Women's club movement in the United States

The club movement became part of Progressive era social reform, which was reflected by many of the reforms and issues addressed by club members.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/introclubwomen.html|title=Introduction to Clubwomen|website=National Women's History Museum|access-date=January 26, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170330191230/https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/introclubwomen.html|archive-date=March 30, 2017}} According to Maureen A. Flanagan,{{Sfn|Flanagan|1990|p=1046}} many women's clubs focused on the welfare of their community because of their shared experiences in tending to the well-being of home-life. Tending to the community was often called "municipal housekeeping" during the Progressive era and reflected a shared belief by many club members that home and city life were linked through city hall.{{Sfn|Flanagan|1990|p=1048}} By constructing the idea of municipal housekeeping, women were also able to justify their involvement in government.{{Sfn|Flanagan|1990|p=1050}} Later, in 1921, Alice Ames Winter describes how women had begun to see "their homes as the units out of which society was built", and that home life and public life were linked.{{Sfn|Winter|1921|p=637}} Women's clubs "established the idea that women had a moral duty and responsibility to transform, define and shape public policy".{{Sfn|Lang|2005|p=2}} Women's clubs were also "training schools" for women who wanted to get involved in the public sphere.{{Sfn|Seaholm|1998|p=4}} They helped women attain both social and political power.{{Cite web|url=http://montanawomenshistory.org/cultivating-female-reform-the-montana-womans-christian-temperance-union/ |title=Cultivating Female Reform: The Montana Woman's Christian Temperance Union |date=June 12, 2014 |website=Women's History Matters |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170330214131/http://montanawomenshistory.org/cultivating-female-reform-the-montana-womans-christian-temperance-union |archive-date=March 30, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 9, 2017 }}

Many women's clubs increased their memberships by having other members sponsor or nominate new members to the group.{{Cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/living/article/S-F-women-s-clubs-aging-rolls-declining-2310505.php |title=S.F. women's clubs aging, rolls declining |last=Bowles |first=Nellie |date=September 11, 2011 |work=SF Gate |access-date=February 4, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205100612/http://www.sfgate.com/living/article/S-F-women-s-clubs-aging-rolls-declining-2310505.php |archive-date=February 5, 2017 |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web|url=http://wcoep.org/about-us/ |title=About Us |website=The Woman's Club of El Paso |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223130117/http://wcoep.org/about-us/ |archive-date=February 23, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 10, 2017 }} Clubs often organized themselves by committee,{{Sfn|Sherman|1906|p=32}} or division.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8927948//|title=Los Angeles Woman's Club|date=February 1, 1885|newspaper=The Los Angeles Times|access-date=February 13, 2017}} Many women's clubs created and occupied their own clubhouses.{{Sfn|Moore|1906|p=62}} Today these clubhouses have continued to be the site of women's meetings and other gatherings. Some women's clubs created and continue to publish their own journals and newsletters.{{Cite web|url=http://www.gfwc.org/news-publications/clubwoman-magazine/ |title=GFWC Clubwoman Magazine |website=General Federation of Women's Clubs |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161119210438/http://www.gfwc.org/news-publications/clubwoman-magazine/ |archive-date=November 19, 2016 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 10, 2017 }}{{Cite web|url=http://www.wcrbinfo.com/publications.html |title=Woman's Club of Redondo Beach |website=Woman's Club of Redondo Beach |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223130741/http://www.wcrbinfo.com/publications.html |archive-date=February 23, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 10, 2017 }}

File:Headquarters_minnesota_federation_of_women's_clubs.jpg, {{circa|1920}}]]

Prior to the founding of the first Progressive era women's clubs, Sorosis and the New England Women's Club, most organizations for women were auxiliaries of groups for men or were church-related.{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/club-movement |title=Club movement |date=December 1, 1999 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420012257/http://www.britannica.com/event/club-movement |archive-date=April 20, 2016 |url-status=dead |access-date=January 26, 2017 }} Jane Cunningham Croly of the General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC) wrote in 1898 that women were first able to reach out of their homes through religious institutions.{{Sfn|Croly|1898|p=3–4}}

By becoming involved in church or charitable groups, women were able to find companionship and a way to facilitate change in their communities.{{Cite web|url=http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=WO002 |title=Women's Club Movement |last=Wilson |first=Linda D. |date=2009 |website=Oklahoma Historical Society |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301092901/http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=WO002 |archive-date=March 1, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=January 28, 2017 }} It was also one of the few ways that women were initially allowed to contribute outside of the home.{{Sfn|Lee|2009|p=3}} Some of the earliest women-led organizations were started as religious groups in the early part of the nineteenth century.{{Sfn|Croly|1898|pp=8–9}} White women were involved in church charity groups as early as the 1790s.{{Sfn|Hansen|2003|p=56}}

Later, women also started to become involved in antislavery groups, temperance groups and women's suffrage organizations starting in the 1840s.{{Cite news|url=https://www.durandhedden.org/archives/articles/the_womans_club_of_maplewood |title=The Woman's Club of Maplewood – A Century of Service |date=November 1, 2010 |access-date=February 6, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170331120128/https://www.durandhedden.org/archives/articles/the_womans_club_of_maplewood |archive-date=March 31, 2017 |url-status=dead |newspaper=Durand-Hedden }} African-American women helped organize many anti-slavery groups, the earliest founded in 1832, and white women followed black women's lead in creating abolition groups.{{Sfn|Scott|1990|p=6}}

As women began to have more leisure time, they started women's clubs.{{Sfn|Parker|2010|p=119}} Initially, most women's clubs focused on literary endeavors, self-improvement and created social opportunities for white middle-class women. These clubs allowed women to share ideas and helped them realize that their thoughts were important, and that together they could act on them.{{Cite web|url=http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/federation.html |title=General Federation of Women's Clubs |website=Women Working, 1800–1930 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223212001/http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/federation.html |archive-date=February 23, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 9, 2017 }} Literary women's clubs in pioneer areas gave women an outlet to explore reading and make friends.{{Sfn|Hansen|2003|p=57}} Many women's clubs maintained book collections for use by club members.Paula D. Watson, "Founding Mothers: The Contribution of Women’s Organizations to Public Library Development in the United States," Library Quarterly, vol. 64, no. 3 (1994), p. 235. Instead of forming a literary club, women in Galveston created a scientific club, which also focused on learning.{{Sfn|Turner|1997|p=152}}

Croly notes that women's clubs were not created to copy men's groups; instead, they were often created to give women a space to share ideas as equals;{{Sfn|Croly|1898|pp=12–13}} these ideas often developed into practical action. As Mary I. Wood and Anna J. H. (Mrs. Percy V.) Pennybacker described it: "Very early the club women became unwilling to discuss Dante and Browning over the teacups, at meetings of their peers in some lady's drawing room, while unsightly heaps of rubbish flanked the paths over which they had passed in their journeys thither."{{Sfn|Wood|Pennybacker|1914|p=79}} Women justified their movement into social reform by using the Victorian idea that women were naturally morally superior to men. As clubs moved from self-improvement to community improvement, women's clubs in the Western U.S. lagged somewhat behind clubs formed in more developed parts of the country.{{Sfn|Lee|2009|p=7}} Women's clubs in the late 1800s described themselves as attempting to "exert a refining and ennobling influence" on their communities.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8927864/the_los_angeles_times/|title=A Woman's Club|date=January 9, 1885|access-date=February 13, 2017|newspaper=The Los Angeles Times}} They also saw women's clubs as an intellectual and practical good which would create better women and a better country.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8930795//|title=The Value of Woman's Clubs|last=Bodine|first=W.L.|date=May 24, 1905|access-date=February 13, 2017|newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer}}

Sorosis and the GFWC saw large increases in membership in 1889 and 1890.{{Sfn|Decker|1906|pp=199–200}} The GFWC grew to around a million women by 1910, and to a million and a half by 1914.{{Sfn|Wood|Pennybacker|1914|p=80}} The creation of an umbrella organization for the many women's clubs allowed them to work together in a more coordinated fashion.{{Sfn|Beer|Ford|Joslin|2003|p=3}} However, the GFWC excluded African-American clubs from its membership, and many white clubs during the late 1800s excluded black women as well as Jewish women from membership.{{Sfn|Tolson|2008|pp=10–11}} White women's clubs ignored racial inequalities because of the controversy surrounding the issue, and even if they addressed racial inequalities, they did so "tactfully in order to gain members and support".{{Sfn|Rabaka|2012|pp=44–45}} Some white women's clubs were frankly unconcerned with issues relating to African Americans because they "supported the racist ideology and practices of their era".{{Sfn|Lang|2005|pp=5–6}}

