, "or even political organizations'* and cites both the Iroquois and West African societies in which "women have created fully articulated social hierarchies of their own." This strategy differs significantly from the argument that women's domestic sphere activities are a source of power. On the recent anthropological literature on domestic and public, see Rayna Rapp, "Review Essay: Anthropology," Signs 4, no. 3 (Spring 1979): 505, 508-513. 4 Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, "The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations between Women in Nineteenth-Century America," Signs 1, no. 1 (Autumn 1975): 1-29. 5 Nancy F. Cott, The Bonds of Womanhood: "Women's Sphere" in New England, 1780-1835 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977). 6 Blanche Wiesen Cook, "Female Support Networks and Political Activism: Lillian Wald, Crystal Eastman, Emma Goldman," Chrysalis, no. 3 (1977): 43-61; and Nancy Sahli, "Smashing: Women's Relationships Before the Fall," Oirysaiis, no. 8 (Summer 1979): 17-27. 7 Feminist historians need clear definitions of women's culture and women's politics to avoid such divisions between the personal and political· Women's culture can exist at both private and public levels. Women's politics, too, can be personal (intiafamilial, through friendship and love, for example) as well as public (the traditional definition of politics). The question of when women's culture and politics are feminist has yet to be fully explored. At this time, I would suggest that any female-dominated activity that places a positive value on women's social contributions, provides personal support, and is not controlled by antifeminist leadership has feminist political potentiaL This is as true for the sewing circle, voluntary civic assocation, and women's bar as for the consciousness raising group, coffeehouse, or women's center. Whether that potential is realized depends in part on historical circumstances, such as the overall political climate, the state of feminist ideology and leadership, and the strength of antifeminist forces. Women's culture can remain "prefeminist," as in the case of some nineteenth-century female reform associations that valued women's identity as moral guardians but did not criticize the status quo. When the group experience leads to insights about male domination, however, the reformers often become politicized as feminists. Women's culture can also become reactionary, for instance when women join together under the control of antifeminist leadership, as in the case of Nazi women's groups in prewar Germany, or right-wing movements in America today. The more autonomous the group, the more likely it is to foster feminist political consciousness. Cott raises some of these questions for the early nineteenth century in her conclusion to The Bonds of Womanhood On moral reformers, see Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, "Beauty, the Beast and the Militant Woman: A Case Study in Sex Roles and Social Stress in Jacksonian America," American Quarterly 23 (October 1971): 562-84;and Mary P. Ryan, "The Power of Women's Networks: A Case Study of Female Moral Reform in Antebellum America," Feminist Studies 5, no. 1 (Spring 1979): 66-85. Jo Freeman's discussion of the communications network as a precondition for the rebirth of feminism in the twentieth century is also relevant. See Freeman, The Politics of Women's Liberation (New York and London: Longman, 1975). 8 These theories are surveyed in Estelle Β. Freedman, "The New Woman: Changing Views of Women in the 1920s," Journal of American History 61 (September 1974): 372-93. 9 Smith-Rosenberg, "The Female World of Love and Ritual." On changing ideologies of womanhood, see Mary Ryan, Womanhood in America: From Colonial Times to the Present (New York: Franklin Watts, 1979); and Gerda Lerner, "The Lady and the Mill

WOMEN TOGETHER: ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

Girl: Changes in the Status of Women in the Age of Jackson," American Studies Journal 10 (Spring 1968): 5-15. l0 See Ellen DuBois, "The Radicalism of the Woman Suffrage Movement: Notes Toward the Reconstruction of Nineteenth-Century Feminism," Feminist Studies 3 (Fall 1975): 63-71. On opposition to women's rights from a "traditional" woman, see Kathryn Kish Sklar, Catherine Beecher: A Study in American Domesticity (New Haven: Yale University Press), pp. 266-67. 11 History of Woman Suffrage, reprinted in The Feminist Papers: From Adams to de Beauvoir, ei*. Alice Rossi (New York: Bantam Books, 1973), pp. 457-58. On the history of the women's rights movement, see Ellen Carol DuBois, Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women's Movement in America, 1848-1860 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1978); and Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle (New York: Atheneum, 1970). 12 William O'Neill, ed., The Woman Movement: Feminism in the United States and England (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1969), pp. 47-54; and Gerda Lerner, ed., Black Women in White America (New York: Vintage, 1972), chap. 8. 13 DuBois, "Radicalism," p. 69. 14 On personal networks and loving relationships in the women's colleges, see Judith Schwarz, "Yellow Clover: Katharine Lee Bates and Katharine Coman," Frontiers 4, no. 1 (Spring 1979); and Anna Mary Wells, Miss Marks and Miss Woolley (Boston: HoughtonMifflin, 1978). 15 Barbara Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood, 1820-1860," American Quarterly 18 (Summer 1966): 150-174. le Ryan, Womanhood in America, p. 229. >7 For biographical data on these and other reformers, see the entries in Notable American Women, 1607-1950, eds. Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971). ,8 On women in labor and radical movements, see: Nancy Schrom Dye, "Feminism or Unionism? The New York Women's Trade Union League and the Labor Movement," and Robin Miller Jacoby, "The Women's Trade Union League and American Feminism," in Feminist Studies 3, no. 1 -2 (Fall 1975): 111 -40; Allis Rosenberg Wolfe, "Women, Consumerism, and the National Consumers League in the Progressive Era, 1900-1923," Labor History 16 (Summer 1975), 378-92; Mary Jo Buhle, "Women and the Socialist Party, 1901-1914," Radical America 4, no. 2 (February 1970): 36-55;and Shema Gluck, "The Changing Nature of Women's Participation in the American Labor Movement, 1900-1940s: Case Studies from Oral History," paper presented at the Southwest Labor History Conference, Tempe, Ariz., 5 March 1977. "Judith Paine, "The Women's Pavillion of 1876," The Feminist Art Journal 4, no. 4 (Winter 1975-76): 5-12;and The Woman's Building, Chicago, 1893/The Woman's Building, Los Angeles, 1973 (Los Angeles, 1975). Bertha Honor£ Palmer, "The Growth of the Woman's Building," in Art and Handicraft in the Woman's Building of the World's Columbian Exposition, ed. Maud Howe Elliott (New York, 1893), pp. 11-12. 21 See Ryan, Womanhood in America, for an exploration of these trends. 22 The New York World's Fair Bulletin 1, no. 8 (December 1937): 20-21; the New York Oty World's Fair Information Manual, 1939, index. Amy Swerdlow kindly shared these references and quotations about the 1937 fair from her own research on women in the World's Fairs. 23 Rosalind Rosenberg, "The Academic Prism: The New View of American Women," in Women of America: A History, eds. Carol Ruth Berkin and Mary Beth Norton (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979), pp. 318-38. 24 The following account of Blair is drawn from research for a biographical essay that appeared in The Dictionary of American Biography, suppL, vol. 5 (New York:

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Charles Scribner, 1977), pp. 61-63. For examples of her writings see "What Women May Do with the Ballot" (Philadelphia, 1922); "Boring from Within," Woman Citizen 12 (July 1927): 49-50; "Why I am Discouraged About Women in Politics," Woman's Journal 6 (January 1931): 20-22. 25 Radicalesbians, "The Woman-Identified Woman," Notes from the Third Year: Women's Liberation (reprinted in Radical Feminism, ed. Anne Koedt, Ellen Levine and Anita Rapone [New York: Quadrangle, 1973] pp. 240-45); Lucia Valeska, "The Future of Female Separatism," Quest 2, no. 2 (Fall 1975): 2-16; Charlotte Bunch, "Learning from Lesbian Separatism," in Lavender Culture, eds. Karla Jay and Allen Young (New York: Jove Books, 1978), pp. 433-44. 26 A clear example of this contradiction is the contemporary gay subculture, which is both a product of the historical labeling of homosexuality as deviance and a source of both personal affirmation and political consciousness. I am grateful to the San Francisco Gay History Project study group for drawing this parallel between the conflicts in women's and gay politics. 27 Rapp, "Review Essay: Anthropology," p. 513.

Copyright Information Treudley, Mary Bosworth. "The 'Benevolent Fair': Α Study of Charitable Organization among American Women in the First Third of the Nineteenth Century." The Social Service Review 14 (1940): 509-522. "Published by The University of Chicago Press, ©1940 by the University of Chicago," Chicago, Illinois, USA. Melder, Keith. "Ladies Bountiful: Organized Women's Benevolence in Early 19thcentury America."M?w YorkHistoryA%-3 (July 1967): 231-254. ©1967 by the New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, New York, USA. Boylan, Anne M. "Women in Groups: An Analysis of Women's Benevolent Organizations in New York and Boston, 1797-1840." The Journal of American History 71:3 (December 1984): 497-523. ©Organization of American Historians, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA. Boylan, Anne M. 'Timid Girls, Venerable Widows and Dignified Matrons: Life Cycle Patterns among Organized Women in New York and Boston, 1797-1840." American Quarterly 38 (Winter 1986): 779-797. "© 1981,1978,1986,1984,1971, 1970, 1976, 1985, American Studies Association,Washington, DC, USA." Reprinted with permission of the Association and the author. Taylor, William R., and Christopher Lasch. 'Two 'Kindred Spirits': Sorority and Family in New England, 1839-1846." The New England Quarterly 36:1 (March 1963): 23-41. ©The New England Quarterly, Inc., The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Lasser, Carol S. "A 'Pleasingly Oppressive' Burden: The Transformation of Domestic Service and Female Charity in Salem, 1800-1840." Essex Institute Historical Collections 116:3 (1980): 156-175. "Reprinted from Carol S. Lasser, "A 'Pleasingly Oppressive' Burden: The Transformation of Domestic Service and Female Charity in Salem, 1800-1840." (1980) by permission of the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachuesetts," USA. Benson, Susan Porter. "Business Heads and Sympathizing Hearts: The Women of the Providence Employment Society, 1837-1858." Journal of Social History 12:2 (Winter 1978): 302-312. ©Journal of Social History, Carnegie-Mellon University Press, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. 463

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McTighe, Michael J. "'True Philanthropy* and the Limits of the Female Sphere: Poor Relief and Labor Organizations in Ante-Bellum Cleveland." Labor History 27:2 (Spring 1986): 227-256. ©1986 by the Tamiment Institute, New York, New York, USA. Dick, Kriste Lindenmeyer. "The Silent Charity: a History of the Cincinnati Maternity Society." Queen City Heritage: The Journal of The Cincinnati Historical Society 43:4 (Winter 1985): 29-33. ©The Cincinnati Historical Society, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Golomb, Deborah Grand. "The 1893 Congress of Jewish Women: Evolution or Revolution in American Jewish Women's History?" American Jewish History 70:1 (1980): 52-67. ©American Jewish Historical Society, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA. Shelton, Brenda K. "Organized Mother Love: The Buffalo Women's Educational and Industrial Union, 1885-1915." New York History 67 (April 1986): 154-176. ©New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, New York, USA. Weiner, Lynn. "'Our Sister's Keepers': The Minneapolis Woman's Christian Association and Housing for Working Women." Minnesota History 46 (Spring 1979): 189-200. "Originally published in the Spring 1979 issue of Minnesota History, copyright ©1979 by the Minnesota Historical Society; used with permission," St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. Underwood, June O. "Civilizing Kansas: Women's Organizations, 1880-1920." Kansas History 7 (Winter 1984/85): 291-306. ©Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, Kansas, USA. Wenger, Beth S. "Jewish Women of the Club: The Changing Public Role of Atlanta's Jewish Women (1870-1930)." American Jewish History 76:3 (March 1987): 311-333. ©American Jewish Historical Society, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA. Jones, Beverly W. "Mary Church Terrell and the National Association of Colored Women, 1896 to 1901." The Journal of Negro History 47 (Spring 1982): 20-33. "©1982 by Beverly W. Jones in The Journal of Negro History published by the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History," Washington, DC, USA.

