More Than Tea & Sandwiches
Role of Women's Clubs
The lives of late nineteenth and early twentieth century women were often insular, concerned primarily with domestic activities of home and family. Social involvement revolved around family and church, and opportunities to engage in wider social, benevolent, and intellectual spheres were scarce, especially in more rural areas, such as Montgomery County. To remedy this, women established clubs, such as sewing circles and home improvement clubs, which focused on sharing ideas and tips for keeping the home and raising children.
The Sandy Spring Mutual Improvement Association, established in 1857, was the first women’s club in Montgomery County and, according to some sources, in the U.S. According to meeting minutes, the Association's mission was to:
“offer for the benefit of the Association such information as we may have obtained—by experience or otherwise—in any way calculated to elevate the mind, increase the happiness, lighten the labor, or add to the comfort of one another, or our families and neighbors.”
Around the turn of the century, additional clubs formed, including the Woman’s Club of Kensington, the Woman’s Club of Rockville, the Newcomb Club of Bethesda, the Inquiry Club of Rockville, the Wednesday Club of Sandy Spring, the Woman’s Club of Poolesville, the Home Improvement Club of Forest Glen, and the Civic Study Club of Garrett Park. Even more came about in later years. Clubwomen, as they were known, typically met in one another’s homes, churches, or, in some instances, clubhouses.
In 1905, more than 100 representatives from five area women’s clubs came together at the Warner Memorial Presbyterian Church in Kensington to create the Montgomery County Federation of Woman’s Clubs, the first such federation in Maryland.
By 1919, when 500 women came together for the annual meeting of the Federation, it included at least 29 women’s organizations throughout the county. Included in these organizations were not only the more traditional women’s clubs, but also suffrage organizations such as the Just Government League of Montgomery County and the Equal Suffrage Club of Sandy Spring. [Washington Post (Washington, DC), May 18, 1919]
By 1921, the Federation was the second largest in the State, with membership of 1,200 clubwomen. [Evening Star (Washington, DC), September 26, 1921]
As the number of women’s clubs expanded, so too did the scope of their activities. Initially, clubs focused on domestic affairs. Over time, their focus expanded, fostering intellectual, educational, and social justice activities as well.
For example, in 1900, Maggie Welsh, the wife of William W. Welsh, who operated a general store in Rockville, formed the Rockville Woman’s Club. The club had a formal administrative structure of a President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary. At each bi-weekly meeting, members presented on topics they researched, with other clubwomen assigned to critique them.
Topics covered in the early years of the Rockville Woman’s Club had titles such as “The Incas,” “The Hessians in the Revolution,” “Political Conditions in Italy,” “England Before the Roman Occupation,” and “The War of 1812.”
Women who came to meetings without having prepared their presentations or completed assigned readings were charged up to $0.50 (or about $15 in today's money), not an insignificant sum at the time, for “non-performance of duty.” Such fines were recorded in club minute books.
This model of presenting papers and being critiqued by fellow members was popular among the women’s clubs in the 1900s. Clubs also frequently invited guest speakers to present on subjects related to public health, education, juvenile delinquency, and other issues of the day, including women’s suffrage. The idea behind these types of activities was to help women become better, more informed citizens.
“The training women have received in women’s clubs has been admirably fitting them for an intelligent understanding of the democratic nature of citizenship, and they know much more than is generally supposed concerning how to vote or even to bear with fortitude the defeat of a candidate.” [Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, MD), January 7, 1906]
As Montgomery County clubwomen became more involved in learning about current events and community and civic issues, they also became bolder and more vocal about supporting issues. For example, at an October 1909 meeting of the Rockville Woman’s Club, the following resolutions of the Montgomery County Federation of Woman’s Clubs were introduced: (1) create a general “juvenile court” throughout the State, (2) pass a “General School Attendance Law,” and (3) appoint a woman upon the Board of Montgomery County School Commissioners.
The last item, having a woman appointed to the school board, took many more years, but with continued pressure from the women’s clubs eventually happened with the appointment of Lucy Wright Trundle in 1920.
“At a recent meeting of the Executive Committee of the County Federation of Women’s Clubs held Rockville, it was requested that each member of the 1,500 of the Federation write to Governor Ritchie insisting upon the appointment of either Mrs. Julian Waters or Mrs. Dawson Trundle, she may elect, to a position on the Board of Education, of this county, to succeed a male member whose term is about to expire.” [Montgomery County Sentinel (Rockville, MD), April 9, 1920]
As the authors of Natural Allies: Women's Associations in American History explain, for many women the clubs became training grounds for developing and honing not only important life skills but, in some cases, skills that would propel them into the political arena. “The complex network of women’s organizations had many social consequences … Within this network women learned how to conduct business, carry on meetings, speak in public, manage money. Experiences in small-scale voluntary associations … prepared women for politics, broadly defined.” [p. 2]
What About Women of Color?
The women's club movement was also important in the lives of black women and provided them a forum to address social and political issues in their communities. The National Association of Colored Women (NACW) was established in 1896 with the joining of two already established organizations, the National Federation of Afro-American Women and the National League of Colored Women. Founders and members of the NACW included such distinguished women as Harriet Tubman, Margaret Murray Washington (wife of Booker T.), Mary Church Terrell (NACW's first president), and Ida B. Wells Barnett (journalist and activist). [Washington Bee (Washington, DC), June 25, 1896 ]
While we know that at the national level, the umbrella organizations for black and white women's clubs interacted, with members attending one another's national conferences and serving as guest speakers, we currently have no information on black women's clubs in Montgomery County or county women's involvement in NACW.
If you have information on black women's clubs in Montgomery County, we want to hear from you. Help us strengthen our collections!
Source for page header image - "The Clubwoman's Song" by Dr. Ruth D. Treanor, Montgomery County Federation of Woman's Clubs Collection, Montgomery History.