In 1907, magazine publisher Edward Gardner Lewis created the American Woman's League as a marketing venture in support of his publications, Woman's Magazine and the Woman's Farm Journal, which formed local women's "Chapter Houses".{{cite web|title=The American Woman's League and the American Woman's Republic |url=http://history.ucpl.lib.mo.us/test/awlawrc.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061003001738/http://history.ucpl.lib.mo.us/test/awlawrc.asp |url-status=dead |archive-date=2006-10-03 }} Many evolved into prominent women's clubs and the network later became a more traditional organization with dues paid to its national office, the "American Woman's Republic".{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=86002158}}|title=American Women's League Chapter House / Peck Library|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=2023-09-27|author=Jennifer Eastman Attebery |date=April 29, 1986}} with {{NRHP url|id=86002158|photos=y|title=photo from 1986}}

Women's clubs were very active in women's suffrage (see below) and helped support the war effort during World War I. Women in clubs raised money, worked with the Red Cross, financed the Home Guard and set up communications within the community to share information quickly. Women's clubs also knitted socks, rolled bandages for soldiers and sold war bonds.{{Sfn|Parker|2010|p=129}} In Texas, the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs (TFWC) helped create recreational canteens for soldiers.{{Sfn|Johnson|n.d.|p=8}} During the 1930s, women's clubs hosted programs in concert with the Works Progress Administration.{{Cite web|url=http://spokanehistorical.org/items/show/285 |title=The Woman's Club of Spokane |last=Oesterheld |first=Frank |website=Spokane Historical |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170228085515/http://spokanehistorical.org/items/show/285 |archive-date=February 28, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 13, 2017 }} When World War II broke out, women's clubs were involved in volunteering.{{Sfn|Hansen|2003|p=56}}

In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, then, in 1966, the National Organization for Women (NOW) was formed,[https://books.google.com/books?id=hdjNDvvlFbEC&q=chronology The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America] Ruth Rosen, Viking, 2000, page 2013. Retrieved September 21, 2023. and women's clubs again grew in size.{{Sfn|Hansen|2003|p=56}}

While there were many organizations that encouraged change around child labor, the GFWC became advocates for some of the first child labor laws. Children were hired because they were cheaper and more manageable than adults.{{cite web |title=Impact and Accomplishments |url=https://www.gfwc.org/what-we-do/impact-accomplishments/ |website=General Federation of Women's Clubs}} During the early 1900s, women's labor organizations were formed to protect their rights. Among them, was Lenora O'Reilly who helped develop the WTUL that supported wage requests and promoted the end of child labor.{{cite web |title=Women's Trade Union League |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Womens-Trade-Union-League#ref1111293 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=13 February 2019}}

File:City Federation of Colored Women's Clubs of Jacksonville, State Meeting, Palatka, Florida. May 16, 1915.jpg

Even before African Americans were freed from slavery, black women had started to come together to create organizations which looked after their community's welfare.{{Sfn|Scott|1990|p=5}} Black women were very quick to "organize themselves for self-help".{{Sfn|Scott|1990|p=5}} One of the first African-American women's club was the Female Benevolent Society of St. Thomas, in Philadelphia, which was started in 1793.{{Sfn|Scott|1990|p=6}} At the time, Philadelphia had numerous black organizations.{{Cite journal|last=Hall |first=Peter Dobkin |title=The Popularization of Voluntary Associations |url=https://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/phall/05.%20Blacks.pdf |journal=Harvard |pages=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226131645/https://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/phall/05.%20Blacks.pdf |archive-date=February 26, 2017 |url-status=dead }} After the African Benevolent Society in Newport, Rhode Island, would not allow women to be officers or vote, women created their own group.{{Sfn|Scott|1990|p=6}} Another group, the Colored Female Religious and Moral Society in Salem, Massachusetts was created in 1818.{{Sfn|Scott|1990|p=6}} Black women's clubs helped raise money for the anti-slavery newspaper The North Star.{{Sfn|Scott|1990|p=6}} Many black churches owed their existence to the dedicated work of African-American women organizing in their communities.{{Sfn|Mjagkij|2001|p=235}} Black women's literary clubs began to show up as early as 1831, with the Female Literary Society of Philadelphia.{{Sfn|Dunbar|2008|p=101}}

After slavery was ended in the United States with the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865,{{Cite news|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.org/interactive/slavery-united-states/|title=A History of Slavery in the United States|date=January 31, 2016|work=National Geographic Society|access-date=December 21, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171125033237/https://www.nationalgeographic.org/interactive/slavery-united-states/|archive-date=November 25, 2017|language=en}} black women continued to organize and often worked with churches to ensure their communities were taken care of.{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d9lhBw8t410C&q=%22Colored%20Female%20Religious%20and%20Moral%20Society%22&pg=PA62|title=The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History|last=Shaw|first=Stephanie J.|publisher=Mariner Books|year=1999|isbn=978-0-618-00182-8|editor-last=Mankiller|editor-first=Wilma P.|edition=Reprint|pages=62–63|chapter=Black Clubwomen's Movement|editor-last2=Mink|editor-first2=Gwendolyn|editor-last3=Navarro|editor-first3=Marysa |editor-link3=Marysa Navarro|editor-last4=Smith|editor-first4=Barbara|editor-last5=Steinem|editor-first5=Gloria}}{{Sfn|Scott|1990|p=7}} Many of these organizations were "so resilient that they were able to survive the twin disasters of bank failure and yellow fever".{{Sfn|Scott|1990|p=7}} In 1868, black women's clubs were formed in Harris County, Texas.{{Cite news|url=http://www.womenintexashistory.org/timeline/ |title=Timeline |work=Women in Texas History |access-date=February 2, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170323170755/http://www.womenintexashistory.org/timeline |archive-date=March 23, 2017 |url-status=dead }} Between 1880 and 1920, black women in Indianapolis, Indiana had created more than 500 clubs addressing various issues.{{Sfn|Mjagkij|2001|p=235}}

During the Progressive era, many black women migrated to the Northern United States and into more urban areas.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/africanamericanwomen.html |title=African American Women During the Progressive Era |website=National Women's History Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230153222/https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/africanamericanwomen.html |archive-date=December 30, 2016 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 10, 2017 }} The club movement for black women in the 1890s began to focus on "social and political reform"{{Cite web|url=http://decolonizingourhistory.com/club-movement/ |title=The Black Women's Club Movement |website=DeColonizing Our History |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202052110/http://decolonizingourhistory.com/club-movement/ |archive-date=February 2, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=January 26, 2017 }} and were more secular.{{Sfn|Scott|1990|p=9}} Black women had to face the same issues as white women during this period but were often excluded from services and help that benefited whites only.{{Sfn|Scott|1990|p=15}} Black women were not only excluded from white clubs but also from clubs created by black men.{{Sfn|Rabaka|2012|p=45}} In addition, many black women felt as though they were defying stereotypes for their community.{{Sfn|Scott|1990|p=19}} Women's clubs allowed black women to combat the period's stereotypes which "portrayed African American women as devoid of morality, sexually wanton and incapable of upholding marital and family responsibilities".{{Sfn|Mjagkij|2001|p=492}} Being a member of a women's club also helped give black women greater social standing in their communities.{{Sfn|Lerner|1974|p=160}}

Black colleges helped the creation of African-American women's clubs.{{Sfn|Scott|1990|p=15}} Ida B. Wells was an important figure in the growth of these clubs during the Progressive Era.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/africanamericanreform.html |title=African American Reform Ethics |website=African American Reform Ethics |publisher=National Women's History Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230133743/https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/africanamericanreform.html |archive-date=December 30, 2016 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 5, 2017 }} A number of clubs, named after her, were created in large cities across the country.{{Sfn|Mjagkij|2001|p=229}} In Chicago, the wealthy former abolitionist Mary Jane Richardson Jones supported the development of several clubs, serving as the first chair of Wells's.{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/24468213 |title=Notable Black American Women |date=2003 |publisher=Gale Research |isbn=0-8103-4749-0 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Jessie Carney |volume=3 |location=Detroit |chapter=Jones, Mary Jane Richardson |oclc=24468213 |editor-last2=Phelps |editor-first2=Shirelle}}{{Cite book |last=Hendricks |first=Wanda A. |title=Fannie Barrier Williams: Crossing the Borders of Region and Race |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-252-09587-0 |location=Champaign, Illinois |pages= |oclc=1067196558}} Other influential women's club organizers were Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin and Mary Church Terrell.{{Sfn|Lerner|1974|p=161}} In 1896, the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) was founded. The NACW grew out of anti-lynching campaigns spearheaded by Wells. Wells's anti-lynching campaign provoked the president of the Missouri Press Association who viciously attacked black women in a letter that was widely circulated among women's clubs by Ruffin.{{Sfn|Zackodnik|2010|p=232}} Ruffin eventually helped bring together the NACW, using the letter as a "call to action".{{Sfn|Zackodnik|2010|p=232}}