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Dickson, Lynda F. 'Toward a Broader Angle of Vision in Uncovering Women's History: Black Women's Clubs Revisited." Frontiers 9:2 (1987): 62-68. ©1987 Frontiers Editorial Collective, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA. Reprinted with permission of the journal and the author. Harley, Sharon. "Beyond the Classroom: The Organizational Lives of Black Female Educators in the District of Columbia, 1890-1930." The Journal of Negro Education 51:3 (Summer 1982): 254-265. ©1982, Howard University, Washington, DC, USA. Reprinted with permission of the Journal and the author. Wolfe, Allis Rosenberg. "Women, Consumerism, and the National Consumers' League in the Progressive Era, 1900-1923." Labor History 16:3 (Summer 1975): 378-392. ©1975 by the Tamiment Institute, New York, New Yoik, USA. Forderhase, Nancy. "'Limited Only by Earth and Sky': The Louisville Woman's Club and Progressive Reform, 1900-1910." Filson Club Historical Quarterly 59:3 (1985): 327-343. ©Filson Club, Inc., Louisville, Kentucky, USA. Brady, Marilyn Dell. "Kansas Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, 1900-1930." Kansas History 9 (Spring 1986): 19-30. ©Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, Kansas, USA. Reitano, Joanne. "Working Girls Unite." American Quarterly 36:1 (Spring 1984): 112-134 ."©1981,1978, 1986, 1984,1971, 1970, 1976, 1985, American Studies Association, Washington, D.C., USA." Reprinted with permission of the Association and the author. Thatcher, Linda, and John R. Sillito. '"Sisterhood and Sociability': The Utah Women's Press Club, 1891-1928." Utah Historical Quarterly 53:2 (Spring 1985): 144-156. ©Copyright 1985 Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Freedman, Estelle. "Separatism as Strategy: Female Institution Building and American Feminism, 1870-1930." Feminist Studies 5:3 (Fall 1979): 512-529. ©1979 by Feminist Studies, Inc., Women's Studies Program, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA.

Index AAUW. See American Association of University Women AAW. See Association for the Advancement of Women Abolitionists English evangelicals and, 18 and female anti-slavery societies, 74 and feminism, 30,42,67 and Jews, 181 n.5 Kansas, 1880-1920,249-50 male support of women's anti-slavery work, 32-33 moral reformers distinguished from, 44,67 Philadelphia Quakers, 20 and religion, 54 Rhode Island, 1837-1858,128-29 and rights of women, 449 social class of women abolitionists, 55,67 traditions of, 58 and unions, 52 Adams, Maude, 437 Addams, Jane and benevolent movement, 35 Democracy and Social Ethics, 265 and female temperament, 280 Hull House, 313,319 η. 31 Kansas universities, studies of works of, 272 public opinion of, 282 Rockford Seminary experiences, 451-52 Adult education, Washington, D.C., 1906,347-48 Advocate of Moral Reform, 77 African-American women beneficiaries of charity, Cincinnati (Ohio), 1880's, 167 club movement, 307-337. See also specific clubs Denver (Colorado), 322-31 Kansas Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, 1900-1930,382-408 Washington, D.C., 1890-1930,338-49 discrimination in boarding houses, Minneapolis, 234 educators, Washington, D.C., 1890-1930,338-49

467

468

INDEX

employment, late nineteenth century, 314 illegitimacy birth rate, blame for, 314 illiteracy, 315 middle class, reform by, 308 moral concerns of, 310,326-27 mothers' clubs, 315 National Association of Colored Women, 1896-1901, 307-320 networking by, 312 role of, 333 self-help organizations of, 307, 309,335 self-image of, 336 teachers, late nineteenth century, 314 white women, attitude towards, 392 African-Americans. See also African-American women anti-slavery societies, as members of, 1797-1840,67 assistance for, Minneapolis (Minnesota), postbellum period, 227 benevolent societies, support by, 1797-1840,55 children, Providence (Rhode Island), 1837-1858, 128 elite, 308,386 Florida, 1920's and 1930's, 330 musical ability of, 316 newspapers of, 342,384-85. See also Plain Dealer (Topeka, Kansas) Virginia, 332-33 woman suffrage, 449 World War I, war effort, 328 Age benevolence society membership, 1797-1840,67-68,71-72 moral reform society membership, 1797-1840,74-75 Aged homes for, Illinois, late nineteenth century, 316 in Kansas, 1880-1920, 264, 267 in Providence (Rhode Island), 1837-1858,128 in Salem (North Carolina), 1800-1840, 105,123 Agricultural depression (Kansas), 1920's, 279 Aiken, The Reverend Samuel, 152-54 Alcoholics charitable organizations aiding, Buffalo (New York), 1885-1915,197 Home Protection (Kansas), 1880-1920, 280 rights of women to refuse sexual intercourse with alcoholic husbands, 260 Alexander, Rebecca, 290 n. 18,300 Alliance Employment Bureau, 422,424 Almshouses, 121

INDEX

American, Sadie, 189-92 American Anti-Slavery Society, 32 American Association of University Women, 215,254, 363 American Bible Society, 22,51 The American Israelite, 178 American Woman's Suffrage Association, 189,366 Antebellum period African-American women's clubs during, 382-83 Cleveland (Ohio), nineteenth century, 135-164 Louisville (Kentucky), 365 narrowing of women's roles, 368-69 New England, 1800-1840, 106 Providence (Rhode Island), 1837-1838,124 and working women. New England mills, 220 n.5 Anthony, Susan B. and Adams, F. G„ 274 associates of, 181,198 and 1893 World Columbian Exposition (Chicago), 453 and female institution building, 450 as radical, 449,454 and Townsend, Harriet, 201,210 Anti-lynching legislation, 328, 388, 394 Anti-Semitism Atlanta, 1870-1930,296-97,306 woman suffrage movement, 181 Women's Bible, 182 Anti-Slavery Society, 309 Anti-tea leagues, 18 Antioch College, 308 Art appreciation, 369-70 Art Institute of Chicago, 185 Arthur, T. S., 120 Associated Charities Cinncinati (Ohio), 171 Lawrence (Kansas), 264 Minneapolis (Minnesota), 227 Association for the Advancement of Women, 198,214,368 Association for the Relief of Aged and Destitute Women in Salem (North Carolina), 123 Association for the Relief of Respectable, Aged, Indigent Females, 4 6 , 5 3 Association of Collegiate Alumni. See American Association of University Women

469

470

INDEX

Association of Colored Women's Clubs (Colorado), 324 Association of Working Girls Clubs (New York City), 410,416 Asylum House, Salem Female Charitable Society (North Carolina), 105,118 Atlanta Free Kindergarten, 293 Jewish women's clubs, 1870-1930, 284-306. See also specific club Atlanta Constitution, 297 Austin, Mary, 260 Avery, Susan Look, 365, 371-72 Babies' Milk Fund Association (Cincinnati, Ohio), 172-75, 177 (photograph) Badger, Harriet, 440 Ball, Lucy, 55,77 Ball, Martha, 55,77 Baltimore (Maryland) charitable organizations, 10, 23,45 Jewish philanthropic organizations, 179 Baptist Church Cleveland (Ohio), early nineteenth century, 139, 157 missionaries, 21,44 voluntary organizations, 17 Washington, D.C., 308, 347 Barr, Elizabeth N., 266, 274 Barton, Clara, 35 Bauer, Stella, 299-300,303 Bedford Hills reformatory for women, 452 Bedford (New York), charitable organizations, 24-25 Beecher, Catharine, 269 Beiden, Silas, 153 Bellamy, Edward, 424 Belle Phoebe League (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 309 Benevolence societies. See also Charitable organizations ages of members, 1797-1840,67-68,71-72 family roles of members, 67, 71 in early nineteenth century America, 17-40 life cycle patterns among organized women, 1797-1840,66-84 list of organizations, 1797-1840, 82-84 marital status of members, 1797-1840,68-73 Minneapolis (Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 227 New York and Boston, 1797-1840,41-65 officers of, 1797-1840,68-70 social roles of members, 71

INDEX

471

Bethel Literary and Historical Association, 346 Bethesda Society, 20 Bethune, Joanna Graham, 46,55,76 Bethune, Mary McLeod, 318 n. 20, 394,400,401,403 Bible distribution Boston, 51 life cycle stage of society members, 73 New York, 41,44-46 reformation of behavior as goal, 30 rural areas and small towns, 21-22 support by women, 27, 33, 36 Bickerdyke, Mother, 265, 267 Blacks. See African-Americans Blackwell, Antoinette Brown, 88,453 Blair, Emily Newell, 455-57 BMFA. See Babies' Milk Fund Association (Cincinnati, Ohio) B'nai B'rith, 180 Boarders and boarding clubs for single women, Minneapolis (Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 217-46,218 (photograph). See also specific club Book Lovers, Washington, D.C., 347 Bookkeeping education, 204 Boston. See also Boston Female Asylum Association of Working Girls' societies, 418 charitable organizations, 8, 10-12, 23,45 Children's Friend Society, 58,70,71, 73 domestic missionaries in, 30 Fatherless and Widows Society, 70 Female Anti-Slavery Society, 55,75,77 Female Auxiliary Bible Society, 73 Female Moral Reform Society, 74,75 Female Society for Missionary Purposes, 21,44,49 Female Society for the Promotion of Christianity Among the Jews, 46,68,73 Infant School Society, 71-73 life cycle patterns among organized women, 1797-1840,66-84 missionaries in, 41, 42,46, 50-51,66 moral reform, 31,74-77,82-84 Society for the Care of Girls, 46 n.8 voluntary relief organizations, 25 women's benevolent organizations, 1797-1840,41-65,66-84 Women's Educational and Industrial Union, 198

472

INDEX

Boston Female Asylum autonomy of, 50 fiction, 119-20 foundation of, 4 leadership of, 5,55,71,73 moral mother image of women, 47 permanence of, 41 subscribers' list, dwindling of, 53 training provided by, 67 Boston Transcript, 312 The Bostonians (James), 94-95 Bouldin, Susie V„ 396, 399-400,402-403 Bourne, Randolph, 87 Bowser, Rosa D., 341 Brace, Charles Loring, 414 The Branch (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 228-29, 238 British Trade Board Act of 1909, 358 Brown, Charlotte Hawkins, 313, 318 n. 20 Brown, Hallie Queen Kansas, visit to, 394, 398-99 Palmer Memorial Institute, 319 n. 31 scholarship fund of, 403 Wilberforce University, 318 n. 20 and woman suffrage movement, 389 Brown University, 129 Bruce, Blanche K., 344, 390 Bruce, Josephine B., 342 n.10, 344 Bruce, Philip Α., 332-33 Buckner, Mrs. W. W., 387 (photograph) BufTalo, University of, Townsend Hall, 196 (photograph), 198, 212 (photograph), 213 Buffalo Female Academy, 197 BufTalo Women's Educational and Industrial Union, 1885-1915,194-216 Civil Club, 211 Domestic Training Committee, 205 Employment Committee, 203,208 Finance Committee, 198,200,203 Library Committee, 214 Literary and Musical Entertainments Committee, 199 Philanthropic Committee, 210 Physical Culture Committee, 207,215 Protection Committee, 209

