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27-563: The Western Women's Club building is a 12-story Beaux-Arts-style building, designed by the firm of Walter Danforth Bliss and William Baker Faville, and built in 1926. The Western Women's Club was a member of the General Federation of Women's Clubs . The Western Women's Club building was bought by the Marines Memorial Association in 1947. Western Women's Club had a later location at 111 O'Farrell Street. As

54-472: A port city , San Francisco has, since its founding by Spain , been associated with military personnel – especially the navy – and merchant mariners. During World War II it was a point of embarcation for many service personnel in for the Pacific Theatre . Those who passed through the city before deployment would remember their experience and return after the war. The Marines' Memorial was opened as

81-624: A black club. She refused on principle and was excluded from the proceedings. These events became known as "The Ruffin Incident" and were widely covered in newspapers around the country, most of whom supported Ruffin. In a time when women's rights were limited, the state federation chapters held grassroots efforts to make sure the woman's voice was heard. Through monthly group meetings to annual charter meetings, women of influential status within their communities could have their feelings heard. They were able to meet with state officials in order to have

108-797: A club for veterans of the Marines, although membership is open to all United States servicemembers. Early in 1946, the Commandant of the Marine Corps , General Alexander A. Vandegrift , had proposed a "living memorial" to Marine casualties from the War in the Pacific . A group of Marines arranged to buy a building owned by a women's club at Mason Street and Sutter Street in San Francisco, whose members they had met through their participation in

135-563: A place for themselves in an emerging state welfare bureaucracy, best illustrated perhaps by clubwoman Julia Lathrop's leadership in the US Children's Bureau. As part of this tradition of maternal activism, the Progressive-era General Federation supported a range of causes from the pure food and drug administration to public health care for mothers and children to a ban on child labor, each of which looked to

162-582: A say in community events. Until the right to vote was granted, these women's clubs were the best outlet for women to be heard and taken seriously. Women's clubs spread very rapidly after 1890, taking up some of the slack left by the decline of the WCTU and the temperance movement. Local clubs at first were mostly reading groups focused on literature, but increasingly became civic improvement organizations of middle-class women meeting in each other's homes weekly. The clubs avoided controversial issues that would divide

189-474: A survey of county organizations which was recognized by the National Federation of Women's Clubs. For the first time in the history of federated clubs, the accomplishments and the organization of these bodies were set forth. The membership peaked at 850,000 in 16,000 clubs in 1955, and has declined to about 70,000 in the 21st century as middle-class women moved into the public mainstream. During

216-630: Is located in Washington, D.C. The GFWC was founded by Jane Cunningham Croly , a leading New York journalist. In 1868 she helped found the Sorosis club for professional women. It was the model for the nationwide GFWC in 1890. In 1889, Croly organized a conference in New York that brought together delegates from 61 women's clubs . The women formed a permanent organization in 1890 with Charlotte Emerson Brown as its first president. In 1901 it

243-560: The 1890s. During her presidency, membership expanded quickly from 50 cultural clubs to several hundred, and grew to representing tens of thousands of women. She was instrumental in the GFWC's formation of state-level organizations. Brown was born in Andover, Massachusetts to Reverend Ralph Emerson and Eliza Rockwell. Brown's father was a professor of ecclesiastical history and pastoral theology at Andover Theological Seminary . Brown

270-457: The Cold War era, the GFWC promoted the theme that American women had a unique ability to preserve world peace while strengthening the nation internally through local, national, and international community activism. The remaining 70,000 members are older now, and have less influence in national affairs. The affiliated clubs in every state and more than a dozen countries work locally "to support

297-592: The GFWC met in Milwaukee, and Josephine Ruffin , a black journalist, tried to attend as a representative of three Boston organizations – the New Era Club, the New England Woman's Club and the New England Woman's Press Club. Southern women led by president Rebecca Douglas Lowe, a Georgia native, told Ruffin that she could be seated as an honorary representative of the two white clubs but would not seat

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324-544: The German language. She became president of the Woman's Club of Orange . In 1890, she was elected president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs , an organization which encouraged women to educate themselves and become advocates in their communities. Members advocated for clean milk, street lights, and libraries, as well as for regulations regarding child labor and child and maternal health. According to one viewpoint,

351-528: The Museum of Northern Arizona (MNA) and became advocates and consumers for authentic Native American arts and crafts. Even more important, in western states, GFWC affiliates cooperated with Collier when he served (1933–45) as the New Deal's Commissioner for Indian affairs in his campaign to reverse federal policies designed to assimilate Indians into the national culture. In May 1925 Edith Brake West conducted

378-536: The Progressive era, female activists used traditional constructions of womanhood, which imagined all women as mothers and homemakers, to justify their entrance into community affairs: as "municipal housekeepers," they would clean up politics, cities, and see after the health and wellbeing of their neighbors. Donning the mantle of motherhood, female activists methodically investigated their community's needs and used their "maternal" expertise to lobby, create, and secure

