The work of the national association is carried on largely by standing committees which are under the leadership of the women most notable in education—college presidents, deans and professors. Meanwhile, the president, six vice-presidents and presidents of the various branches, acting through a salaried secretary-treasurer, give coherency and support to the development of its various objects. In addition, each branch has committees which deal with local issues, such as public school work of all kinds, home economics, development of children, civil service reform, college settlements, etc. The investigation of the sanitary conditions of the Boston public schools, 1895-1896, started the wave of schoolhouse cleaning which has swept across the country and which has not stopped at schoolhouses but has included school boards and systems of school administration. The Chicago branch has just issued a summary of laws relating to compulsory education and child-labor in the United States, which shows the inadequacy of the first (except in three States) and the lack of correlation between the two which makes for lawlessness and crime. It is hoped that this summary will serve as a basis for agitation which shall not cease until compulsory education becomes a fact and not a theory.
The association has twenty-five branches and 3,000 members.
The Association for the Advancement of Women was organized in New York in October, 1873, at the very beginning of the club movement, to interest the women of the country in matters of high thought and in all undertakings found to be useful to society, and to promote their efficiency in these through sympathetic acquaintance and co-operation. It had a number of distinguished presidents and held congresses in many States, which almost invariably led to the formation of local clubs for study and mutual improvement, as well as to good works in other lines. Among the cities in which a congress was held were New York, Syracuse, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Des Moines, Denver, Madison, St. Paul, Toronto, Baltimore, Memphis, Knoxville, Louisville, Atlanta and New Orleans. Many distinguished women were included in its membership and it had a strong influence in rendering possible the extensive formation of the women's clubs which are now so important a feature in American society. Its work is partly chronicled in two large volumes which give the papers presented and action taken at the meetings. The many great organizations of women in recent years have made further work on the part of the association unnecessary.
The General Federation of Women's Clubs was organized March 20, 1890, to bring into communication the various women's clubs in order that they may compare methods and become mutually helpful. The work is accomplished through three committees—Art, Education and Industries. Those on Art have used their influence toward its study and its application to the home, and also for the quickening of enthusiasm in horticulture and gardening, from which has developed the beautifying of public squares and school yards. In Education some of the most important results are the establishment of hundreds of traveling libraries, assistance in organizing and fostering kindergartens, encouragement of manual training in the public schools, and the formation of Mothers' Clubs for the study of child culture. The federation has worked with other organizations for the appointment of women on school boards and legislation for broader educational advantages for women. In fact, its work has ranged from kindergarten to university.
The Industrial Committee studies conditions surrounding wage-earning women and children and encourages co-operation between the woman of leisure and the one who is self-supporting, and the organization of laboring women in unions and clubs. One principal object is to eliminate the child from the factory and then to educate it. The Civic work has ranged from Health Protective Associations in cities to Village Improvement Societies.
There are thirty-six State Federations, eleven foreign clubs and nearly 700 individual clubs belonging to the federation, representing over 200,000 members (1900).
The National Association of Colored Women was organized July, 1896, to arouse all women, especially colored women, to a sense of their responsibility, both in molding the life of the home and in shaping the principles of the nation; to secure the co-operation of all women in whatever is undertaken in the interest of justice, purity and liberty; to inspire in all women, but especially in colored women, a desire to be useful in whatever field of labor they can work to the best advantage.
Kindergartens and day nurseries for the infants of working women have been established; mothers' meetings have been generally held and sewing classes formed; a sanitarium with a training school for nurses has been founded in New Orleans; ground purchased on which an Old Folks' Home is to be built in Memphis, and charity dispensed in various ways. Women on plantations in the "black belt" of Alabama have been taught how to make their huts decent and habitable with the small means at their command, and how to care for themselves and their families in accordance with the rules of health. Schools of Domestic Science are conducted, and a large branch is that of Business Women's Clubs. The Convict Lease System, "Jim Crow" Car Laws, Lynching and other barbarities are thoroughly discussed, in the hope that some remedy for these evils may be discovered. Statistics concerning the progress and achievements of colored people are being gathered. Musical clubs are formed to develop this inherent gift. An organ is published called Notes, edited by Mrs. Booker T. Washington and an assistant in each State.
The association has 125 branches in twenty-six States and over 8,000 members.
The National Congress of Mothers held its first public convention at Washington in February, 1897, and permanent organization was effected there in 1898. Its objects are to raise the standards of home life; to give young women opportunities to learn how to care for children; to bring into closer relations the home and the school; to surround the childhood of the whole world with that wise, loving care in the impressionable years of life which will develop good citizens.