INDEX

Bureau of Labor Minneapolis (Minnesota), 221, 231 United States, 412 Burroughs, Nannie Helen, 318 η. 20, 342, 347 Business skills education (BufTalo, New York), 1885-1915, 204 Business Women's Club Buffalo (New York), 209, 215 Louisville (Kentucky), 375 Canning industry, 351 η..2 Cannon, Annie Wells, 434 Capper, Senator Arthur, 275 (photograph), 396 Carey, Matthew, 11, 14-16 Carnation Art Club (Denver, Colorado), 324 Carry A. Nation Home, 267 Case, Eliphalet, 85 n.2, 89,90 n.9, 99, 103 Case, Luella J . B., 85-86,89-103 Catholics beneficiaries of charity, Cincinnati (Ohio), 1880's, 167-68 Cleveland (Ohio), nineteenth century, 161 New York City, 1797-1840,56 working girls clubs, membership, 419 Catt, Carrie Chapman, 182,215 Cent-a-week societies, 21-22,263 Centennial Exposition, 1876,452-53 Chalkley, Genevieve Howland, 265, 268, 278 Chapin, The Reverend Augusta, 186 Chapman, Maria Weston, 55,77 Charitable organizations. See also Benevolence societies; specific organization auxiliary charitable organizations, 51-53 committees of gentlemen, 51 n.16 Salem (Massachusetts), 1800-1840,104-123 social role of women and, 137 women's benevolence societies, early nineteenth century, 17-40,316 Charity Organization Society (BufTalo, New York), 196,210 Charity schools. See Education Charity sewing. See Sewing Cheyney Training School for Teachers (Pennsylvania), 307 Chicago Women's Club, 183-84 Child, Lydia Maria, 36

474

INDEX

Child labor laws Atlanta, 1870-1930, 292-93 Kansas, 1880-1920, 280 Louisville (Kentucky), 1900-1910, 378-80 Massachusetts, 1900-1923, 358 Supreme Court overturning, 363 Children. See also Child labor laws; Girls; Orphans charitable organizations, assistance by, 8-10, 20, 34, 171 clinics for, Cincinnati (Ohio), 1880's, 172 custody and care of, equal rights of mothers, 2 0 1 , 2 1 0 as indentured servants. New England, 1800-1840, 110-19 Louisville (Kentucky), 1900-1910, 377 and poverty (New England), 1800-1840, 109-110 truancy laws (Kansas), 1880-1920, 280 Children's Aid Society, 414 Childs, Beatrice, 392-96,399^100,402 Chiles, Nick, 384-85,389, 393 (photograph) C h u r c h membership, voluntary organization membership and, 140 (table), 143 (table), 153-55, 162-64 Cincinnati General Hospital, 173, 175 Cincinnati (Ohio) Maternity Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 165-77 poverty, 1800's, 166, 169,173 (photograph) Training School for Nurses, 172 women's benevolent movement, early nineteenth century, 26 Citizens Union (Cleveland, Ohio), 153 City Missionary School of Boston, 53 Civil W a r sanitary commissions, 250,251 veterans, 253,267 Clara D o e r r Club (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 246 Clark, Lucy Α., 432,434, 439 (photograph), 441,443 Class differences, nineteenth century, 54-55, 57 Cleanliness, teaching habits to poor, 169. See also Sanitary conditions Clergy, women assistance of, 26-27, 35 Clerical workers, 422 Cleveland (Ohio) City Temperance Society, 153, 155 labor organizations, 135,139,142-47,149-59, 161,163 relief organizations, 135-44, 149-54,156-59,161-63 women's benevolent movement, early nineteenth century, 26

INDEX

Clinics Cincinnati (Ohio), 1800's, 177 (photograph) for children, 172 prenatal clinics, 174 Clothing for women, 1885-1915, 207-208

The Club Member, 266, 268, 274 Cohen, Nina Morais, 186

Colored American, 312 Colored Ladies Legal Rights Association (Denver, Colorado), 322-24 Colored Republican Club (Denver, Colorado), 323 Colored Social Settlement of the District of Columbia, 346 Colored Women's League formation of, 309 leadership of, 310 Washington, D.C., 1890-1930, 345 Colored Women's Republican Club (Denver, Colorado), 324 Colored Young Women's Christian Association (Washington, D.C.), 346-47

Commercial, 213 Commercial Club (Louisville, Kentucky), 374, 377 Common law marriage, early nineteenth century, 46 property laws, 70 Community Chest, 171 Compensation. See Wages Concord (New Hampshire), charitable organizations, early nineteenth century, 24 Congregation Mikveh Israel (Philadelphia), 179 Congress of Jewish Women. See Jewish Women's Congress Congress of Women, World Congress Auxiliary, 1893,185-86 Consent, age of, 278,372 Consumerism, 350-64. See also Consumers' Leagues Consumers' Leagues early nineteenth century, 18 Kansas, 273 Kentucky, 375, 379 Massachusetts, 357-58, 361 New York City, 351 New York State, 355-56, 358 Contraception, legalization of, 215 Cook, Coralie Franklin, 344, 346 Cook, Helen Α., 309,345

475

476

INDEX

Cooking, schools for, 14-15, 204, 206 Coolidge, Calvin, 363 Cooper, Dr. Anna Julia, 346, 347, 348 Coppin, Frances Jackson, 307 Cornell University, 353 Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), 371, 377 Couzins, Phoebe, 442 Crocheron, Augusta Joyce, 438 (photograph), 439 The Children's Book, 437 (photograph) Croly, Jane Cunningham, 367, 368,433 Crubine, Samuel J., 272 Cult of True Womanhood African-American women, 308,406 and Evangelical Protestantism, 135-37,150,158-61 and submissiveness, 351,451 Cushing, Henry, 129 CWL. See Colored Women's League CYWCA. See Colored Young Women's Christian Association Daily News (Chicago), 313 The Daily True Democrat, 148-50,153 DAR. See Daughters of the American Revolution Daughters of the American Revolution Atlanta, 1870-1930,297 blacklists, 363 Kansas, 1880-1920, 254, 262, 264, 266, 279 Davis, Alice Strange, 339 Davis, Katherine Bement, 452 Davis, Nevada V., 436,440 De Lama, Agnes, 359-60 Decker, Sarah Piatt, 252 Declaration of Independence, 86 Denver (Colorado), African-American women's clubs, 322-31 Department of Woman's Progress (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 186 Depression and recessions African-American women, 401-402 decline of boarding club movement, 239 Kansas, agricultural depression, 279 Diaz, Abby Morton, 198,202 Disaster relief Cincinnati (Ohio), 1880's, 166

INDEX

477

Kansas 1880-1920, 264 1900-1930, 390 Discrimination. See also Education, discrimination in; Racial discrimination; Sex discrimination against poor, 8 and property law, early 1797-1840,49 District of Columbia. See Washington, D.C. Dix, Dorothea, 35 Dodge, Grace Hoadley, 414,420,426-28,430 Domestic feminism, 369, 378 Domestic missionary program, 21, 30 Domestic service African-American women, 332 families employing servants, Providence (Rhode Island), 1850-1855, 132 n.14 (table) in Minneapolis (Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 221 and Salem Female Charitable Society, 104-123 training for, Buffalo (New York), 1885-1915,205-206 Domesticity. See also Cult of True Womanhood ideal of breaking loose from, 249 and industrial era, 351 single working women and lodging, 217,220,225 socialization into, 448 role of wives and mothers, view of Harriet Townsend, 194, 204-205,212-13 Dominick, Margaret E., 70 Dorcas Society. See Martha Washington and Dorcas Society Double standard, 450 Douglass, Frederick, 333,449 Dressmakers, 221 Drought relief (Kansas, 1880-1920), 264 DuBois, W. Ε. B., 312,329 Dun & Bradstreet, 146 Dunwoody, Mr. and Mrs. William H., 233 (photograph) Eastern Star. See Order of the Eastern Star Economic independence of women, 203 Edgarton, Sarah B., 85-86,89-103 Education. See also Education, discrimination in; Education for women; Educational reform charitable proceeds for, 25

478

INDEX

charity schools, early nineteenth century, 6, 13-14, 23-24 day schools, early nineteenth century, 11 public (Kansas), 1880-1920,269-71 Education, discrimination in, 353 Education for women cooking, early nineteenth century, 14-15 demand for female education, 87 home economics, early nineteenth century, 14 and houses of industry, 10 importance of, Townsend views on, 203 and Louisville Women's Club, 1900-1910, 375 and NACW scholarship drive, 398 nursing, Cincinnati (Ohio), 1880's, 172 sewing Buffalo (New York), 1885-1915, 204 Cincinnati (Ohio), 1920, 174 early nineteenth century, 14 Providence (Rhode Island), 1837-1858, 130 traditional female skills, working girls' clubs, 421 vocational training Buffalo (New York), 1885-1915, 204 New York City, late nineteenth century, 422 Providence (Rhode Island), 1837-1858, 124 women's boarding houses, Minneapolis (Minnesota), 236 Educational reform Buffalo (New York), 1885-1915, 206-207 Louisville (Kentucky), 1900-1910, 375, 377-78 Elite African-Americans Kansas, 1880's and 1890's, 386 Tennessee, 308 Boston, early nineteenth century, 5 class biases of, 315 Cleveland (Ohio), nineteenth century, 135, 139,161 Louisville (Kentucky), 1900-1910,377 Providence (Rhode Island), 1837-1858,126,129 and social reform, 161 n.45 sponsors of working girls clubs, 416-18,420,422,424,427 study clubs (Kansas), 1880-1920,259,262, 264 working-class women, opinion of, 414-15 Emancipation Proclamation, 308 Employment, women. See Wage-eaming women

INDEX

479

Employment discrimination, Washington, D.C., 1890-1930, 338-39 Employment societies marital status of members, 126 Providence (Rhode Island). 1837-1858, 124-34 and single women, 126 Endeavor Club (New York City), 417 Episcopal Church Cincinnati (Ohio), 165-77 Cleveland (Ohio), 155 Equal Rights, 362 Equal Rights Amendment, 362 Equal Suffrage Association (Kansas), 253,263 Essex Institute, 121 n.40 Evangelical Protestantism, 135-37, 151-52, 158-61 Evangelical revival England, 18, 20 United States, 35 Exploitation of women and consumer economy, 454 and seamstresses, 144 n.9 and wages, 48,50,209-210 Express (Buffalo), 197, 201, 214 Factory workers, women, late nineteenth century, 412-14,419,422 Families. See also Kin groups East London, 130 elite, Providence (Rhode Island), 1837-1858,126 Providence employment agency members, 1837-1858,127-28,130 role of benevolence societies, membership in, 1797-1840, 67, 71 moral reform societies, membership in, 1797-1840,75-77 transformation of, 1839-1846, 95 Family and Children's Service of Minneapolis (Minnesota), 227 Far and Near, 429 Fatherless and Widows' Society (Boston), 48 Federation of Afro-American Women, 333-34 Federation of Jewish Charities (Atlanta), 290-92,304 Federation of Women's Art Clubs (Kansas), 389 Female Association for the Relief of the Sick Poor, and for the Education of Such Female Children as Do Not Belong To or Are Not Provided For by Any Religious Society, 6