File:007WHM-PAc-96-25-2.jpg

Both black and white women were involved in creating the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909 and were often involved in much of the organization's local work. By 1900, almost every black community had a women's club.{{Sfn|Scott|1990|p=16}} By 1910, in proportion to population size, African-American women's clubs outpaced white women's clubs in the number of clubs created.{{Sfn|Scott|1990|p=5}} By 1914, the NACW had fifty-thousand members and over a thousand clubs participating in the umbrella organization.{{Sfn|Scott|1990|p=17}} Black women wanted to be visible and NACW helped them organize to improve conditions in their communities.{{Sfn|Hendricks|1998|p=22}} There were also many African-American versions of the WCTU and the YWCA.{{Sfn|Scott|1990|p=17}}

The NACW raised more than $5 million in war bonds during World War I.{{Cite web|url=http://www.blackpast.org/aah/national-association-colored-women-s-clubs-inc-1896 |title=National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, Inc. (1896) |last=Wada |first=Kayomi |website=BlackPast.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170327095337/http://www.blackpast.org/aah/national-association-colored-women-s-clubs-inc-1896 |archive-date=March 27, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 11, 2017 }} The Woman's Club of Norfolk wrote letters and sent care packages to the segregated black units sent to fight overseas.{{Cite news|url=http://pilotonline.com/news/local/history/the-woman-s-club-of-norfolk-celebrates-years-of-reaching/article_681a7f36-3abb-576e-98fd-530f6b4e716e.html |title=The Woman's Club of Norfolk Celebrates 100 Years of Reaching Back and Moving Forward |last=Watson |first=Denise M. |date=June 6, 2016 |access-date=February 13, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223212102/http://pilotonline.com/news/local/history/the-woman-s-club-of-norfolk-celebrates-years-of-reaching/article_681a7f36-3abb-576e-98fd-530f6b4e716e.html |archive-date=February 23, 2017 |url-status=dead |newspaper=The Virginian-Pilot }} During the Great Depression, black women's clubs began to move towards "structural change and electoral politics".{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/black-womens-club-movement |title=Black Women's Club Movement |date=2006 |website=Encyclopedia.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223130843/http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/black-womens-club-movement |archive-date=February 23, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 8, 2017 }} The National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) became a dominant group in the women's club movement in African-American circles. After World War II, working class and poor black women took the place of upper-class black women in organizing communities.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jq-gCmP1CQsC&q=%22women's%20club%22%20movement&pg=PA150|title=Still Lifting, Still Climbing: Contemporary African American Women's Activism|last=Wright|first=Sharon D.|publisher=New York University Press|year=1999|isbn=0-8147-8124-1|editor-last=Springer|editor-first=Kimberly|location=New York|pages=150–151}}

Faculty wives' clubs began to be formed in many American universities in the early 20th century. They were brought together through the careers of the members' spouses. The clubs were localized around their particular affiliation and geographically restricted, thus most of their clubs did not receive the same volume of members nor the publicity of some of the earlier groups. However, their existence can still be seen in various archives at universities across the United States such as University of Washington, Kent State University, Emporia State University, and Ball State University.{{Cite web|url=http://www.washington.edu/uwfa/uwfa-history/|title=University of Washington Faculty Auxiliary History|website=University of Washington|access-date=April 2, 2018}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.library.kent.edu/special-collections-and-archives/faculty-wives-club-kent-state-university-records|title=Faculty Wives Club of Kent State University records|website=Kent State University Libraries|access-date=April 2, 2018}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.emporia.edu/~findingaids/faculty_wives.html|title=Faculty Wives Club Records|website=Emporia State University|access-date=April 2, 2018}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/archives/findingaids/RG-00-04-01.html|title=Ball State University Women's Club Records and Scrapbooks|website=Ball State University|access-date=April 2, 2018}}

These Faculty Wives clubs were formed during the Progressive era and served the same functions of community, cultural education, and service that characterized larger groups. One of the clubs' primary functions was fostering community among those affiliated with the university. The wives at Ball State University held regular dinners for their husbands, both to relieve stress and build relationships. At University of Washington the wives formed a "Newcomers club" to ensure that the new faculty wives felt welcome and included at the university.

Along with fostering relations, the various clubs volunteered their time and skills to benefit their wider community. At Emporia State University the Faculty Wives club made bandages for the Red Cross during World War I, and sewed regularly for the Red Cross during World War II. At Ball State University the club sewed regularly at the local hospital.

The Faculty Wives clubs were prominent throughout much of the 20th century. During the latter half, some of the clubs merged with other groups to form University Women's club, reflecting the change in faculty diversity and gender roles in the United States. Other wives clubs have remained independent and vibrant in their community, like the one at the University of Washington.

African-American women's clubs began to decline in the 1920s.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TMZMAgAAQBAJ&q=decline%20%22women's%20club%20movement%22&pg=RA1-PA628|title=Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0-19-517055-9|editor-last=Gates|editor-first=Henry Louis Jr.|pages=628|editor-last2=Appiah|editor-first2=Kwame Anthony}} By the 1960s, interest and membership in white women's clubs started to decline. As women had more opportunities to socialize, many clubs found their members were aging and were unable to recruit newer members.{{Sfn|Johnson|n.d.|pp=2–3}}

Women's clubs began to turn over their work to city entities and became less influential.{{Sfn|Lang|2005|pp=8–9}} In addition, more women began to enter the workforce during the 1960s and had less spare time to devote to club work.{{Cite web|url=http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=WO002 |title=Women's Club Movement |last=Wilson |first=Linda D. |date=2009 |website=Oklahoma Historical Society |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301092901/http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=WO002 |archive-date=March 1, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 8, 2017 }}

Many women today are working long hours or spending time with their children's extracurricular activities.{{Cite news|url=http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/seminole/os-altamonte-springs-womens-club-anniversary-20160406-story.html |title=Women's clubs struggle to find new, younger members |last=Comas |first=Martin E. |date=April 6, 2016 |access-date=February 9, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301181727/http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/seminole/os-altamonte-springs-womens-club-anniversary-20160406-story.html |archive-date=March 1, 2017 |url-status=dead |newspaper=Orlando Sentinel }} By 2010, the number of women's clubs had significantly decreased across the country.{{Cite web|url=http://maynard.wickedlocal.com/article/20150723/news/150728278|title=The decline of Maynard Woman's Club|date=July 23, 2017|website=Wicked Local Maynard|access-date=February 8, 2017}} This reflects a trend in all club memberships in the United States: most clubs are losing members because there is a lack of leisure time for younger people.

File:University_Woman's_Club_at_the_University_of_the_Fraser_Valley.jpg

Some clubs are still active. The Houston Heights Woman's Club and The Women's Club of Forest Hills have found ways to reach out to younger residents in the community as recently as 2007 with the creation of an evening group.{{Cite journal|last=Dove |first=Lindsay Scovil |year=2013 |title=Houston Height Woman's Club: Over 100 Years of Friendship and Philanthropy |url=https://houstonhistorymagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/heights-womans-club.pdf |journal=Houston History Magazine |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=20–21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223212938/https://houstonhistorymagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/heights-womans-club.pdf |archive-date=February 23, 2017 |url-status=dead }} Some clubs have had success with creating programs that are meant to be attractive to younger women.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/us/10ebell.html |title=A Sanctuary for Women, Even Today |last=Steinhauer |first=Jennifer |date=August 9, 2010 |access-date=February 9, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223131213/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/us/10ebell.html |archive-date=February 23, 2017 |url-status=dead |newspaper=The New York Times }} The Des Moines Women's Club established in 1885, continues to support the community today with scholarships, an annual art exhibition, and continued support to its historic club house and museum, Hoyt Sherman Place. Shirlee Haizlip, president of the Ebell Club in Los Angeles, emphasizes what makes women's clubs unique: "It is a wondrous thing to be constantly surrounded by three generations of women."

