Difference between revisions of "Women's NGOs"
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Throughout the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s, America's evangelical denominations became persuaded that educating women was in the best interest of their social causes and began to build female seminaries and to encourage their members to build them as well. Of the 6,085 seminaries and academies in existence in America in 1850, a sizeable percentage was educating women either exclusively or together with men. Whereas in pre-Revolutionary America women had an estimated literacy rate of one-half that of men, by 1850 the federal census revealed that women had become equal to men in literacy skills. Thus, numerous women's organizations emerged, primarily for social works under the auspices of the Christian church. | Throughout the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s, America's evangelical denominations became persuaded that educating women was in the best interest of their social causes and began to build female seminaries and to encourage their members to build them as well. Of the 6,085 seminaries and academies in existence in America in 1850, a sizeable percentage was educating women either exclusively or together with men. Whereas in pre-Revolutionary America women had an estimated literacy rate of one-half that of men, by 1850 the federal census revealed that women had become equal to men in literacy skills. Thus, numerous women's organizations emerged, primarily for social works under the auspices of the Christian church. | ||
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The Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA, originally the Ladies Christian Association), which opened its first branch in New York City in 1858, was an early advocate for the economic empowerment of women and their social welfare in the workplace. Recognizing women's needs for jobs in 1860, the YWCA held the first typewriting classes for women, formerly considered a man's occupation, and opened the first employment bureau (the organization also reached out to immigrant women with bilingual instruction). Based on its work with women in industrial plants, the YWCA fought for minimum wage requirements and 8-hour-day shifts to protect women from unfair and unsafe conditions in the workplace. | The Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA, originally the Ladies Christian Association), which opened its first branch in New York City in 1858, was an early advocate for the economic empowerment of women and their social welfare in the workplace. Recognizing women's needs for jobs in 1860, the YWCA held the first typewriting classes for women, formerly considered a man's occupation, and opened the first employment bureau (the organization also reached out to immigrant women with bilingual instruction). Based on its work with women in industrial plants, the YWCA fought for minimum wage requirements and 8-hour-day shifts to protect women from unfair and unsafe conditions in the workplace. | ||
Revision as of 11:43, 4 August 2008
This article is based on an article written for the NGO Handbook by Kate Perchuk titled "Women and Civil Society."
The modern landscape of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) devoted to causes and issues critical to women is the legacy of human rights activism in times of historical crisis and is rooted in the fundamental principles of equality first articulated by philosophers in the age of Enlightenment.
Early women’s rights groups challenged the prevailing social order arguing that all individuals were born with natural rights that made them free and equal; that all inequalities that existed among citizens were the result of an inadequate educational system and an imperfect social environment and that these inequalities would be justly remedied by improved education and more egalitarian social structures.
Among these thinkers was Mary Wollstonecraft, a British author best known for her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), which was one of the first to claim that women should have equality with men. The book was inspired by the democratic principles of the French Revolution (1789-1799). Wollstonecraft argues that the quality of women’s lives was directly related to their inferior educational opportunities.
Riding the momentum of the American Revolution, the nascent campaign for women’s rights in the U.S. was born from the passion of patriots with a mission to improve American democracy by helping to deliver on the promise of better, more egalitarian lives for all its citizens, outlined in the Declaration of Independence (adopted on July 4, 1776). A small group of educated women, known to one another through their work in the Abolitionist movement , gathered in a corner of New York State in 1848 to address “the social, civil, and religious conditions and rights of woman,” and invoked the powerful language of the seminal document to make their case. The positions articulated in their “Declaration of Sentiments” echoed the hallowed predecessor: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