480

INDEX

The Female Association of Philadelphia for the Relief of Women and Children in Reduced Circumstances, 4 , 7 Female Auxiliary Tract Society, 77 Female Benevolent Society of the City of New York, 45,56, 57 n.27 Female Bible Society of Boston and Its Vicinity, 4 6 , 5 1 , 5 2 , 7 1 Female Cent Society, 70 Female Charitable Society Bedford (New York), 24-25 Concord (New Hampshire), 24 Salem (Massachusetts). See Salem Female Charitable Society Female Domestic Missionary Society for the Poor of the City of New York, 21 Female Hebrew Benevolent Aid Society (Philadelphia), 178-79 Female Hospitable Society (Philadelphia), 11 n.17,15, 24 Female Humane Association (Baltimore, Maryland), 23 Female Humane Society (Baltimore, Maryland), 4 Female Missionary Societies (New York and Boston), 50,66-67 Female Missionary Society for the Poor of New York and Its Vicinity, 50 Female Missionary Society of the Western District, 22 Female Mite Society, 21 Female moral reform. See Moral reform Female Protective Union, 144-47,149-59 church membership, 143 (table) Cooperative Store, 149, 159 formation of, 135 obstacles to, 161 officers, 139, 142 (table), 163 Female Reform Society, 139,141 n.8 Female Society for Missionary Purposes, 70 Female Society of Philadelphia for the Relief and Employment of the Poor, 3 Feminism. See also Woman suffrage movement abolition and, 30, 42 consciousness, emerging of, 446 family role and, 1797-1840, 76 female institution building, 1870-1930,445-62 in Europe, 87 Jews and, 181 n.5 lesbian feminism, 457 literature, 89 radicalism, 202 and religion, early nineteenth century, 136-37 social feminism, 450 Ferguson, Dr. Ellen Brooke, 442

INDEX

Fifteenth Amendment, 449 The Filson Club, 376 (photograph) Fines, Marie, 396, 399-400,402^03 Finney, Charles, 56 First Baptist Church Sewing Society, 157 First Presbyterian Church (Cleveland, Ohio), 152-53 Flood relief, 166, 390 Fort Dodge Soldiers Home, 267 Fourteenth Amendment, 449 Fox, Ruth May, 432,434,438-41 Fragment Society (Boston) age of members, 71 establishment of, 24 founding of, 77 leadership of, 46 length of membership, 73 single women as members, 68, 70 Frank, Leo, 296-97 Franklin Society (Providence, Rhode Island), 129 Free Kindergarten Association (Buffalo, New York), 207 Free Soil Party, 141 n.8 Freedmen's Hospital, 338,339 n.2 Frelinghuysen University of Employed Colored Persons, 347-48 French Revolution, 20 Fresh Air Farm (Cincinnati, Ohio), 166 Friendly Circle (Philadelphia), 3, 10 Friends in Council (Kansas) charitable contributions by, 264 formation of, 253 hospital, effort to establish, 268 Lawrence High School, investigation of, 271 library, effort to secure, 267 poverty, studies on, 265 Friendship. See also Network analysis Case, Luella and Edgarton, Sarah, 85-105 in Kansas, 1880-1920,259-60 and Providence Employment Society networks, 125, 127-30, 133 n.20 Fundraising skills, 42,46 Garrison, William Lloyd, 32 Gates, Susa Young, 432,434,437,440,443 Gay, Eva. See Valesh, Eva McDonald

481

482

INDEX

Gender. See also other entries beginning with Gender, other entries beginning with Sex alliances based on, failure of voluntary groups, 133 expectations, 150 Gender position, 130 Gender roles. See also Domesticity; Jewish women African-American women, 333 antebellum period, 369 Cult of True Womanhood, 135-37, 150,158-61 Kansas, 1880-1920, 248, 249 purity in the home concept, 289 social role, 1797-1840,48 General Committee on Religious Parliament, 187 General Federation of Women's Clubs formation of, 189, 310, 367, 368,430,450 Kentucky's affiliation with, 372-73 members of, 274 officers of, 184 public life, impact of women on, 66 racial discrimination within, 311, 391 writings on, 252 Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs child labor laws, 293 formation of, 289 interaction between Jewish and Gentile women, 290,295,296 and National Council of Jewish Women, 292,296-97 participation in, benefits of, 295,306 projects of, 292 and woman suffrage movement, 301-302 World War 1,298 Georgia SufTrage Association, 301-302 German Protestant Order of Deaconesses, 169 GFOWC. See Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs GFWC. See General Federation of Women's Clubs Gilman, Caroline, 119-20 Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 203,282 Girls aid for, Salem Female Charitable Society, 104-105 charitable assistance to, early nineteenth century, 23-24 consent, age of, 278,372 homes for, 326-27,398 indentured servants (New England), 1800-1840,110-19

INDEX

483

Godey's Lady Book, 13 Gold rush (California), 12 Goldman, Emma, 180,215 Goucher College, 455 Graffenreid, Clare de, 418,424 Graham, Isabella Marshall career of, 46 day schools, opening of, 11 family of, 76 opinions of, 7 Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children (New York), 4, 44, 55 Grand Army of the Republic, 253 The Grand Lodge of the United Order of True Sisters, 180 Gratz, Rebecca, 178-79 Gray, Mrs. Arthur S., 385 (photograph) Great Awakening, 20 Great Northern Railroad Depot (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 232,235 (photograph) Greenebaum, Hannah. See Solomon, Hannah G. Grimke, Charlotte Forten, 344-45 Grimke, Sarah, 48,76 Grimke, The Reverend Francis J., 345 Haas, Beatrice, 304-305 Hadassah, 179 Haldeman, Alice, 268 Hale, Sarah Josepha and Seamen's Aid Society, 45,48, 55 wage policy, early nineteenth century, 13-16 and work relief, 11 writings, 86,91-92 n. 14 Halleck, Annie, 375,379 Hamilton, Tullia Brown, 312,402,403 n.41,405 Hampton, Dr. Nellie B., 168 Harding, Warren G., 394 Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins, 307 Harper's Woman's Club (Jefferson City, Missouri), 309 Harriet Beecher Stowe Mother's Club, 347 Harris, Janet Simon, 298 Harris, Josiah Α., 141 n.9 Harvard University, 362

484

INDEX

Hays, Agnes D., 253 Hebrew Benevolent Congregation (Atlanta), 285-88, 292-94, 300 Sisterhood, 294-95, 298-304 Hebrew Ladies' Benevolent Society (Atlanta), 285-86, 288 Hebrew Orphans Home (Atlanta), 286 Henrotin, Ellen, 184, 186, 187 Hill, Patty, 375, 376 (photograph) Hirsch, Dr. Emil, 184-85 Home as place for women, 280, 289, 303-305 Home economics courses. See also specific subject Buffalo (New York), 1885-1915, 205 early nineteenth century, 14 Washington, D.C., 1909, 347 Home for Aged Women (Providence, Rhode Island), 128 Home for Friendless Females (Providence, Rhode Island), 128 Home for Friendless Girls (Washington, D.C.), 347 Home Life Company of New York, 422 Home Protection, 280 Home visits, Maternity Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Cincinnati, 166, 168, 172, 173 (photograph), 175 Homes for women African-American (Denver, Colorado), 326-27 foraged, 128 girls' homes, 326-27, 347, 398 Magdalen Homes, Minneapolis (Minnesota), 228 prostitutes, rescue homes for, 228, 267 Women's Relief Corps (Kansas), 267 Hours of labor. See Labor laws Housework. See also Domesticity labor force as alternative to, 183 Housing reform (Louisville, Kentucky), 1900-1910,378 for working women Minneapolis (Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 217-46, 218 (photograph) New York City, 1856,226 Philadelphia, 1849,226 Howard University, 338, 339, 348 Howe, Julia Ward, 186,198,201,453 Howes, Edith, 362,418 Hull House, 313, 319 n. 31,423,452 Humane Impartial Society, 15

INDEX

Humane Society, 11 Hurston, Zora Neale, 330 Hyman, Joseph, 292 ILGWU. See International Ladies Garment Workers Union Dlinois Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, 316 Illiteracy, 315 Illiteracy Board (Atlanta), 304 Immigrants Atlanta, 1870-1930 Eastern European Jews, 285, 290, 296 Russian Jews, 286 Buffalo (New York), 1885-1915, 207 Kansas, 1880-1920,265-66 Minnesota, before 1890,220 New Jersey, 1920, 359-60 Indentured servants (New England), 1800-1840, 110-19 Independent Christian Society, 102 Independent Order of True Sisters, 179-80 Indians. See Native Americans Industrial reform (Kansas), 1880-1920, 265, 278 Industrial Welfare commission, 278 Industrialization consumerism and, 350 gender differences and, 135 poverty, as cause of, 166 Influenza, 174 Ingram, Frances, 379 Institute of Colored Youth (Philadelphia), 307 Institution building, 1870-1930,445-62 Insurance for working-class women, late nineteenth century, 422 International Council of Women, 182 International Ladies Garment Workers Union, 360-61 Jack, James W., 309-310 Jakeman, Ellen Lee, 439-40 James, Henry, 94-95 Jane Club, 423 Janette Merrill Park (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 237 Jewish Educational Alliance (Atlanta), 290-92,304 Jewish Grandmother's Club (Atlanta), 286 Jewish Ladies Sewing Society of Chicago, 184

485

486

INDEX

Jewish men, exclusion of women from activities, 187 Jewish women Baltimore (Maryland), 179 beneficiaries of charity, Cincinnati (Ohio), 1880's, 167-68,173 clubs, Atlanta, 1870-1830, 284-86 Eastern European immigrants, Atlanta, 1870-1930,295 Gentile women, interaction with, 290, 296 German-Jews Atlanta, 1870-1930,285,287,295-96,302,305-306 New York City, 179-82 Minneapolis (Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 234 organizations, 178-93 Philadelphia, 178-79 role of homemaker, 303-305 image in community, 294 late nineteenth century, 178, 189-92 self-concept, 288,300, 303 The South, 305 working girls clubs, membership, 419 Jewish Women's Congress, 1893, 178, 179, 185, 187-93 Jews. See also Jewish men; Jewish women; Jewish Women's Congress Boston, 1797-1840,46,68, 73 Chicago Jewish Community, 185 Christians, commonality with, 287 Cleveland (Ohio), nineteenth century, 161 community life, 284, 286,294-95,306 Eastern European immigrants, 182 Atlanta, 1870-1930,285,290,296-97 German-Jews, Atlanta, 1870-1930,290,296 New York City, 1797-1840, 56 Reform Judaism, 180, 188,285 Russian immigrants, 286 The South, 285, 286 World War I, war effort, 297-98 Jim Crow, 307 Johnston, Lucy Browne, 277 (photograph) and African-American women, 392 correctional homes, inspections of, 268,276,278 woman suffrage movement, 279 n.49 Jones-Harrison Home for the Aged, Cedar Lake (Minnesota), 227 Journalism, women. See Utah Women's Press Club