Women's clubs continue their original missions of concern for the welfare of their communities.{{Cite web|url=http://m.visitflorida.com/en-us/articles/2011/september/1890-the-florida-womens-club-movement.mobile.html |title=The Florida Women's Club Movement |website=Visit Florida |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170405174411/http://www.visitflorida.com/en-us/things-to-do/arts-history/the-florida-womens-club-movement.html |archive-date=April 5, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 8, 2017 }} The GFWC gives out the Croly Award for excellence in journalism on topics relating to women. The GFWC also provides scholarships for women, especially those who have survived domestic violence.{{Cite news|url=http://www.gfwc.org/what-we-do/impact-accomplishments/croly-award/ |title=Croly Award |access-date=February 9, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161119213536/http://www.gfwc.org/what-we-do/impact-accomplishments/croly-award/ |archive-date=November 19, 2016 |url-status=dead |language=en-US |newspaper=GFWC }} The NACWC continues to be one of the top ten non-profit organizations in the United States.{{Cite web|url=http://themississippilink.com/2016/02/25/historic-colored-womens-club-still-growing/ |title=Historic Colored Women's Club still growing |last=Bell |first=Natalie |date=February 25, 2016 |website=The Mississippi Link |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223211949/http://themississippilink.com/2016/02/25/historic-colored-womens-club-still-growing/ |archive-date=February 23, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 9, 2017 }} It has adopted modern issues to tackle, such as fighting AIDS and violence against women. Many of today's women's clubs also provide cultural opportunities for their communities.{{Sfn|Hansen|2003|p=62}} Some groups continue to support their original missions, such as the Alpha Home, which provides care for elderly black people.{{Sfn|Mjagkij|2001|p=235}}

Women's clubs that endured into the modern era were adaptable in response to societal changes over time.{{Cite web|url=https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/glossary/womens-city-club-ny.cfm |title=Women's City Club of New York |website=The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project |publisher=The George Washington University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161119133950/https://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/glossary/womens-city-club-ny.cfm |archive-date=November 19, 2016 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 28, 2017 }} The missions of women's clubs, like the Colony Club, founded in 1903, and the Cosmopolitan Club, founded in 1909, remain relevant today, and the clubs remain successful.[https://guestofaguest.com/new-york/nyc-society/the-most-exclusive-womens-only-clubs-in-manhattan&slide=3 "The Most exclusive Women-Only Clubs In Manhattan"] Andrea Uku, Guest of a Guest, May 8, 2012. Retrieved September 21, 2023.

During the early 21st century, numerous new private women's clubs formed in support of personal and professional affiliations and business networking,[https://www.fastcompany.com/90448654/the-benefits-of-womens-networking-groups "Why professional networking groups for women remain valuable"] Kristen Hicks, Fast Company, January 7, 2020. Retrieved September 21, 2023. including AllBright, Belizean Grove, The Riveter, The Wing and Chief,[https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a34240270/the-high-price-of-female-friendship/ "The High Price of Female Friendship"] Marisa Meltzer, Town & Country, October 11, 2020. Retrieved September 23, 2023. with growth attributed to factors including advances in technology and the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.[https://www.entrepreneur.com/leadership/this-is-why-we-still-need-womens-networking-groups/403316 "This Is Why We Still Need Women's Networking Groups"] Robin Buckley, Entrepreneur, December 20, 2021. Retrieved September 21, 2023.

Women's clubs, especially during the Progressive era, helped shape their communities and the country. Many progressive ideals were pressed into action through the resources of women's clubs, including kindergartens, juvenile courts, and park conservation.{{Sfn|Merchant|1984|p=61}}{{Sfn|Sherman|1906|p=44}} Women's clubs, many with their literary backgrounds, helped promote and raise money for schools, universities and libraries.{{Sfn|Watson|2003|p=81}}{{Sfn|Sherman|1906|p=37}} Women's clubs were often at the forefront of various civil rights issues, denouncing lynching, promoting women's rights and voting rights.{{Sfn|Winter|1921|p=636}}

Women's clubs helped promote civil rights, as well as improving conditions for black women in the country.{{Cite web|url=http://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/women%C2%92s-clubs/ |title=Women's Clubs |last=Jones |first=Cherisse R. |date=July 7, 2016 |website=South Carolina Encyclopedia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223133639/http://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/women%C2%92s-clubs/ |archive-date=February 23, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 20, 2017 }} Some women's clubs also worked to understand people's fear of immigrants during the late 1900s.{{Sfn|Beer|Ford|Joslin|2003|p=9}} Settlement houses, created by women's clubs, helped settle and integrate European immigrants.{{Sfn|Parker|2010|p=124}}

The Fannie Jackson Coppin Club was created in 1899 by members of the Beth Eden Baptist Church, one of the oldest African-American religious institutions in Oakland, California, to "provide hospitality and housing services to African-American visitors who were not welcomed in the segregated hotels and other businesses" in the state.{{Cite web|url=http://www.blackpast.org/aaw/fannie-jackson-coppin-club |title=Fannie Jackson Coppin Club |last=Moore |first=Shirley Ann Wilson |website=BlackPast.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223211512/http://www.blackpast.org/aaw/fannie-jackson-coppin-club |archive-date=February 23, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 11, 2017 }} Some white women's clubs promoted desegregation early on, though these efforts were small in scope. The Chicago Woman's Club admitted a black member, Fannie Barrier Williams, only after a long approval process,{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8297067//|title=Mrs. Henrotin, the President of the Gen-|date=December 23, 1894|work=The New York Times|access-date=January 11, 2017|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8297108//|title=Color Versus Intelligence|last=Field|first=Kate|date=January 12, 1895|work=Chicago Daily Tribune|access-date=January 11, 2017|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8299378//|title=The Color Question|date=February 5, 1896|access-date=January 11, 2017|work=Harrisburg Daily Independent|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8299239//|title=Black Bats White|date=January 24, 1896|work=The Salt Lake Tribune|access-date=January 11, 2017|via=Newspapers.com}} which included the club deciding not to exclude anyone based on race.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8297156//|title=Against Race and Color Lines|date=January 24, 1895|work=Chicago Daily Tribune|access-date=January 11, 2017|via=Newspapers.com}} Few clubs worked together across racial boundaries, although the YWCA and the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching (ASWPL) did sometimes welcome bi-racial collaboration.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/racialdivisions.html |title=Racial Divisions in the Progressive Era |website=National Women's History Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230140807/https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/racialdivisions.html |archive-date=December 30, 2016 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 19, 2017 }}

The Woman's Missionary Council of the Southern Methodist Church spoke out against lynching.{{Sfn|Scott|1990|p=19}} Women's clubs, like the Texas Association of Women's Clubs also denounced lynching.{{Cite web|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/vet01 |title=Texas Association of Women's Clubs |last=Winegarten |first=Ruthe |date=February 4, 2017 |website=Texas Handbook Online |publisher=Texas State Historical Association |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205101336/https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/vet01 |archive-date=February 5, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 4, 2017 }} The purpose of the ASWPL was to end lynching in the United States.{{Cite journal|last1=Dykeman|first1=Wilma|last2=Stokely|first2=James|date=November 1957|title=The Plight of Southern White Women|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=48807134&site=ehost-live|journal=Ebony|volume=13|issue=1|pages=32–42|access-date=February 19, 2017|url-access=subscription |via=EBSCOhost}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.southernstudies.org/2013/03/from-the-southern-exposure-archives-women-and-lynching.html |title=From the Southern Exposure Archives: Women and Lynching |last=Hall |first=Jacquelyn |date=March 8, 2013 |website=Facing South |publisher=The Institute for Southern Studies |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309032145/http://www.southernstudies.org/2013/03/from-the-southern-exposure-archives-women-and-lynching.html |archive-date=March 9, 2016 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 19, 2017 }}

Women's groups, like the NACWC, began to support desegregation in the 1950s. The Montana Federation of Colored Women's Clubs led campaigns for civil rights between 1949 and 1955.{{Cite web|url=http://montanawomenshistory.org/lifting-as-we-climb-the-activism-of-the-montana-federation-of-colored-womens-clubs/ |title="Lifting as We Climb": The Activism of the Montana Federation of Colored Women's Clubs |date=July 1, 2014 |website=Women's History Matters |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170331034611/http://montanawomenshistory.org/lifting-as-we-climb-the-activism-of-the-montana-federation-of-colored-womens-clubs/ |archive-date=March 31, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 11, 2017 }} They also helped draft anti-segregation legislation. The initial organizer of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 was the Women's Political Council of Montgomery.{{Sfn|Scott|1990|p=22}}

Women's clubs were noted for promoting educational efforts around the country by their contemporaries.{{Sfn|Stewart|1908|p=536}} Putting women onto school boards was part of many women's club agendas in the late 1800s{{Sfn|Decker|1906|pp=201–202}} and early 1900s.{{Sfn|Stewart|1908|p=537}} Women's groups also influenced discussions about classroom size; the Chicago Woman's City Club asking that there be no more than thirty children per class.{{Sfn|Flanagan|1990|p=1041}} Chicago clubs also helped sponsor school lunches for students.{{Sfn|Sherman|1906|p=35}} Clubwomen have also protested cuts in teacher's salaries. Black women's clubs worked to create educational opportunities for their communities when these areas were ignored by white people.{{Sfn|Rabaka|2012|p=59}}

