Funding Feminism: Monied Women, Philanthropy, and the Women’s Movement, 1870–1967

Abstract

The women’s movement is often referenced in terms of waves, but it has always been a continuous movement (Cobble, Gordon, & Henry, 2014). Funding Feminism focuses on a largely overlooked aspect of the women’s movement between 1870 and 1967—the involvement of wealthy women philanthropists and their impact on the advancement of women’s rights in the United States. Author Joan Marie Johnson explores the philanthropic and political motivations of these women and how their wealth and status benefited feminist causes despite some of the issues created by their efforts. Highlighting the concepts of “independence, equality, and sisterhood” (p. 2), Johnson’s look at the role and influence of a privileged class of women on the women’s movement importantly demonstrates the historical relationship between women’s philanthropy, feminism, and the social and political status of women. Johnson’s purpose is to show not only that the feminist beliefs of a group of wealthy women informed their philanthropic giving but that their giving created tremendous social change for women in the United States. As a result, women philanthropists challenged the social construction of women as powerless in society. This book is a culmination of a crosscountry expedition to examine the legacy of women philanthropists in the United States through archival records. Funding Feminism eloquently merges the stories of individual women philanthropists into a larger story of progress. Each chapter of Funding Feminism takes the reader on a unique historical journey, viewed through the perspectives of multiple women involved in the feminist causes of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The introductory chapter offers an overview of the