INDEX

487

Juvenile court system (Louisville, Kentucky), 377 Kansas. See also Friends in Council (Kansas); Kansas Equal Suffrage Association; PEO (women's club, Kansas); Women's Relief Corps (Kansas) Academy of Science, 274 African-American women's clubs, 382-408 Aid to Dependent Children, 277 Altrusa (women's club), 254 Association of Colored Women and Girls, 254 Association of Colored Women's Clubs, 395 (photograph), 397 (photograph) Atlantean Club, 276 Boys Industrial School, 268 Business and Professional Women's Club, 254 Cawker City Public Library, 255 (photograph) Child Labor Organization, 278 Christian Service League, 268 Conference of Charities and Correction, 265 Congress of Parents and Teachers, 254 Council of Women, 268-69 Crittenton Home, 268 Emporia (women's club), 256,268 Enterprise (women's club), 256,278 Farm Bureau's Home Demonstration Units, 254 Farmers' Alliances, 273 Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, 1900-1930,382-408 Federation of Women's Clubs, 259,265 Florence Crittenton Homes for Colored Girls (Topeka), 398 Girls Industrial School at Beloit, 267, 268,274 Good Government Club, 268,276 The Grange (women's club), 254,274 Home for Friendless Women in Leavenworth, 266 Homes for indigent or helpless, 266-68 Juniors, 399 Ladies' Aid of Elmdale, 261 (photograph) Lyon County Association of Rural Club Women, 264 Ne Plus Ultra Club (Topeka), 401 New Hope Baptist Church (Wichita), 404 (photograph) Parsons City Federation, 264 Parsons (women's club), 256 Sabetha (women's club), 256 Social Science Club, 258,267,276,391

488

INDEX

State Federation of Women's Clubs, 258 η. 14 State Temperance Union, 274 Sterling (women's club), 256 Topeka Federation of Women's Clubs, 268 Topeka Oak Leaf Club, 382 Vocational School (Topeka), 396 Wetmore (women's club), 256 Women's Hesperian Literary Club, 255 (photograph) women's organizations, 1880-1920, 247-83 Women's Press Association, 258 Women's Social Science Association, 274 Kansas Equal Suffrage Association founding of, 256-58, 259 and law enforcement, 278 officers of, 268, 274 and WCTU, 273, 276 Kansas-Nebraska Act, 250 Kate Dunwoody Hall, 233 (photograph), 243 (photograph) Katherine Boothe Home, 176 Kaufman, Rhoda, 304 Kelley, Florence, 279 n.49, 351-54, 362,452 Kentucky Child Labor Association, 378-79 Children's Home Association, 379 Children's Home Society, 374 Federation of Women's Clubs, 375-78,381 KESA. See Kansas Equal Suffrage Association Kin groups in Providence (Rhode Island), 1837-1858, 126-30,133 n.20 and moral reform societies, 75-77 transformation of, 1839-1846,95 Kindergarten movement Atlanta, 1870-1930,293 Buffalo (New York), 1885-1915, 207 Kansas, 1880-1920,271 Louisville (Kentucky), 1900-1910,375 and Terrell, Mary Church, 314 Washington, D.C., 1890-1930,345 Kipling, Rudyard, 315 Kitchen Garden (Buffalo, New York), 205 Kitchen Garden Movement, 414 Knights of Labor, 423

INDEX

489

Know-Nothing Party, 153 Labor laws children. See Child labor laws women, hours of work, 355, 358, 362 Labor organizations. See also specific organization; Strikes; Unions Cleveland (Ohio), nineteenth century, 135, 139, 142-47,149-59,161,163 craft unions, 355 importance of, 354 seamstresses' unions, 1850, 135, 139, 142^7,149-59, 161, 163 women's unions, 1797-1840, 52 working-class women, for, late nineteenth century, 423 Ladies auxiliary charitable organizations, 51-53, 68 Ladies' Auxiliary Committee (Washington, D.C.), 347 Ladies' Branch of the Union Benevolent Association (Philadelphia), 25 Ladies' Christian Aid Society of Minneapolis and S t Anthony, 227 Ladies' Christian Union, 226 Ladies Distributing Bible Association, 51 Ladies' entrances, factories, 22,1 Ladies' Hebrew Aid Association (Atlanta), 286 Ladies' Hebrew Benevolent Society. See Hebrew Ladies' Benevolent Society

Ladies Magazine, 55 Ladies' Refugee Aid Society, 386 Ladies' Sewing Society, 152,179 Ladies' Temperance Union, 139, 141 n.8 Ladies' Temple Guild (Atlanta), 286 Lamb, John, 223 Lathrop, Julia, 452 Laundry work, employment of women African-Americans, 332 late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 221 New England, 1800-1840, 121 nineteenth century, 11-13,45 Lawson, Jesse, 347 Lawson, Rosetta Conkley, 346-47 Lazarus, Emma, 186 Lazarus, Josephine, 186-88 League of Women Voters Atlanta, 1870-1930, 300, 302, 304,306 founding of, 456 Kansas, 1880-1920,254, 279 predecessors of, 35

490

INDEX

Legal Aide-Bureau (Buffalo, New York), 215 Legal disabilities of married women, 1797-1840,46,48 Lesbianism, 94-95,457 Liberator, 32 Life cycle, organized women, New York and Boston, 1797-1840,66-84 "Lifting as We Climb" motto, 315,403 Lindley Hall (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 246 Lindsey, Judge Ben, 373 Lion House (Salt Lake City, Utah), 443 (photograph) Literary clubs African-American women, 324 Buffalo (New York), 197 Denver (Colorado), 324 Kansas, late nineteenth century, 388 Utah Women's Press Club, 1891-1928,432-44 Living conditions housing for working women, Minneapolis (Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 223-24 immigrants, 359-60 Lodgers, single women, Minneapolis (Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 217-46, 218 (photograph) Lothrop, Juliet, 127, 128 Lotteries, state sanctioned, 1797-1840,50 Louis, Minnie D., 186 Louisville Woman's Club (Kentucky), 370-81 Lowell, Josephine Shaw, 355 Lowell mills, 137-38,428 Lunch programs, for working-class women, late nineteenth century, 423 Lyon, Mary, 450 Μ Street Colored High School (Washington, D.C.), 308 Magdalen Asylum, 76 Magdalen Facts, 30 Magdalen Homes (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 228 Mahalia Fisk Pillsbury Club (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 229,230 (photograph), 239 Malone, Sarah, 398,400 (photograph), 408 Manhattan Trade School for Girls, 422 Marital status. See also Marriage; Single women of African-American club women, Kansas, 1910-1930,407-408 benevolence societies, membership in, 1797-1840,68-73 domestic servants (New England), 1800-1840,122-23

INDEX

moral reform societies, membership in, 1797-1840,74-76 Providence Employment Society members, 1837-1858,126 Marquette Corners (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 239 n.60 Marriage. See also Marital status career, vs., 1885-1915, views, 202-204 and domestic ideology, 220 and equal rights over children, 201, 210 legalized prostitution view, 215 property laws New England, 1839-1846, 88 New York and Boston, 1797-1840,49, 70 rights of women to refuse sexual intercourse with alcoholic husbands, 260 Martha Washington and Dorcas Society, 135-44,149-54,156-59,161-63 Martineau, Harriet, 19-20 Marx, Karl, 118 Marx, Rabbi David, 303-304 Maslow, Harriet, 122 Massachusetts Association of Working Women, 358 Massachusetts Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 21 Maternal Association (Cleveland, Ohio), 141 n.8 Maternalism benevolent materialism ideal, 116 orphans, women's role in caring for, 71 Maternity Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 165-77 Children's Clinic, 172 Cradle Committee, 170 Fresh Air Committee, 166-67 Invalid Shelf Committee, 170, 172 Sewing Fund, 170 Visiting Committee, 166, 168,172,173 (photograph), 175 Mayo, A. D., 101-103 McCarter, Margaret Hill, 274 McDowall, John R., 30-31 Meade Methodist Ladies' Aid, 270 (photograph) Men abolitionists Rhode Island, 1837-1858, 129 support of women's work, 32-33 Avery's perception of dual nature of, 371-72 charitable organizations run by, 1797-1840,44,51-52 conservativism of, Buffalo (New York), 1885-1915, 199 expectations of women workers, nineteenth century, 158

491

492

INDEX

immorality, nineteenth century, 48-49 involvement in women's charitable organizations, 50 missionaries, 67 nineteenth century, 51 1797-1840,50-51 reformers, Louisville, 1900-1910, 374 religion and voluntary organization membership, 143 (table) roles, defined, nineteenth century, 51 wages, 1837-1858, 125 Men's clubs, Jewish members, 183 Mentally retarded, housing for, 246 Mercantile Inspection Act, 355 Methodist Deaconess Home (Cincinnati, Ohio), 169-70 Methodists Cincinnati (Ohio), 1800's, 169-70 New York City, 1797-1840, 57 voluntary organizations, early nineteenth century, 17 Miami Medical College (Ohio), 172 Middle-class. See also Middle-class women 1797-1840, 54-55 urban mores, 225 values of, 172, 175 Middle-class women African-Americans, reform by, 308 bourgeois philanthropy of, 353 charitable organizations, reasons to form, 144 female institution building, 446 household activities and market economy, 136 housework, escape from, 183 Louisville (Kentucky), 1900-1910, 371 as moral guardians, 137 as moral reformers, 1797-1840,67 New England, 1839-1846, 89 poor women, kinship with, 166 progressive era, 1900-23, 351,354 reform of working-class, 430-31 separate female organizations, 452 voluntary organizations established by women, 138 Milk depots (Cincinnati, Ohio), 172 Mill, John Stuart, 88 Milliners, 221 Minimum wage law. See Wages

INDEX

Ministers. See Clergy Minneapolis Bethany Home, 224 n.29 Minneapolis Woman's Christian Association, 217-46 Minnesota, University of, 238 Minnesota Department of Women and Children, 231 Missionaries. See also Missionary societies early nineteenth century Congregationalist missionaries, 44 in New Hampshire, 21-22 in New York State, 21-22 Indians of North America, missions to, 20 moral reform, evolution to, 36 1797-1840 in New York State, 56 limitations of work, 46 male missionaries, 50-51 support of missionaries, 42 urban scene, appearance on, 41 Missionary societies, 4, 51 n.16,66,73 Missouri Press Association, 309 Mitchell, Maria, 198 Mite societies, 21-22 Monroe, Lilla Day, 274, 276, 278 Moot, Carrie, 204,209-210 Moral character mothers, 47 widows, definitions of, 9 , 4 7 Moral issues, distinction from political or economic isues, 160 Moral reform. See also Moral reform societies abolitionists distinguished from moral reformers, 44, 67 Boston, 1797-1840,41,56 evolution from missionary work, 36,42 Kansas, 1880-1920, sanitary conditions, 280-81 Minneapolis (Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 224-26 New York, 1797-1840,56 purity crusades, postbellum period, 369,371-72 radical reform movement, 1830, 30-32 socioeconomic background of members of movement, 54 tradition, 77 U.S., nineteenth century, 57