Kindergartens and nursery schools in the United States were the creation of women's clubs. The first nursery school in the United States was created through women's clubs and club members in Chicago.{{Cite web|url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/alschuler-rose-haas |title=Rose Haas Alschuler |last=Bornstein |first=Sandra K. |website=Jewish Women's Archives |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160805051501/http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/alschuler-rose-haas |archive-date=August 5, 2016 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 13, 2017 }} The Woman's Club of El Paso started the first kindergarten in the state of Texas in 1893.{{Cite news|url=http://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/local/community/2016/02/21/womans-club-members-shaped-el-paso-history/80650268/|title=Woman's Club Members Shaped El Paso History|last=Weiser|first=Abbie|date=February 21, 2016|access-date=February 6, 2017|work=El Paso Times}}{{Sfn|Cunningham|1978|pp=8–10}} Women's clubs were often involved with creating schools for delinquent boys and girls. The Texas Association of Women's Clubs (TAWC) worked for several decades to create what would later become the Crockett State School which was originally meant to help "delinquent" black girls.{{Cite web|url=http://www.twu.edu/library/tawc_history.asp |title=Historical Background |website=TAWC History |publisher=Texas Woman's University Libraries |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205101117/http://www.twu.edu/library/tawc_history.asp |archive-date=February 5, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 4, 2017 }}

Women's clubs were involved in vocational training and pushing for additional educational options for all young people. The Woman's City Club worked with the Chicago Woman's Club and the Association of Collegiate Alumnae to create a Bureau of Vocational Supervision which could take a "personal interest in schoolchildren, working directly to place them in appropriate jobs when they left school".{{Sfn|Flanagan|1990|p=1041}} The Bureau also created scholarships for needy students.{{Sfn|Flanagan|1990|p=1041}} The Chicago Woman's Club raised $40,000 to create an industrial school for boys in Glenwood, Illinois.{{Sfn|Sherman|1906|p=34}} Hester C. Jeffrey established women's clubs which helped raise the funds for young black women to take classes at what would later become the Rochester Institute of Technology.{{Cite web|url=https://rrlc.org/winningthevote/biographies/hester-jeffrey/ |title=Hester Jeffrey |website=Western New York Suffragists: Winning the Vote |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161107155142/https://rrlc.org/winningthevote/biographies/hester-jeffrey/ |archive-date=November 7, 2016 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 11, 2016 }} Clubs, like the Chicago Woman's Club, taught the blind and provided job skills.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8354486//|title=Real Help for the Unfortunate|date=January 2, 1911|access-date=February 13, 2017|work=The Inter Ocean}}

Many women's clubs believed that compulsory education for young people would help solve many child labor issues.{{Sfn|Stewart|1908|p=537}} In Chicago, the Woman's City Club worked with other clubs in order to help students stay in school past age 14.{{Sfn|Flanagan|1990|p=1040}} The Illinois Collegiate Alumnae association helped the government draw up a law in 1897 to ensure that children between the ages of seven and fourteen were in school for sixteen weeks of the year.{{Sfn|Sherman|1906|p=34}}

Women's clubs helped support and influence the creation of higher education. The Texas Federation of Women's Clubs "was a significant force behind the establishment of Texas Woman's University."{{Cite web|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/vnt01 |title=Texas Federation of Women's Clubs |last=Seaholm |first=Megan |date=June 15, 2010 |website=Texas Handbook Online |publisher=Texas State Historical Association |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160322012515/https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/vnt01 |archive-date=March 22, 2016 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 4, 2017 }} Women's clubs helped raise money for new college buildings.{{Sfn|Sherman|1906|p=37}} Other clubs created scholarship funds for their communities.{{Cite news|url=http://kingston.wickedlocal.com/news/20160217/plymouth-womans-club-local-ladies-activist-group-dissolves |title=Plymouth Woman's Club: Local Ladies Activist Group Dissolves |last=Clark |first=Emily |date=February 17, 2016 |access-date=February 13, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170331211842/http://kingston.wickedlocal.com/news/20160217/plymouth-womans-club-local-ladies-activist-group-dissolves |archive-date=March 31, 2017 |url-status=dead |newspaper=Wicked Local Kingston }} These organizations also helped produce research showing that higher education benefited women.{{Sfn|Johnson|n.d.|p=12}} Women's clubs today continue to sponsor scholarships for higher education.{{Cite web|url=http://www.womansclubofwhiteplains.org/About-Us.html |title=The Woman's Club of White Plains |website=The Woman's Club of White Plains |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223130305/http://www.womansclubofwhiteplains.org/About-Us.html |archive-date=February 23, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 10, 2017 }}

Women's club activities were seen by contemporaries as helping to spread art appreciation across the country.{{Cite journal|date=March 1918|title=Art in the Women's Clubs|jstor=23935699|journal=The American Magazine of Art|volume=9|issue=5|pages=209}} Clubwomen would often donate art to schools.{{Sfn|Sherman|1906|p=33}} Other clubs created traveling art collections and art libraries for communities.{{Sfn|Sherman|1906|p=46}} Clubs also hosted arts exhibits.{{Sfn|Moore|1906|p=59}} The FFWC promoted Old Folks at Home by Stephen Foster as the state song.

African-American women promoted the arts, focusing on "celebrating African American traditions and culture."{{Sfn|Rabaka|2012|pp=59–60}} These included African-American music, theater and dance.{{Sfn|Rabaka|2012|pp=59-60}} Clubwomen saw themselves as carrying on both art and tradition of their lives in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century.{{Sfn|Rabaka|2012|pp=60-61}} The Chicago and Northern District Association of Colored Women's Clubs (CNDA) hosted well-known singers such as Etta Moten.{{Sfn|Knupfer|2006|p=102}} CNDA also hosted an exhibit of African art, literature, and music called The Negro in Art Week in 1927.{{Sfn|Knupfer|2006|p=104}}

File:Photo_by_Katherine_Elizabeth_McClellan.jpg, 1898]]

File:Pamphlet on roadside beautification, General Federation of Women's Clubs - DPLA - 350ee47a4cafa4cbd33905da4798b4da.pdf

Women's clubs were involved in protecting natural resources. Many women's clubs started out by beautifying their cities and states. Clubs would sponsor and maintain playgrounds,{{Sfn|Moore|1906|p=59}}{{Sfn|Hansen|2003|p=58}} and dedicate and maintain cemeteries.{{Cite news|url=http://www.ruidosonews.com/story/news/local/community/2016/03/15/carrizozo-womans-club-has-deep-roots/81820358/ |title=Carrizozo Woman's Club Has Deep Roots |last=Maue |first=Lisa |date=March 15, 2016 |access-date=February 13, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170214102854/http://www.ruidosonews.com/story/news/local/community/2016/03/15/carrizozo-womans-club-has-deep-roots/81820358/ |archive-date=February 14, 2017 |url-status=dead |newspaper=Ruidoso News }} Later, clubs, like a Michigan women's club, would work to reforest parts of the state.{{Sfn|Sherman|1906|p=48}} In Idaho, women's clubs helped prevent logging in national forests.{{Sfn|Hansen|2003|p=59}} GFWC had been active since 1890 in areas related to forestry and had a forestry committee.{{Sfn|Merchant|1984|p=61}} This committee also disseminated information about conservation to the 800,000 members of the group.{{Sfn|Merchant|1984|p=62}} The GFWC later sponsored "a natural scenic area survey" of the United States in 1915 in order to discover areas that needed conservation.{{Sfn|Kaufman|2006|p=33}} As women saw environmentally fragile areas start to be developed, many objected. Women worked within existing clubs, and also formed new conservation-based clubs, to protect the environment.{{Sfn|Merchant|1984|p=59}}

Women's clubs helped in the creation of the Mesa Verde National Park.{{Sfn|Decker|1906|p=201}} Under the direction of Virginia McClurg, women's organizations in Colorado supported the creation of the park.{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/people/behindtheparks/2/ |title=People Behind the Parks |website=PBS |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170228082137/http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/people/behindtheparks/2/ |archive-date=February 28, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 6, 2017 }} The Colorado Federation of Women's Clubs (CFWC) helped McClurg, and created a committee that would eventually become the Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association.{{Cite news|url=http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2008/06/park-history-would-there-have-been-mesa-verde-national-park-without-virginia-mcclurg |title=Park History: Would There Have Been a Mesa Verde National Park Without Virginia McClurg? |last=Janiskee |first=Bob |date=June 29, 2008 |access-date=February 6, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170228163159/http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2008/06/park-history-would-there-have-been-mesa-verde-national-park-without-virginia-mcclurg |archive-date=February 28, 2017 |url-status=dead |newspaper=National Parks Traveler }} In California, women's clubs helped preserve Sequoia trees and protested against "the environmentally destructive Hetch Hetchy Dam".{{Sfn|Hansen|2003|p=59}} May Mann Jennings and the Florida Federation of Women's Clubs campaigned to create Florida's first state park in 1916, Royal Palm State Park which became the nucleus of Everglades National Park".{{Sfn|Kaufman|2006|p=33}}{{cite web |title=Royal Palm State Park |url=https://www.nps.gov/ever/learn/historyculture/royal-palm.htm |website=NPS.gov |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=8 February 2023}} Idaho women's clubs also helped establish some of the first national parks; and in Utah, women's clubs "were instrumental in preserving Monument Valley".{{Sfn|Hansen|2003|p=59}} Pennsylvanian women's clubs successfully lobbied for the creation of the Pennsylvania Department of Forestry.{{Sfn|Merchant|1984|p=63}} In 1916, the GFWC supported the creation of the National Park Service.{{Sfn|Kaufman|2006|p=32}}

In the 1930s, clubwomen involved in the PEO Sisterhood, protected the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado.{{Sfn|Kaufman|2006|p=36}} In New Mexico, the Valley of Fires Recreation Area was created through the work of the Carrizozo Woman's Club.

