American Woman's Association records

The American Woman’s Association (AWA) was the final product of various clubs and societies that supported and championed the advancement and efforts of women in both professional and cultural spheres. Throughout its 63 years of existence, the AWA provided safe lodgings, social outlets, and increased financial stability for independent women. A crucial element of the woman’s movement, the AWA boasted famous feminists such as Eleanor Roosevelt among its members. The AWA dissolved in 1974 after a period of waning activity. Dorothea Hopfer Kassouf ('47), a former president of the organization, claimed that this was because it had “served its purpose” in championing equal opportunities and protecting the rights of women.

The American Woman’s Association was initially known as the Vacation Committee which was founded in 1911 as a branch of the Woman’s Department of the National Civic Federation. The Vacation Committee was occupied with the Vacation Savings Fund, implemented to help women who did not receive salaried vacation time. Members of the Vacation Committee encouraged women across the country to buy stamps which eventually accrued enough interest to provide profitable vacations for the investors. Around this time, members of the Vacation Committee decided that they wanted to provide female friendly lodgings at a moderate cost for members willing to pay. Those who lodged were called the “taxpayers committee.” Lodgings were on W. 36th St in New York City. In 1915, the Vacation Committee split from the National Civic Federation, and Gertrude Robinson Smith became the first president of the now independent organization. In 1922, the Vacation Committee officially became the American Woman’s Association and stopped the vacation savings fund. They had raised more than $1,300,000 through the program. By 1927, members of the Association were searching for a more permanent home, and raised the funds to start their own clubhouse on West 57th Street.

Around this time, the Friendship Dinner Group was started as a subsection of the AWA to foster a feeling of friendship and camaraderie between women. AWA was the blanket association that ran the Friendship Dinner Group, but other unaffiliated groups participated in it as well. In 1931, meetings of the Friendship Dinner Group began to present the AWA Award for Eminent Achievement to women making strides as leaders in their respective fields, among them Frances E. Perkins, Pauline Sabin, Helen Rogers Reid, Virginia Gildersleeve, Dorothy Thompson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Florence R. Sabin, Margaret Chase Smith, Jacqueline Cochran, Marguerite Higgins, Helen Menken, and Mary H. Donlon.

The AWA was very involved with war relief efforts. During World War I, the AWA opened up temporary housing at headquarters for soldiers on leave from the battlefields and ran temporary work rooms in which unemployed women could make supplies for the frontlines and support their families. During World War II, the AWA formed the Red Cross Group, which trained volunteers from the AWA as nurses and sent them overseas, as well as providing supplies for the medical professionals serving in the war. The AWA commissioned reports on financial stability and independence among American women, including “100 Women Look at the Future.” In the 1950s, the AWA began to participate in larger, nationwide groups such as the National Council of Women of the United States and the National Committee on Household Employment (for which Dorothy Barko, president of the AWA, was treasurer.) Participation in the AWA dwindled in the 1960s and 1970s, and it functioned more as a social club than as the figurehead of the woman’s movement as it had in the past. In 1974, the AWA was officially dissolved.

A detailed historical timeline of the AWA is available in the Archives or by contacting archives@barnard.edu.