494

INDEX

Moral reform societies ages of members, 1797-1840,74-75 Boston, 31,67 Cleveland (Ohio), early nineteenth century, 139 family roles of members, 1797-1840,75-77 list of organizations, 1797-1840, 82-84 marital status of members, 1797-1840,74-76 New York, 128 19th centuries, 48-50 officers of, 1797-1840,74 (table) social role of women and, 137 Moral superiority of women, 449 More, Hannah, 19-20, 37 n.ll Morgan, Eliza, 172 Mormon Church, 433,436,442 Morse, Thomas W., 146-48, 154-56, 158 Mother Bickerdyke Home, 267 Mothers. See also Unwed mothers duties of, 1880-1920, 281 equal rights over children, 201, 210 Mott, Lucretia, 181 Mount Holyoke, 450 Mount Meig's Institute (Alabama), 316 Murray, Hannah, 70 Music contests (Kansas), 396 Myrdal, Gunnar, 328-29, 336 NAACP. See National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NACW. See National Association of Colored Women Nathan, Maud, 180, 351-53,356 Nation, Carry, 247, 252, 273 National American Woman's Suffrage Association, 181,182,452 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 349 National Association for the Relief of Destitute Colored Women and Children, 344-45 National Association of College Women, 348 National Association of Collegiate Alumnae, 214 National Association of Colored Girls, 401 National Association of Colored Women, 254,307-320 biennial convention, 312-14,316,343 Childs, Beatrice as president, 393-94 founding of, 384

INDEX

Kansas members, 1900-1930, 389 leadership, 402 "Lifting as We Climb" motto, 315,403 National Notes, 385-86, 394, 396, 399-400

and racial discrimination, 450 scholarship drive, 398 Women's League, correspondence with, 323-24 National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, 334 National Cash Register Company, 425 National Child Labor Committee, 278 National Congress of Parents and Teachers, 363 National Consumers' League, 194, 350-64,452 National Council of Jewish Women Atlanta, 1870-1930 Auxiliary No. 3, World War I, 297-98 and child labor laws, 293 civic projects, activity in, 291-92, 294-95 founding of chapter, 287-88, 304 and Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs, 292,296-97 Home Influence Circle, 289 Jewish community, activities, 290 leadership structure, 288-89 and League of Woman Voters, 302 self-image of members, 303 woman suffrage movement, 301 as first national Jewish women's association, 179 founding of, 183 National Council of Women, 444 National Federation of Afro-American Women, 309-310 National League of Women Workers, 410,411 National Notes, 385-86,394,396,399-400 National Training and Professional School for Women and Girls, 339 National Training School for Women and Girls, 347 National Urban League, 349 National Woman SufTrage Association, 189,366,449 Native Americans, missions to, early nineteenth century, 20 Naumkeag Steam Cotton Mills, 115 NCJW. See National Council of Jewish Women Needlewomen. See Seamstresses Needlework of African-American clubwomen, 324,390 employment of women, 1797-1840,45

495

496

INDEX

teaching of, in public schools early nineteenth century, 14 1797-1840, 50 Negro Women's Club Home (Denver, Colorado), 326-27 Neighborhood House (Louisville, Kentucky), 374, 379 Nelson, Alice Dunbar, 389 Network analysis. See also Kin groups African-American women, 312 feminist politics and, 446 in Providence (Rhode Island), 1837-1858, 128 of seamstresses, 1837-1858, 124 New England abolitionist movements, 32 benevolent societies, early nineteenth century, 34-35 kindred spirits, 85-105 mills, working women, antebellum period, 220 n.6 missionaries, 21 New England Federation of Women's Clubs, 310 New England Female Moral Reform Society, 54 New England Woman's Club, 253,367 New Era Club (Boston), 391 New Hampshire Missionary Society, 21 New York Association for the Relief of Respectable, Aged, Indigent Females, 70 New York Association of Collegiate Alumnae, 353 New York Association of Working Girls' Societies, 428 New York City. See also New York State charitable organizations, 3,6, 8 , 1 1 , 2 3 charity schools, 23 life cycle patterns among organized women, 1797-1840,66-84 missionaries in, 21,41, 42,46,50-51, 66 moral reform societies, 74-77,82-84 silk factories, 410 vice, nineteenth century, 30 women's benevolent organizations, 1797-1840,41-65,66-84 working-class women's clubs, late nineteenth century, 410-11,416,420, 425,427-28 New York City Anti-Slavery Society, 57 n.27 New York City Legal Aid Society, 209 New York City Tract Society, 52 New York Female Auxiliary Bible Society, 44, 51, 57 n.27,70

INDEX

497

New York Female Benevolent Society. See Female Benevolent Society of the City of New York New York Female Moral Reform Society innovativeness of, 56 and legal disabilities of wives, 48 overlap with other societies, 46 and seduction as a crime, SO New York Female Union Society for the Promotion of Sabbath Schools founders of, 55,76 leadership of, 71 relationship to men's organizations, 52 single women as members, 68 New York Herald, 433,436 New York Philanthropic League in Aid of Crippled Children, 180 New York Press Club, 450 New York Religious Tract Society, Female Branch expansion of activities, 51 leadership of, 71,77-78 marital status of members, 68 New York Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children. See Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children (New York) New York State. See also Buffalo Women's Educational and Industrial Union, 1885-1915 missionaries, 21, 22 women's benevolent movement, nineteenth century, 26 New York State Charities Aid Association, 414 New York State Federation of Women's Clubs, 214 New York State Guardianship Law, 210 New York Sunday-School Union Society, 52 New York Working Girls' Society, 410 New York's Asylum for Lying-in Women, 68,71 Newark Female Charitable Society, 7 Newburyport (Massachusetts) charitable organizations, 23, 26 population, 1849-1879, 120 n.39 Newman, Pauline, 360-61 Newsboys schools, (Louisville, Kentucky), 1900-1910, 378-79 Newspapers, African-American, 342,384-85 Newswomen New York, 450 Utah Women's Press Club, 1891-1928,432-44

498

INDEX

NFAAW. See National Federation of Afro-American Women Nichols, Clarina Howard, 273 Nineteenth Amendment, 302,457 Nurseries and nursery schools of African-Americans, 314, 326,336 in Kansas, 1880-1920, 266 in Washington, D.C., 1890-1930, 345 Nurses careers Minneapolis (Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 221 New England, 1800-1840,122-23 charitable organization, employed by, 169-70, 173-74 education and training Cincinnati (Ohio), 1880's, 172 New Orleans, 315 Washington, D.C., 1890-1930,339 n.2 school nurses (Kansas), 1880-1920,271 Oberlin College, 26,307, 308 Officers of charitable organizations, 142 (table). See also specific organization 1797-1840,68-70 Officers of moral reform societies. See also specific organization 1797-1840, 74 (table) Ohio Medical College, 168, 172 Ohio-Miami Medical College, 172 Opportunity Workship (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 246 Order of the Eastern Star, 262,267 O'Reilly, Leonora, 424 Orphan Asylum (Cleveland, Ohio), 139,141 n.8 Orphan Asylum Society of the City of New York aid recipients, 53 committees of gentlemen, 51 n.16 founding of, 76 involvement of married women and widows, 71 leadership of, 50, 55, 77 officers of, 73 training provided by, 67 welfare funds, petition for, 49 Orphans aid for, Salem Female Charitable Society, 105 charitable assistance. See also specific organization Baltimore (Maryland), 4

INDEX

ministers, 26 monetary contributions to, 23 homes for, Louisville (Kentucky), 1900-1910, 374 maternal role and caring for, 71 objects of benevolence, 139 respectablity, perception of, 51 Our Messenger (WCTU), 253 Overseers of the Poor, 109, 115, 121 Palmer, Bertha H., 186 Palmer Memorial Institute (Sedalia, North Carolina), 313,318 n.20, 319 n.31 Pan American Exposition, 210 Parent-Teacher Associations, 254,271 Parrish, Anne, 3 , 6 , 1 0 Patterson, Ada, 436 Paul, Alice, 282 Paulsen, Ben, 401 Peace Congress, 1861,129 Peckham, Margaret Dunnell, 127,129 Penitent Females Refuge (Boston), 49 Ladies Auxiliary, 53,68,73-74 Penney, District Attorney Thomas Α., 209 PEO (women's club, Kansas) activities involved in, 262,264 homes established by, 267,268 leadership of, 258 organization of, 254-56 People's Party, 153 Philadelphia benevolent societies, nineteenth century, 34 charitable organizations, 4,10,11 n.17,14-15, 20, 23,78 domestic missions in, 21 Jewish philanthropic organizations, 178-79 voluntary relief organizations, 24, 25 Philadelphia Female Association for the Relief of Needy Women and Children, 179 Philanthropy. See also Benevolence societies true philanthropy concept, 135-64 Phyllis Wheatley Club (New Orleans, Louisiana), 309,315 Phyllis Wheatley Home for Girls (Illinois), 316 Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House, 227

499

500

INDEX

Phyllis Wheatley Y.W.C.A., 346 Physicians (Cincinnati, Ohio), 1880's, 168 Pillsbury, Governor John S., 229,230 Pillsbury, Mahalia Fisk, 229 Pillsbury Club. See Mahalia Fisk Pillsbury Club (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Pin money, women's wages as, 222,419 Pioneer women, 248-29 Plain Dealer (Topeka, Kansas) and Female Protective Union, 154 history of, 384-85 Kansas Federation, coverage of, 382, 390, 393,401 racial discrimination, coverage of, 392 Playground Association (Buffalo, New York), 212 Playground programs (Louisville, Kentucky), 375, 378 Poets, women, 437-39 Pond Lily Art and Service Club (Denver, Colorado), 324, 334 Poor charitable organizations to assist, early nineteenth century, 23,316 Cincinnati, 1800's cleanliness, teaching habits to, 169 moral character, view of, 166 self-care education, 169, 173 (photograph) deserving, perception of poor as, 47-48, 109 diseases contracted by, 8 employment of, charitable organizations aiding in, 3, 10-12 homes provided for destitute, Minneapolis (Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 227 immigrants, 8 intemperance and poverty, 138 missionaries to reach, nineteenth century, 51 reformation of, 34 self-sufficient, aid in becoming, 265-66 sick poor, charitable assistance, 5 studies on (Kansas), 1890's, 265 uplifting of, 35 vicious, perception of poor as, 47-48 Poor farms (Kansas), 1880-1920, 268 Poorhouses, labor, 144 Populist party (Kansas), 1867,250 Postbellum period Kansas, migration to, 386 National Association of Colored Women, 307-320

INDEX

working-class women, 412 working women, 220 Poverty. See Poor Pratt, Dr. Romania B., 432,434,436,441 Pregnant women, charitable assistance to, 1797-1840, 68 Prenatal clinics (Cincinnati, Ohio), 174 Presbyterians, New York City, 1797-1840, 56 Press Club (Utah), 434 Princeton University, 22 Theological Seminary, 22 Prisoners, female (Buffalo, New York), 1885-1915, 211 Prisons female commissioner, New York City, 452 police matrons, petitions for, Louisville (Kentucky), 1900-1910, 371 reform, early nineteenth century, 18, 20 Progressive Club (Kansas City, Missouri), 314 Progressive Era beginnings of, 194 consumerism, 350-64 past, influence of, 202 reform issues, Louisville, 370, 373, 380 social reform, 370 social welfare, 316 Washington, D.C., 345 Prohibition (Kansas), 1880-1920,280 Property laws equal property rights for women, bill for, 278 New England, 1839-1846, 88 New York and Boston, 1797-1840,49, 70 Prostitution and boarding homes, Minneapolis (Minnesota), 224-26 fines for prostitutes, Minneapolis (Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 224 moral reform movement early nineteenth century, 30 postbellum period, 369 1797-1840,44-45,49,53, 56, 67,68,73-74 rescue homes for Kansas, 1880-1920,267 Minneapolis (Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 228, 238 Protective Home for Colored Aged and Orphans, 267