Women's clubs also helped preserve historical areas. As early as 1856, a women's organization, the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, began the process of restoring and preserving Mount Vernon.{{Sfn|Kaufman|2006|p=45}} In addition to their preservation and conservation efforts, women's clubs in the United States (especially women in the African American Club movement) pioneered environmental activism strategies that laid the foundation for later environmental justice organizing. In fact, many black women created "redemptive spaces" for black immigrants from the rural south in northern cities in the United States where they repurposed abandoned buildings as "community centers, settlement houses, parks and playgrounds."{{Cite book|last=Stover|first=Kayla|title=The Oxford Handbook of US Women's Social Movement Activism|publisher=Oxford|year=2017|location=New York}}

The Woman's City Club and the City Club of Chicago both worked on issues relating to waste disposal.{{Sfn|Flanagan|1990|pp=1038–1039}} The Woman's City Club was, in contrast, more interested in the health and safety of the city as opposed to the men's group who were more interested in making money from sanitation.{{Sfn|Flanagan|1990|pp=1038–1039}} The Carrizozo Woman's Club of New Mexico helped bring sanitation to their city.

Women's club members were involved in hospital reform and the creation of hospitals. In Seattle, Anna Herr Clise created what later became the Seattle Children's Hospital.{{Cite web|url=http://www.historylink.org/File/9170 |title=Women's Club Movement in Washington |last=Blair |first=Karen J. |date=September 27, 2009 |website=History Link |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170228084933/http://www.historylink.org/File/9170 |archive-date=February 28, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=January 28, 2017 }} Other clubs helped set up health centers and clinics.{{Sfn|Lerner|1974|p=164}}

Women's clubs were involved with improving public hygiene and food and drug safety.

The Ladies' Health Protective Association was established in New York City in November 1884 to address unsanitary conditions in the abattoir district, and by 1897 had become a national organization.{{cite book |last1=Smith|first1=Alfred Emanuel|last2=Walton|first2=Francis|title=New Outlook |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zdUhAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA99|year=1895|publisher=Outlook publishing Company}}{{sfn|Croly|1898|p=[https://archive.org/details/historyofwomansc00crol/page/1046/mode/2up 1046]}}

Women in The Pure Foods Movement, including the Pure Food Committee of the GFWC, were lobbied for a Federal bill known as the Pure Food and Drug Act.{{Sfn|Decker|1906|p=202}} In Indiana, clubwomen "secured a state laboratory of hygiene under the control of the board of health, charged with the duty of examining food and drugs and aiding in the enforcement of health laws".{{Sfn|Sherman|1906|p=38}} Other clubs, like the Plymouth Woman's Club, undertook restaurant inspections on their own when there were no laws in place to regulate sanitary conditions. Women were also involved in promoting clean and safe drinking water in their communities.{{Sfn|Merchant|1984|p=63}}

Many women's clubs were involved in the birth control movement and promoted sex education.{{Cite news|url=http://www.denverpost.com/1916/09/29/club-women-to-defy-law-and-preach-birth-control/|title=Club Women To Defy Law and Preach Birth Control|date=September 29, 1916|access-date=January 18, 2017|work=The Denver Post}} Women's clubs promoted talks from experts on birth control.{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/news/topics/sanger.html |title=Topics in Chronicling America – Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement |website=Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room |publisher=Library of Congress |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407105957/http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/topics/sanger.html |archive-date=April 7, 2016 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 10, 2017 }}{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19360228&id=ypFRAAAAIBAJ&pg=4381,1868170|title=Westmoreland County Clubs Will Hear Discussion of Birth Control, Sterilization|last=Perry|first=Mrs. Richard B.|date=February 28, 1936|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|access-date=February 12, 2017}} The Chicago Women's Club helped organize the Illinois Birth Control League,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=17ZZTGWTodIC&q=%22illinois%20birth%20control%20league%22&pg=PA37|title=Birth Control on Main Street: Organizing Clinics in the United States, 1916–1939|last=Hajo|first=Cathy Moran|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-252-03536-4|location=Chicago|pages=37}} which later set up clinics around Chicago.{{Cite web|url=http://hullhouse.uic.edu/hull/urbanexp/main.cgi?file=new/show_doc.ptt&doc=164&chap=42 |title=Rachelle Slobodinsky Yarros |last=Haslett |first=Diane C. |date=2001 |website=Urban Experience in Chicago: Hull-House and Its Neighborhoods, 1889–1963 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170116165900/http://hullhouse.uic.edu/hull/urbanexp/main.cgi?file=new%2Fshow_doc.ptt&doc=164&chap=42 |archive-date=January 16, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=January 23, 2017 }}{{Cite news|url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1937/06/06/page/82/article/illinois-birth-control-league-is-vital-social-agency|title=Illinois Birth Control League is Vital Social Agency|last=De Young|first=Ruth|date=June 6, 1937|access-date=January 23, 2017|work=Chicago Tribune}} In Reading, Pennsylvania in 1937, Margaret Sanger was a sponsored speaker on a radio program sponsored by the Woman's Club.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/webedition/app/documents/show.php?sangerDoc=236044.xml |title=Margaret Sanger, "The Real Meaning of Birth Control," 30 Mar 1937. |website=The Public Writings and Speeches of Margaret Sanger 1911–1960 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160507002412/http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/webedition/app/documents/show.php?sangerDoc=236044.xml |archive-date=May 7, 2016 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 10, 2017 }}

{{See also|Public libraries in North America}}

File:Mrs_Willie_Massey_with_traveling_library.png. 1899]]

The GFWC developed a national agenda for libraries across the country.{{Sfn|Watson|2003|p=81}} Clubwomen believed that having access to books made people's lives better.{{Sfn|Watson|2003|p=82}} Women's clubs helped establish many public libraries by contributing their book collections, raising money for building construction through a variety of activities for years, acting as librarians, cataloguing early collections, enlisting male leaders for public funding, and other management activities.Watson, "Founding Mothers," p. 236. After the public libraries were established, women's clubs lobbied on behalf of the public libraries in state legislatures and also for funding from the Carnegie Library Endowment. According to the American Library Association (ALA) and GFWC, women's clubs are estimated to have started between 75 and 80 percent of the public libraries in the United States.Teva Scheer, "The 'Praxis' Side of the Equation: Club Women and American Public Administration," Administrative Theory & Praxis, vol. 24, no 3 (2002), p. 525. In New York, Melvil Dewey found clubwomen in his state to "be staunch allies".{{Sfn|Watson|2003|pp=87–88}}

Often, women's clubs had created their own private libraries, and from this experience wished to create community libraries for everyone to use.{{Sfn|Watson|2003|p=74}} Many women's clubs made the creation of public libraries an important part of their mission. The Woman's Club of Bala Cynwyd was formed with the main initial purpose of creating of a public library in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.{{Cite news|url=http://www.mainlinemedianews.com/mainlinetimes/life/a-century-of-service-and-elegancethe-woman-s-club-of/article_6a10ee86-e1c4-5452-90c2-390fb4e13afd.html|title=A century of service and elegance The Woman's Club of Bala Cynwyd celebrates its centenary, and it's not just for girls anymore|last=O'Loughlin|first=Kathy|date=March 16, 2012|work=Main Line Times|access-date=February 4, 2017}} In Colorado, women's clubs established "traveling libraries" in conjunction with the state government.{{Sfn|Stewart|1908|p=538}} They were well-received and very popular in the early 1900s around the country.{{Sfn|Watson|2003|p=76}} In Georgia, clubwomen used their traveling libraries to help combat illiteracy in both the white and black communities.{{Sfn|Watson|2003|p=80}} In South Carolina, the traveling libraries belonged to women's clubs, but were available to the public.{{Cite web|url=https://library.sc.edu/blogs/newspaper/2013/03/27/from-socialization-to-social-change/ |title=From Socialization to Social Change: Women's Clubs of South Carolina |last=Blair |first=Laura |date=March 27, 2013 |website=South Carolina Digital Newspaper Program |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170331114710/https://library.sc.edu/blogs/newspaper/2013/03/27/from-socialization-to-social-change/ |archive-date=March 31, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 19, 2017 }}

Cherokee County, Texas saw the creation of its first public library with the founding of the Bachelor Girl's Literary Club.{{Cite news|url=http://www.sfasu.edu/heritagecenter/7797.asp |title=History of Women's Clubs in Cherokee County Begins with the Bachelor Girls in 1902 |last=Burkett |first=Deborah |date=May 2013 |access-date=February 6, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170331114916/http://www.sfasu.edu/heritagecenter/7797.asp |archive-date=March 31, 2017 |url-status=dead |newspaper=Stephen F. Austin State University }} The El Paso Public Library was created largely by members of the Woman's Club of El Paso. In Texas, the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs (TFWC) helped influence the creation of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission and the Texas Historical Commission. Around seventy percent of all libraries in Texas were brought into existence because of TFWC.{{Sfn|Johnson|n.d.|p=5}} Clubwomen in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, helped secure taxes to support their public library.{{Sfn|Sherman|1906|p=49}} Other clubs, like those in Kentucky and Tennessee, taxed club memberships to support their libraries.{{Sfn|Watson|2003|p=77}} When libraries were threatened with elimination, clubs like the Woman's Club of Norfolk protested.