405-523: The United States which promote civic improvements through volunteer service. Community Service Projects (CSP) are organized by local clubs for the benefit of their communities or GFWC's Affiliate Organization (AO) partnerships. GFWC maintains nearly 60,000 members throughout the United States and internationally. GFWC is one of the world's largest and oldest nonpartisan, nondenominational, women's volunteer service organizations. The GFWC headquarters

432-570: The arts, preserve natural resources, advance education, promote healthy lifestyles, encourage civic involvement, and work toward world peace and understanding". In 2009, GFWC members raised over $ 39 million on behalf of more than 110,000 projects, and volunteered more than 4.1 million hours in the communities where they live and work. The General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC), one of the oldest women's volunteer organizations, seeks to build global communities where people unite in diversity and dedicate their service to changing lives. GFWC celebrates

459-692: The club's " Leatherneck Grill" steakhouse) and a Club One fitness center. The building also includes the Tribute Memorial Wall, a private memorial to American troops killed in the Iraq War and war in Afghanistan . General Federation of Women%27s Clubs The General Federation of Women's Clubs ( GFWC ), founded in 1890 during the Progressive Movement , is a federation of approximately 2,300 women's clubs in

486-486: The country the clubs supported the local Carnegie public library, as well as traveling libraries for rural areas. They promoted state legislation to fund and support libraries, especially to form library extension programs. GFWC affiliates worked with the American Library Association, state library associations, and state library commissions and gave critical support to library education programs at

513-504: The engagement of people of all backgrounds and believes in fostering an inclusive, equitable climate, and culture where community members can thrive. (Adopted on June 9, 2023) Charlotte Emerson Brown Charlotte Emerson Brown (April 21, 1838 – February 5, 1895) was an American woman notable as the creator and first president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC), a progressive women's movement in America beginning in

540-427: The exclusion of men in these clubs was helpful in allowing women to develop their own leadership skills. Under Brown's leadership, the organization grew from an initial meeting of delegates from sixty-one clubs to 475,000 U.S. women from 2,865 clubs in the mid-1920s, and was notable for assisting the career development of advocates such as Eleanor Roosevelt . Membership peaked at 830,000 members in 1955. Brown served as

567-500: The membership, especially religion and the prohibition issue. In the south and east, suffrage was also highly divisive, while there was little resistance to it among clubwomen in the west. In the midwest, clubwomen first avoided the suffrage issue out of caution, but after 1900 increasingly came to support it. Historian Paige Meltzer puts the GFWC in the context of the Progressive Movement , arguing that its policies: built on Progressive-era strategies of municipal housekeeping. During

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594-509: The state to help implement their vision of social justice. Kansas was a representative state, as the women's clubs joined with local chapters of the WCTU and other organizations to deal with social issues. The clubs continued to feature discussions of current literature, culture, and civic events, but they also broadened to include public schools, local parks, sanitation, prostitution, and protection of children. Paula Watson has shown that across

621-547: The universities. Many clubs were especially concerned with uplifting the neglected status of American Indians. They brought John Collier into the forefront of the debate when they appointed him the research agent for the Indian Welfare Committee in 1922. The GFWC took a leadership role in opposing assimilation policies, supporting the return of Indian lands, and promoting more religious and economic independence. For example, southwestern clubs help support

648-513: The wartime WAVES program. The club opened on November 10, 1946, the anniversary of the founding of the Marine Corps. The theater predates the club, and was part of the original 1926 building. In its early days it hosted nationwide radio broadcasts by Bob Hope , Jack Benny, and Frank Sinatra . It later housed the San Francisco Actor's Workshop , which produced plays by Arthur Miller , Tennessee Williams , and Bertolt Brecht . It

675-660: Was also the first home of the American Conservatory Theater . Today the association has 21,000 members from all branches of the United States military, NOAA , and the Public Health Service , mostly from California. The most noticeable features are a 650-seat repertory theater and a lobby display of military memorabilia, most notably the ship's bell from the USS San Francisco . It also includes two restaurants (including

702-678: Was an avid reader and student who spoke many languages. She graduated from the Abbot Academy of Andover. Brown taught in Montreal with Hannah Lyman , Vassar's first female president, and studied business in Chicago. Brown's first clubs were a music club and a French club, and her home in Illinois hosted literary, musical and artistic events. She worked part time as a teacher; from 1879-1880, she served as Jane Addams 's teacher of

729-493: Was granted a charter by Congress. Dietz proclaimed, "We look for unity, but unity in diversity " and that became the GFWC motto. Southern white women played a central role in the early years. Local women's clubs initially joined the General Federation directly but later came into membership through state federations that began forming in 1892. The GFWC also counts international clubs among its members. In 1900,

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