502

INDEX

Protestant Orphan Asylum, 150 Protestants. See also Evangelical Protestantism beneficiaries of charity, Cincinnati (Ohio), 1880's, 167-68 Cleveland (Ohio), nineteenth century, 139-41, 153,161,163 New York City, 1797-1840, 56 Providence Association for the Benefit of Colored Children, 128 Providence Children's Friend Society, 128 Providence Employment Society, 1837-1858, 124-34 Providence Reform School, 129 Providence (Rhode Island) charitable organizations, 4, 21 employment society, 1837-1858,124-34 Provident Society for the Employing of the Poor (Philadelphia), 11 n.17, 12, 15, 157 PTAs. See Parent-Teacher Associations Public health (Kansas), 1880-1920,271-72 Public schools. See also Education African-Americans in, Washington, D.C., 1890-1930, 338-39 gymnasium classes, Buffalo, 1885-1916, 207-208 needlework, teaching of early nineteenth century, 14 1797-1840, 50 Pure food and water (Kansas), 1880-1920, 271 Purity in the home concept, 289 Quakers, 20, 34,57 Rachford, Dr. Benjamin K., 172 Racial discrimination African-American reaction to, 334-35 clubs, 316,329 Denver (Colorado), 322-23, 329 General Federation of Women's Clubs, 311,391 Kansas 1880's and 1890's, 386 1910-1930,391-92 Missouri, late nineteenth century, 309-310 monolithic view of black community, 343 and National Association of Colored Women, 308 1980-1925, 332 Washington, D.C., 1890-1930,338-39,349

INDEX

503

Railroad depots, traveller's aid, Minneapolis (Minnesota), late nineteenth century, 228-29, 231-32 The Raleigh Female Benevolent Society, 7 Ras tall, Fanny, 267 Rathbone, Esther, 127, 129 Ratterman, Dr. Helena, 174 Reapers Club (Utah), 434 Reconstruction, 308 Recreation League (Louisville, Kentucky), 375 Red Cross, 169, 297 Reform. See Educational reform; Industrial reform; Moral reform; Social reform Relationships. See Family; Friendship; Kin groups; Marriage Relief. See also Work relief charitable organizations, nineteenth century Carey's theories on, 14 evolution of relief movement, 34 geographies, 24, 25 management of distributions, 9-10 missionaries, 20 months distributed, 8 Kansas, 1880-1920, 264-65, 266-68 Minneapolis (Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 227 Religion. See also specific names of religions abolitionism and, 54 feminization of, early nineteenth century, 136-37 and voluntary organizations, 18-23,26-30, 57, 140 (table), 143 (table) Rent early nineteenth century, 15 housing for working women, nineteenth century, 223,423

The Revolution, 449 Reynolds, Elizabeth Carter, 12-Th Rhode Island Historical Society, 129 Rights of women. See Women's rights Rochester (New York), women's benevolent movement, early nineteenth century, 26 Rockford Seminary, 451 Role of women. See Gender roles Roosevelt, Eleanor, 396 Roosevelt, Franklin D., 318 n. 20 Rosaldo, Michelle Zimbalist, 445-46 Rose, Ernestine, 180 Rose Farm (Providence, Rhode Island), 127

504

INDEX

Rose of Sharon, 91,93 Rouse, Benjamin, 141 n.8,156 Rouse, Rebecca, 139,150-52,154 Ruffin, Josephine St. Pierre and first national conference of African-American women, 310 and New Era Club, 391 verbal expressiveness of, 403 and Woman's Era Club, 309,310 Rural areas Christian associations, 181 Minnesota, 220 Sabbath schools. See Sunday schools Sailors. See also Seamen's Aid Society (Boston) families of, early nineteenth century, 16 Salaries. See Wages Salem Female Charitable Society, 4, 23, 104-123 Salem (Massachusetts) charitable organizations, 4, 23, 104-123 domestic service, 1800-1840, 104-123 Salem Old Ladies Home, 123 Sales occupations (Minneapolis, Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 221 Sanger, Margaret, 215 Sanitary Conditions Civil War, 250,251 moral reform, Kansas, 1880-1920,281 Savannah (Georgia) charitable organizations, 45 orphanages, 20 School Association (BufTalo, New York), 1885-1916, 208 Schwimmer, Rosika, 180 Seamen's Aid Society (Boston), 11 n.17 discriminatory laws, attacks on, 49 establishment of, 13-14 female poverty, approach to, 57 First Annual Report, 45 needlework, campaign to teach in public schools, 50 overlap with other organizations, 46 socioeconomic background of members, 54-55 wives' legal disabilities, 48 and working women, 41

INDEX

505

Seamstresses. See also Female Protective Union; Sewing; Tailoresses characteristics of, 144 early nineteenth century, 15 exploitation of, 144 n.9 home employment, 158 n.41 Minneapolis (Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 221 Providence (Rhode Island), 1837-1858,124-25 sewing shops, 146-49 Second Great Awakening, 41 Sects, early nineteenth century, 17 Sedgwick, Catherine, 119 Seduction as a crime, 50 Self-help organizations, African-American women, 307, 309,335 Self-Improvement Club (Denver, Colorado), 324 Seneca Falls Convention of 1848,447-48 Seneca Falls' Declaration of the Rights of Women, 181 Separatism, 445-62 historical roots of, 448-49 lessons of, 457-59 Settlement house movement, 423,424 Severance, Caroline, 367 Sewing. See also other references beginning sewing; Seamstresses; Tailoresses Bible societies, early nineteenth century, 22 charity, 10-12, 14, 24, 34,45 Cincinnati (Ohio), 1800's, 168,170 (photograph) Kansas, 1880-1920, 268 education Buffalo (New York), 1885-1915, 204 Cincinnati (Ohio), 1920, 174 Providence (Rhode Island), 1837-1858, 130 employment of women, New England, 1800-1840,121 schools for, early nineteenth century, 14 societies (Chicago), 184 Sewing circles Cincinnati (Ohio), 1880's, 166,168 early nineteenth century, 3, 35 1797-1840,68, 77 Sewing proprietors, 146-48, 155-56, 158 Sex discrimination, Washington, D.C., 1890-1930,338-39 Sex education, 1797-1840,67,68 Sexual double standard, 450 Sexual intercourse, rights of women to refuse with alcoholic husbands, 260

506

INDEX

SFCS. See Salem Female Charitable Society Shaw, Anna Howard, 182 Shinkle, A. Clifford, 172 Staipp, Dr. EUis R., 432,434,438,441 Shirt making, early nineteenth century, 15-16 Single women benevolence societies, membership in, 1797-1840, 68-71,74-75 domestic servants, New England, 1800-1840,123 housing, Minneapolis (Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 217-46, 218 (photograph) and Providence Employment Society, 1837-1858,126 respectability, perception of, 223 suitable occupations for, 1797-1840, 68 Sisterhood of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation (Atlanta). See Hebrew Benevolent Congregation (Atlanta) Slade, William, Jr., 147-49, 153 Slavery aid to former slaves (Kansas), postbellum period, 386,388 anti-slave movements. See Abolitionists Slums, early nineteenth century, 25 Smallpox, 8 Smith, Seba, 100 Social classes. See also Social status Providence Employment Society, 1837-1858,125-26, 128,130 1797-1840, 54-55 Social Darwinism, 316 Social Gospel churches (Buffalo, New York), 197 Social reform Cleveland (Ohio), nineteenth century, 135 early twentieth century, 370 Kansas, 1880-1920, 250, 251, 278-79 Louisville (Kentucky), 1900-1910, 366-67 1904 biennial convention, 252 Providence (Rhode Island), 1837-1858, 129 purity in the home concept, 289 Social roles benevolence societies, membership in, 1797-1840, 71 early nineteenth century, changing roles for women, 135-136 1797-1840, 48 Social Security Act of 1935,175 Social Service Club (Kansas), 264 Social status, 122,407

INDEX

507

Social work, 291-92, 310 Socialism, 354 Socialist Party, 452 Society for Employing the Female Poor (Boston), 11-12, 15, 45,48 Society for Improving the Condition and Elevating the Character of Industrious Females (Philadelphia), 11 n.17, 14 Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children (New York) administration of funds, 43-48 administration of relief, 8 founding of, 76 leadership of, 50-53, 55, 70 organization of, 4 spiritual welfare, 41 Society for the Relief of the Poor (Cleveland, Ohio), 139, 141 n.8, 151, 153 Society of Friends, 24,29 Sojourner Truth Club (Providence, Rhode Island), 309 Sojourner Truth Home for Working Women and Girls, 347 Soldiers, families of, early nineteenth century, 16 Soldiers' Military Home at Leavenworth, 267 Soldiers' Orphans' Home at Atchison, 267 Solomon, Hannah G., 180,183-85,187,191 Sommerfield, Clara, 297 Sorority as ideal society, 83-103 Sorosis Club, 253, 367,450 The South benevolent societies, early nineteenth century, 34-35 Christian women, 287 Jews, 285,286,305 Spencer, Josephine, 437 Spider Web Chart, 363 Spinning, work relief, 24-25 Sprague, Rosetta, 333-34 St. Louis Normal Kindergarten Training School, 314 Stanton, Elizabeth Cady anti-Semitic statements by, 181,182 at Woman's Pavilion, 1876 Centennial Exposition, 453 at World Parliament of Religions program, 186 on female institution building, 450 on marriage as legalized prostitution, 215 public opinion of, 282 as radical, 202, 280,449,454 Starkweather, Mary L., 231

508

INDEX

Stereotypes African-Americans, 314, 330, 333,402 Jews, 296 Stewart, SaUie, 394,400 Stilhnan, Hannah, 5, 55 Stone, Lucy, 181 Stowe, Lucy Diggs, 348 Strikes, Lowell mills, 1840's, 137-38 Stubbs, Walter R„ 269 n.34 Study clubs (Kansas), 253,259,262,264,273 Sunday schools Baltimore (Maryland), Jewish philanthropic organizations, 179 early nineteenth century, 4, 18-19, 21, 33 New York City, 1797-1840, 76 Philadelphia, 1838,179 1797-1840,41,42,54 teaching, 68 urban society, 66 Support groups for women Kansas, 1880-1920, 260, 262-63 n.20 working-class women, late nineteenth century, 413 Sweatshops, 16 Szold, Henrietta, 179, 186-88 Tailoresses. See also Needlework; Seamstresses Minneapolis (Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 221 Taka Art Club (Denver, Colorado), 324, 325 Teachers African-American women late nineteenth century, 314 Washington, D.C., 1890-1930, 338-49 careers of Kansas, 1880-1920, 269 Minneapolis (Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 221 Temperance societies, 138. See also Woman's Christian Temperance Union Terrell, Mary Church and Colored Social Settlement of the District of Columbia, 346 and kindergarten movement, 314 and National Association of Colored Women, 1896-1901,307-320 and Plain Dealer, 385 (photograph) verbal expression of, 403 views on race discrimination, 343