Women's clubs were involved in tracking and investigating child labor and working conditions of all workers in the United States in the late nineteenth century.{{Sfn|Decker|1906|p=202}} Clubwomen worked to reduce the number of hours children were allowed to work in the state of Indiana.{{Sfn|Sherman|1906|p=44}}

Some women's clubs became active in labor strikes. The Woman's City Club of Chicago became involved in strike resolution.{{Sfn|Flanagan|1990|p=1043}} The Woman's City Club also demanded that picketers be protected by policewomen.{{Sfn|Flanagan|1990|p=1043}} The Woman's Club of Chicago helped form the Illinois Woman's Alliance (IWA) in order to "prevent the exploitation of women in sweatshops".{{Sfn|Tolson|2008|p=36}} Women-led organizations, like the National Consumers League (NCL), developed a "white label" for stores that met the organization's standards for minimum wages and decent working hours.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/consumerleague.html |title=The National Consumers League |website=National Women's History Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230143949/https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/consumerleague.html |archive-date=December 30, 2016 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 19, 2017 }}

Women's clubs helped establish juvenile courts. The first juvenile court was established in Chicago in 1899 through the urging of the Chicago Woman's Club whose members felt that children should not be treated as adults by the court.{{Sfn|Sherman|1906|p=40}} Clubwomen from the Chicago Woman's Club went to court with many of the children in order to ensure they were being treated fairly.{{Sfn|Tolson|2008|p=36}} The Chicago Woman's Club also established a Protective Agency for Women and Children in 1886.{{Cite web|url=http://www.chicagohistoryfair.org/research/find-topics/94-chicago-women-history-topics.html |title=Women's History |last=Schultz |first=Rima Lunin |website=Chicago Metropolitan History Fair |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170116202648/http://www.chicagohistoryfair.org/research/find-topics/94-chicago-women-history-topics.html |archive-date=January 16, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=January 7, 2017 }}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8266407//|title=The formation of a society having for its|date=March 27, 1886|access-date=January 9, 2017|work=The Inter Ocean|via=Newspapers.com}}

Juvenile law in Chicago also recognized children who were without legal guardians and who should be dependent on the state.{{Sfn|Sherman|1906|p=40}} By 1906, there were juvenile courts in twenty-five states.{{Sfn|Decker|1906|p=203}} These courts were praised by contemporaries, like Mrs. John Dickinson Sherman, who wrote in 1906 of the establishment of the juvenile courts, "If the whole club movement of the six states in the last ten years had accomplished nothing else it would still be well worth while."{{Sfn|Sherman|1906|p=39}} Women's clubs helped pass juvenile court laws in Ohio, Missouri,{{Sfn|Sherman|1906|p=44}} and in Los Angeles.{{Sfn|Hansen|2003|p=58}}

Women's clubs helped work towards marriage reforms which would benefit women. An act passed on March 2, 1907, called the Expatriation Act, required that when a woman married, she took on the citizenship of her husband.{{Cite journal|last=Smith |first=Marian L. |year=1998 |title=Women and Naturalization, Part 1 |url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1998/summer/women-and-naturalization-1.html |journal=Prologue Magazine |volume=30 |issue=2 |via=National Archives |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161216033406/https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1998/summer/women-and-naturalization-1.html |archive-date=December 16, 2016 }} For women to attain a civic or legal identity, such as the right to vote, they needed to have independence from their husbands' citizenship.{{Sfn|Winter|1921|p=638}} Marriage laws in 1921 still had separate standards for married women's citizenship status depending on her state of residence.{{Sfn|Winter|1921|p=638}} Finally, in 1922, the United States Congress passed the Married Women's Act, granting married women their own nationality in the United States. In 1936, Congress created a provision for women who had lost their citizenship due to marriage, and were no longer married, to re-swear allegiance to the United States.{{Cite journal|last=Smith|first=Marian L.|year=1998|title=Women and Naturalization, Part 2|url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1998/summer/women-and-naturalization-2.html|journal=Prologue Magazine|volume=30|issue=2|via=National Archives}}{{Sfn|Bredbenner|1998|pp=86–87}}

Women's clubs also looked at issues of consent. The Chicago Woman's Club, which created the Protective Agency for Women and Children, presented bills to the legislature which later passed. One raised the age of consent from 14 to 18.{{Sfn|Sherman|1906|p=44}} Women's clubs helped assert the right of women to refuse to have sex with their husbands if they chose.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/birthcontrol.html |title=Causes: The Birth Control Movement |website=National Women's History Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230084600/https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/birthcontrol.html |archive-date=December 30, 2016 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 10, 2017 }}

The Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) of Washington state was involved in urging the city of Spokane to hire a female jail matron for women prisoners in 1902. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn helped expose sexual abuse of women prisoners in the jails during the Free Speech Movement of 1909, and helped to push the city to finally install a female jail matron in Spokane. The Chicago Woman's Club advocated for a female jail matron in 1884.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8263717//|title=The County Board|date=April 16, 1884|access-date=January 9, 2017|work=Chicago Daily Tribune|via=Newspapers.com}} In Los Angeles, clubwomen were able to influence the city to appoint female police officers.{{Sfn|Hansen|2003|p=58}}

{{See also|Dress reform}}

Women's clubs were also interested in reforming fashion. Some reform centered around corsets and how tight clothing was starting to be considered unhealthy.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8927751//|title=The Woman's Club|date=January 29, 1879|access-date=February 13, 2017|newspaper=Los Angeles Herald}} Women's clubs also spoke out against the use of bird feathers in women's fashion.{{Sfn|Merchant|1984|pp=69–70}}

Besides reform, women's clubs also used fashion as a way to showcase creative arts. Fashion shows put on by the CNDA in the 1930s and 1940s featured recitals of music and dance, which were held at the Savoy Ballroom.{{Sfn|Knupfer|2006|p=102}}

{{See also|Women's suffrage in the United States}}

File:National_American_Women_Suffrage,_St._Louis,_3-25-19_LCCN2007663822.tif

Women's clubs became very active in women's suffrage. Before women had the right to vote, women's clubs needed to partner with sympathetic organizations run by men.{{Sfn|Sherman|1906|p=31}} The focus on women's suffrage began during the last half of the nineteenth century. In 1868, Kate Newell Doggett, a botanist, helped set up a chapter of Sorosis, which became the first women's group in Chicago to focus on suffrage.{{Sfn|Tolson|2008|p=26}} Later, the Chicago Woman's Club would help promote suffrage.{{Cite news|url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1910/09/18/page/25/article/recent-growth-of-suffrage-movement-in-chicago-indicated-by-the-many-equal-rights-clubs|title=Recent Growth of Suffrage Movement in Chicago Indicated by the Many 'Equal Rights' Clubs|last=Squire|first=Belle|date=September 18, 1910|work=Chicago Tribune|access-date=January 21, 2017}}

Other organizations, dedicated especially to suffrage began to be formed after the Civil War.{{Cite web|url=http://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/WIC/Historical-Essays/No-Lady/Womens-Rights/ |title=The Women's Rights Movement, 1848–1920 |website=History, Art & Archives |publisher=United States House of Representatives |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170330071931/http://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/WIC/Historical-Essays/No-Lady/Womens-Rights/ |archive-date=March 30, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 11, 2017 }} As women's clubs grew, so did suffrage organizations.

African-American women's clubs like the NACW not only fought for women's suffrage but also for the right of black men to vote. Many black women were involved in groups like the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA).{{Cite web|url=https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/rightsforwomen/AfricanAmericanwomen.html |title=African American Women and Suffrage |website=National Women's History Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170326082739/https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/rightsforwomen/AfricanAmericanwomen.html |archive-date=March 26, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 13, 2017 }} Women involved in the National Baptist Woman's Convention also supported suffrage.