INDEX

509

and Women's Republican League of Washington, D.C., 348 writings of, 314 Terrell, Robert H., 308 Textile industry, New Jersey, 1920, 359 Thurston, Mrs. S. Α., 274 Tifft, Lily Lord, 208, 209, 211 Times Herald (Chicago), 313 Tocqueville, Alexis de, 17, 29, 36,419 Tokenism, 458 Townsend, Harriet, 195 (photograph) background of, 197 radical, as, 216 retirement, 214 role of wives and mothers, view of, 194, 204-205,212-13 and State Insane Asylum, Albany (New York), 211 wages, aid to women deprived of, 209-210 woman suffrage movement, view of, 201-202 Townsend, Martha H., 389 (photograph) Townsend Hall, University of Buffalo, 196 (photograph), 198,212 (photograph), 213 Tract-distribution movements early nineteenth century, 19, 21, 22, 30, 33, 36 Minneapolis (Minnesota), late nineteenth and early twentieth century, 232 1797-1840,41,51-52, 54 Trade unions. See Labor organizations Transient Home for Girls (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 232, 240 (photograph) Transient women, housing for, Minneapolis (Minnesota), late nineteenth century, 229,232, 240 (photograph) Traveling Libraries Commission, Kansas, 269, 274 Traveller's aid, Minneapolis (Minnesota), late nineteenth century, 228-29, 231,232, 246 Trimmer, Sarah, 18-19 Troy Female Academy, 450 Troy (New York), Benevolent Society, 4 Truancy laws (Kansas), 280 Tuberculosis, 293, 378 Tucker, Mary Orne, 104 Tuesday Afternoon Club (Atlanta), 286 Tuskegee Instititute (Alabama), 309 Twentieth Century Club (Buffalo, New York), 215,258 Typists, 204

510

INDEX

Unemployed women, housing for, Minneapolis (Minnesota), late nineteenth century, 229 Union Benevolent Association (Philadelphia), 11 n.17, 25 Union label, 360-61 Unions. See Labor organizations Unitarianism (New York City), 1797-1840, 56 United Fund, 246 Universalists New England, 1839-1846, 89-90 Providence (Rhode Island), 1837-1858, 128 Unwed mothers, charitable organizations aiding, Buffalo (New York), 18851915, 197 Upper-class women. See also Elite club membership, Buffalo (New York), 1885-1915, 215 household activities and market economy, 136 Louisville (Kentucky), 1900-1910, 371 moral guardians, women as, 137 moral reformers, 1797-1840, 67 progressive era, 1900-23, 351 reasons to form charitable organizations, 144 voluntary organizations established by women, 138 Upper classes, 1797-1840,54-55 Upper-middle classes (Chicago), 188 U.S. Children's Bureau, 452 Utah State Federation of Women's Clubs, 440 Utah Women's Press Club, 1891-1928,432-44 Utica (New York) class differences, 54 women's benevolent movement, early nineteenth century, 26 Valesh, Eva McDonald, 222-23 Vaughan, John C., 147-48, 153 Veterans Civil War, 253,267 relief work with, Kansas, 1880-1920, 265 Vice (New York City) early nineteenth century, 30 1797-1840,49 Voluntary organizations. See Benevolence societies; Charitable organizations Vote. See also Woman suffrage movement women's deprivation of, 87

INDEX

511

Wage-earning women. See also Working-class women; Working mothers Buffalo, 1885-1915,203 career women, 1885-1915, views on, 202-204 charitable organizations aiding in providing, 3, 10-12 exploitation of women's labor. See Exploitation of women furnished for, early nineteenth century, 10-11, 14 housing for working women, Minneapolis (Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 217-46,218 (photograph) labor laws, 293, 355, 358, 362 Minneapolis (Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century housing, 217-46, 218 (photograph) morality of working woman, fear for, 224-26, 232 opportunities for employment, 221 white collar workers, 236 Minnesota, 1900 census, 220 n.5 New England mill operatives, 220 n.6 problems of working women, 41 Wages African-American female educators, Washington, D.C., 1890-1930, 340 early nineteenth century, 14-16 exploitation of women, 48, 50, 209-210 fair compensation, demands for, 1837-1858, 125 labor unions and, 157 laundry and sewing work, 1797-1840, 45 minimum wage law, 158 n.41 and Consumers' Leagues, 357-59,363 Kansas, 1880-1920, 277 Minneapolis (Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 245, 246 n.66 Minneapolis (Minnesota), late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, 221-26, 245 minimum wage law, 246, n.66 New Jersey, 1920, 359-60 working-class women, late nineteenth century, 413 War of 1812, 107 Warrick, Meta Vaux, 385 (photograph) Washington, Booker T., 309,405 Washington, D.C. African-American women educators, 1890-1930,338-49 population, 338 labor laws, 293

512

INDEX

Washington, Elizabeth, 382, 387 (photograph) Washington, Margaret, 309 WCA. See Minneapolis Woman's Christian Association WC TU. See Woman's Christian Temperance Union Weaving, work relief, 24-25 Webb, Mary, 70 WEIU. See Women's Educational and Industrial Union (WEIU) Wells, Emmeline B. organization of UWPC, 432-34,441 publications of, 437,444 woman suffrage movement, 442 and Woman's Exponent, 444 Wells, Ida B., 388 Western Seamen's Friend Society, 141 n.8 Wheatley, Phyllis. See entries beginning Phyllis Wheatley Whig Party, 153 White List, Consumers' League of the City of New York, 356-57 Whooping cough, 8 Wichita Children's Home, 268 Wichita City Federation of Women's Clubs, 277 Widows charitable organizations, assistance by. See also specific organizations early nineteenth century, 20, 35, 89 1797-1840,44-45,53 day schools, 11 moral character of, definitions, 9,47 as objects of benevolence, 139 offers in benevolent societies, 70 orphans, care for, 71 relief for (New England), 1837,118 respectability, perception of, 50, 51 right to support, 203 Salem Female Charitable Society, 104-105 seamstresses, as, 145 Widow's Society (Boston), 46-47, 68,73 Wilberforce University, 308, 318 n. 20 Willard, Frances Association for the Advancement of Women, 198 Buffalo Women's Educational and Industrial Union, 200 "Do Everything" motto, 366 public opinion of, 282 and woman suffrage movement, 252,450

INDEX

World Parliament of Religions, 186 Williams, Carrie Clifford, 385 (photograph) Williams, Fannie Barrier, 308,334, 343 Williams, The Reverend S. P., 27 Woman suffrage movement and African-Americans, 449 anti-foreign stand, 182 anti-Semitism in movement, 181 Atlanta, 1870-1930,299-303,306 and Fifteenth Amendment, 449 Jewish women, involvement in, 180-81 Kansas, 1880-1920, 250, 262, 273-76 Louisville (Kentucky), 1900-1910, 365-66 national organizations, 189 opposition to, 198 organization of, 215 prejudice within movement, 182 saloons, destruction of, 273 success of, 454 Townsend, Harriet, attitude toward, 201-202 Utah, 1891-1928,432-44 Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 252 Woman's Bible, 182 Woman's Boarding Home (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 226,227,233 (photograph), 234,237-238 Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 66 camp meeting of, 1886,253 conventions, 214 definition of charity, 264 formation of, 256, 258, 366 Home Protection, 280 homes established by, 267 as instrument of change, 252 and law enforcement, 278 missionaries to immigrants, 266 public affairs interests, 260 public arena, role in, 194 public forums, 265 and public school curricula, 271 and separate institution building, 450 support group for women, 260, 262-63 n.20 support of other organizations, 211

513

514

INDEX

tactics of, 259 Washington, D.C., 347 and woman suffrage movement, 273-74, 276, 280,301 women-only meetings, 260 Woman's Club (Omaha, Nebraska), 309 Woman's Committee of the Parliament, 186 Woman's Era, 309-310, 323, 385 Woman's Era Club (Boston), 309,310 Woman's Exponent, 432,434,435 (photograph), 444 Woman's Hotel (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 218 (photograph) Woman's Journal, 456 Woman's Mutual Improvement Club (Knoxville, Tennessee), 309 Woman's Pavilion, 1876 Centennial Exposition, 452-53 Women. See specific topic Women's Central Club (Denver, Colorado), 324 Women's Christian Association and the Home for the Friendless, Buffalo, 211 Women's clubs. See also African-American women; specific clubs African-American women, 307-337 entry to, 184 general movement, 287 Jewish members, 183 Wisconsin, 370 Women's Educational and Industrial Union (WEIU), 368,375 Women's Hotel (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 232,234,235 (photograph), 246 Women's Joint Congressional Committee, 363 Women's League (Denver, Colorado), 323-24 Women's Relief Corps (Kansas), 253-56,255 (photograph) activities involved in, 262, 265 Americanization programs, 1920's, 279 definition of charity, 264 homes funded by, 267 and law enforcement, 278 organization of, 259 patriotic work of, 266 Women's Republican League of Washington, D.C., 348,349 Women's rights and abolitionists, 449 assertion of early nineteenth century, 35-36 Kansas, 1880-1920, marital rights, 260 New England, 1839-1846, 87 1797-1840,58,67

INDEX

Christianity and, 181 moral reform and, 31 Women's Trade Union League, 194, 368,452 Wooster, Lorraine Elizabeth, 401 Work. See Employment Work relief early nineteenth century, 10-11, 16, 24-25 seamstresses, 157 1797-1840, 45 Working-class philanthropy of, 354 reform efforts by middle-class women, 431 1797-1840, 54-55 Working-class women class consciousness of, 414-15 clubs, late nineteenth century, 409-431. See also specific club elite women and working girls clubs, 414-15,420,422,424,427 financial aid to, 416-17 household activities and market economy, 136 housing for, late nineteenth century, 423 moral values, 426-27 philanthropy of, 418 practical talks, working girl clubs, 420,426 progressive era, 1900-23,351 reasons to form charitable organizations, 144 separate female organizations, 452 skills taught to, Buffalo, 1885-1915,204 Working conditions. See also Labor laws factories, late nineteenth century, 412-23 improvement of, 452 and New York State Consumers' League, 357 strikes, 362 Working Girls' Clubs. See Working-class women Working mothers (New Jersey), 1920, 359 Working women. See Wage-earning women Working Women's Protective Union, 431 Working Women's Society, 355 World Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893,452-53 World Congress Auxiliary, 185 World Parliament of Religions, 186 World War I African-Americans, war effort, 328

515

516

INDEX

Jews, war effort, 297-98 post-war organizations, Washington, D.C., 348 Utah Women's Press Club, 442 World's Fair Chicago, 1893,178, 185 New York, 1937,455 W.P.A. program, 11 WRC. See Women's Relief Corps Wright, Carroll D., 412 Wright, The Reverend Henry C., 37 n.ll Writers, women, Utah, 1891-1928,437-39 Yellow fever, 3 , 6 , 8 , 3 1 5 Young, Brigham, 433,437 Young Ladies' Auxiliary Society (Atlanta), 286 Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association (Salt Lake City, Utah), 438-39 Young Men's Christian Association, 258 Young Woman's Journal, 437 Young Women's Christian Association, 66. See also Colored Young Women's Christian Association Boston, 1877, 231 Illinois, late nineteenth century, 316 Kansas, 1880-1920,258,266 Minneapolis (Minnesota), late nineteenth and early twentieth century, 215, 226, 229, 232 racial discrimination in, 316 Washington, D.C., 347 Youth clubs, African-American girls (Kansas), 1900-1930,399-401 YWCA. See Young Women's Christian Association ZONTA, Buffalo, 215