Women's clubs hosted talks about suffrage{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8284481//|title=Women's Kingdom|date=October 20, 1883|work=Chicago Daily Tribune|access-date=February 13, 2017|via=Newspapers.com}} and invited suffrage leaders to speak.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8284542//|title=Susan B. Has Had Enough|date=June 28, 1888|work=The Saint Paul Globe|access-date=February 13, 2017|via=Newspapers.com}} After women won the right to vote, women's clubs continued in helping women exercise their rights and how to best use their votes.{{Sfn|Winter|1921|p=636}} However, another factor in earning the right to vote was a decline in membership until the Great Depression, when women got together again for charitable work.{{Sfn|Hansen|2003|p=56}}

{{Main|Temperance movement in the United States}}

Women's clubs such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) were involved with advocating the prohibition of alcohol. The Florida Federation of Women's Clubs (FFWC) also supported temperance in that state. Numerous women involved with the temperance movement felt that limiting alcohol access would decrease "social ills" such as gambling, prostitution and domestic violence. Many women involved in the temperance movement felt that securing women's right to vote would help promote prohibition of alcohol.{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=4252 |title=Women's Suffrage Movement |last=Taylor |first=Paula Kyzer |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221223404/http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=4252 |archive-date=December 21, 2016 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 13, 2017 }} Both black and white temperance groups promoted women's suffrage.{{Cite web|url=http://www.socialstudies.org/sites/default/files/publications/se/5905/590503.html |title=Women's Suffrage and the Question of Color |last=McGoldrick |first=Neale |website=SocialStudies.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223130335/http://www.socialstudies.org/sites/default/files/publications/se/5905/590503.html |archive-date=February 23, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 13, 2017 }}

{{main|List of women's clubs}}

File:SCFCWC_1958_delegation_to_Detroit.png

{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|* Alpha Suffrage Club

• Association of Collegiate Alumnae
• Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching
• Atlanta Neighborhood Union
• Charlotte Woman's Club
• Chicago Woman's Club
• Colonial Dames of America
• Colored Female Religious and Moral Society
• Daughters of the American Revolution
• Ebell Society
• Francisca Club
• Frederick Douglass Woman's Club
• General Federation of Women's Clubs
• Houston Heights Woman's Club
• Indiana State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs
• League of Women Voters
• Mississippi State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs
• Mount Vernon Ladies' Association
• National Association of Colored Women (NACW)
• National Council of Jewish Women
• National Society of the Colonial Dames of America
• New England Women's Club
• Phillis Wheatley Club
• San Pedro Woman's Club
• Sorosis
• South Carolina Federation of Colored Women's Clubs (SCRCWC)
• Sulgrave Club{{Cite web|url=https://www.sulgraveclub.org/Club/Scripts/Home/home.asp|title=Sulgrave Club Home Page|website=www.sulgraveclub.org}}
• Texas Association of Women's Clubs
• Texas Federation of Women's Clubs
• United Daughters of the Confederacy
• Women's Christian Temperance Union
• Women's Club of El Paso
• Women's City Club of New York (WCC)
• Woman's Health Protective Association
• Women's Joint Congressional Committee
• Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA)

}}

• List of women's clubs
• Feminism in the United States
• Gentlemen's clubs
• Women-only space
• Woman's Christian Temperance Union
• Membership discrimination in California social clubs
• History of antisemitism in the United States
• Racial segregation in the United States

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• {{Cite journal|last=Moore|first=Dorothea|date=September 1906|title=The Work of the Women's Clubs in California|jstor=1010958|journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science|volume=28|issue=2|pages=59–62|doi=10.1177/000271620602800205|s2cid=144847807|url=https://zenodo.org/record/2221282}}
• {{Cite book|title=Women's Rights: People and Perspectives|last=Parker|first=Alison M.|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2010|isbn=978-1-59884-114-5|editor-last=DeLuzio|editor-first=Crista|location=Santa Barbara, California|chapter=Clubwomen, Reformers, Workers, and Feminists of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era|chapter-url=http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=hst_facpub}}
• {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8zNQkLXh9O0C&q=%22women's%20club%22%20movement&pg=PR4|title=Hip Hop's Amnesia: From Blues and the Black Women's Club Movement to Rap and the Hip Hop Movement|last=Rabaka|first=Reiland|publisher=Lexington Book|year=2012|isbn=978-0-7391-7492-0|location=Lanham, Maryland}}
• {{Cite journal|last=Scott|first=Anne Firor|date=January 1, 1990|title=Most Invisible of All: Black Women's Voluntary Associations|jstor=2210662|journal=The Journal of Southern History|volume=56|issue=1|pages=3–22|doi=10.2307/2210662}}
• {{Cite journal|last=Seaholm|first=Megan|year=1998|title=Earnest Women: The White Woman's Club Movement in Progressive Era Texas, 1880–1920|url=https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/16183/8900277.PDF?sequence=1&isAllowed=y|journal=Rice University}}
• {{Cite journal|last=Sherman|first=Mrs. John Dickinson|date=September 1906|title=The Women's Clubs in the Middle Western States|jstor=1010956|journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science|volume=28|issue=2|pages=29–49|doi=10.1177/000271620602800203|s2cid=144224361|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1704970}}
• {{Cite journal|last=Stewart|first=Jane A.|date=May 14, 1908|title=The Educational Work of the Women's Clubs|jstor=42816821|journal=The Journal of Education|volume=67|issue=20|pages=536–538|doi=10.1177/002205740806702004|s2cid=188530021}}
• {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cbRz-dl7r8AC&q=decline%20%22women's%20club%20movement%22&pg=PA4|title=The Excluded and the Included: Chicago, White Supremacy and the Clubwomen's Movement, 1873–1915|last=Tolson|first=Claudette L.|publisher=Loyola University Chicago|year=2008|isbn=9780549840275|location=University of Chicago}}{{Dead link|date=September 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-emQo5VJjfgC&q=decline%20%22women's%20club%20movement%22&pg=PA152|title=Women, Culture, and Community: Religion and Reform in Galveston, 1880–1920|last=Turner|first=Elizabeth Hayes|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1997|isbn=978-0-19-802805-5|location=New York}}
• {{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IqIu_NUdXDgC&pg=PR3|title=Libraries to the People: Histories of Outreach|last=Watson|first=Paula D.|publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc.|year=2003|isbn=978-0-7864-1359-1|editor-last=Freeman|editor-first=Robert S.|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|chapter=Valleys Without Sunsets: Women's Clubs and Traveling Libraries|editor-last2=Hovde|editor-first2=David M.}}
• {{Cite journal|last=Winter|first=Alice Ames|date=November 1921|title=Women's Clubs To-day|jstor=25120874|journal=The North American Review|volume=214|issue=792|pages=636–640}}
• {{Cite journal|last1=Wood|first1=Mary I.|last2=Pennybacker|first2=Mrs. Percy V.|date=November 1914|title=Civic Activities of Women's Clubs|jstor=1011981|journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science|volume=56|pages=78–87|doi=10.1177/000271621405600110|s2cid=144923534}}
• {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SWBKDSdK7dkC&q=%22women's%20club%22%20movement&pg=PA231|title="We Must Be Up and Doing": A Reader in Early African American Feminisms|publisher=Broadview Press|year=2010|isbn=978-1-55111-917-5|editor-last=Zackodnik|editor-first=Teresa C.|location=Buffalo, New York}}

• Anne Ruggles Gere. Intimate Practices: Literacy and Cultural Work in U.S. Women's Clubs, 1880–1920. University of Chicago Press, 1997.{{ISBN?}}
• {{Citation|title=List of books for girls and women and their clubs|date=1895|author=Augusta H. Leypoldt|location=Boston|publisher=Library Bureau|ol=7206948M}}
• Jayne Morris-Crowther, The Political Activities of Detroit Clubwomen in the 1920s: A Challenge and a Promise. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2013.{{ISBN?}}

• [http://dcc.newberry.org/collections/lifting-as-we-climb-african-american-womens-clubs-in-progressive-era-chicago Lifting as We Climb: African American Women's Clubs in Progressive Era Chicago]
• [http://www.gfwc.org/ GFWC] (official site)
• [http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/athenswomansclub For Our Mutual Benefit: The Athens Woman's Club and Social Reform, 1899–1920] in the [http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/ Digital Library of Georgia]
• [http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/ Digital Library of Georgia][https://web.archive.org/web/20040305122702/http://www.washingtonhistory.org/wshs/research/finding_aids.htm Finding Aids, Research Center, Special Collections, Washington State Historical Society]
• [http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/ Digital Library of Georgia][http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss204_main.html Women's Clubs Collection, 1812–1995] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150306121256/http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss204_main.html |date=March 6, 2015 }} Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20180220092329/https://www.mchistory.org/perch/resources/Finding%20Aid%20PDFs/fuller-margaret-club-collection.pdf Margaret Fuller Club Collection], McLean County Museum of History

{{Woman's club movement}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Progressive Era in the United States

United States