The year was 1855. The Crimean War between England, Turkey and Russia was ending.

Florence Nightingale and some 38 nurses had set up hospitals for English soldiers on the battlegrounds–the first time women had served at the front. Now with the war over, they were returning home to England. At the same time the Industrial Revolution was seeing women leaving the farms and seeking work in the new factories in the cities. All of the women needed housing.

Two groups of women had been meeting in London. Emma Roberts led a prayer union - "a pray for peace" kind of group. The other group led by Mrs. Arthur Kinnaird was an activist group - they focused on issues: job training, the nurses with no place to stay, and housing. The two groups later joined to become the Young Women's Christian Association --- combining religious fervor with practical social action from the very beginning. Their first project was housing.

The movement spread to the US in 1858. Groups started in the big cities calling themselves the International Board of Women's Christian Associations and were action-oriented. Other women, chiefly in the mid-west, organized into prayer groups and called themselves the American Committees. New York City and Boston started up residences for women by 1860. Boston was also concerned about women's health: the young girls were working long hours, had no time for recreation, and no longer had the physical exercise of the farms. So, Boston installed pulley weights on the backs of closet doors and soon started gyms and swimming pools.

Recognizing that women needed jobs along with housing, the YWCA pioneered in job training, and initiated the first typewriting instruction for women, the first sewing machine classes and the first employment bureau for women, all in New York City in the 1870s.

In 1873 the first student YWCA started up at Normal University in Normal, Illinois.

By 1890 the familiar blue triangle hung over doors in cities and on college campuses all over the US. YWCAs were growing abroad also.

The accelerated movement of families and single women from farm to city and across boundaries as the Industrial Revolution intensified led to a number of women being lost or victimized as they arrived at train stations or seaports. YWCAs became aware of the need and established the Travelers' Aid in 1894. They even took such action as meeting with the management of the Cunnard Lines to insist that chaperones be added to the liners' staff to protect women traveling in steerage. Only fifteen years later 57 YWCA branches had been created to help immigrant women, and the YWCA's International Institutes were featuring bilingual instruction.

With the increased growth of YWCAs and their recognition of women's needs in common, the US American Committee, England, Sweden and Norway joined together to found the World YWCA in 1894.

In 1906, with 186,000 members (22% were students) both groups of YWCAs in the USA decided it was time to merge under one name: the Young Women's Christian Association. They voted to incorporate in the state of New York, set up a national board to conduct common business, and hired staff. Grace Dodge, a member of the Women's Labor Council and a founder of Columbia Teacher's College became the first president. Mabel Cratty became the first "secretary" as executive directors were known then.

By 1895 the YWCA was offering staff training in group work to augment college degrees. By 1908 the YWCA conducted its first all-year training school at Grace Dodge's estate. By 1912 the YWCA built its own training center with a residence and spacious meeting rooms at 52nd St. and Lexington in New York City - 2 blocks from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The building was a gift from six YWCA leaders. The building housed the national offices, national board meeting rooms and residence until sold in 1980.

World War I saw some of the greatest growth in the YWCA's history. The government asked the YWCA to provide recreational programs for service men both here and abroad. The YWCA sent 733 professional staff overseas, built hostess houses near military camps in the US, recruited thousands of staff and volunteers to run them, and became a home away from home to many thousands of soldiers.

At the same time, the YWCA stepped up its programs to the more than 1.5 million women at industrial sites as women went to work replacing men going overseas. Lunch time sporting events, day care, budgeting classes all attracted so many women that the Industrial Division became the largest division in the YWCA.

An important side effect was that the YWCA leadership became acutely aware of the conditions facing women in factories. Low wages, long hours, no protective rights for workers. The YWCA ran affordable summer camps for working women, ensured that industrial workers came to convention to express their views and needs, and developed resolutions to reform the "system".

At the 1920 Convention, resolutions were introduced calling for the 8-hour day, collective bargaining and the right to organize, a forward looking stance that earned the respect of the members and the criticism of some industrial moguls. At succeeding conventions members continued to pinpoint the inequities of women and minorities in the workplace and adopted resolutions which began to shape the public policy actions of the local and national associations.

During the 1930's and 1940's - the depression and World War 11 era - job training became ever more important, and YWCAs trained women to be New York City bus drivers, Rosie the Riveteers, lathe operators and others.

In the 1950's YWCAs joined in the move to the suburbs and saw Y-Wives joining in clubs to keep abreast of current events, develop new skills, and join in action projects bringing their children with them to child care. Teens went off to YWCA camps and Y-Teen Clubs flourished.

Some YWCAs in the big cities faced aging buildings, downtown blight, and severe budget deficits. Even the National YWCA was forced to sell to the state its Asilomar Conference Grounds, a gift of Phoebe Hearst in 1913 and designed by the first woman architect, Julia Morgan. In the 1960's and 1970's many downtown YWCAs re-focused their space to meet the current needs: emergency housing for refugees or shelters for battered women or low cost senior housing.

Interwoven throughout its history the YWCA sought to cut across the racial injustices and barriers that divided us as a country. By the 1890's the first black YWCA branch opened in Dayton, Ohio; the first YWCA for American Indian women opened in Oklahoma; and seven black student associations formed. As early as 1915 the Louisville YWCA hosted the first interracial conference ever held in the south. In the 1930's the YWCA was encouraging members at conventions to speak out against lynching and mob violence, for interracial cooperation rather than segregation, and for efforts to protect "Negroes' basic civil rights." In 1942 the YWCA extended services to Japanese-American women and girls incarcerated in World War 11 Relocation Centers.

In 1946 the YWCA adopted its Interracial Charter - eight years before the US Supreme Court decision against segregation. YWCA members and student members joined together in the struggle for civil rights all during the 1950's and 1960's. They joined the sit-ins with National Board support. Separate black YWCA branches and facilities were integrated into the whole. The Atlanta YWCA cafeteria opened to blacks in 1960, becoming the city's first desegregated public dining facility. The National Board established the Office of Racial Justice in 1965, with Dorothy Height as its director, to lead the civil rights efforts.

In 1969 Racial Justice Institutes were held in eight locations around the US. Out of this grew a national groundswell convening a pre-convention Conference of YWCA Black Women in Houston in 1970. After examining progress within YWCAs and what still needed to be done, the group brought a resolution to the floor of convention urging adoption of the "One Imperative: to thrust our collective power towards the elimination of racism, wherever it exists, by any means necessary."

The resolution passed and renewed effort went into racial justice work. The National Board's Office of Racial Justice convened four conferences for women of color seeking input; affirmative action workshops were held to teach YWCAs how to implement strategies; nationwide Web of Racism conferences helped members recognize the layering of racism in jobs, housing, schools, institutions, and daily lives.

Work on racial justice continued through the 1980's and 1990's through public policy action on legislation, through collaborations, and by hosting a major event bringing together civil rights leaders, public officials, and college leaders at the YWCA Leadership Development Center in Phoenix for the YWCA of the USA's Racial Justice Convocation in 1990.

As a world movement, collaboration has existed between YWCAs in the US and oversees since its early beginnings. The first American staff sent abroad went to India in 1894, financially supported by the Toledo, Ohio, association. Early YWCA work started in China, Japan, and Argentina as well as India. In the 1950's as African countries became independent, YWCAs helped women marshal their own leadership and resources to create indigenous YWCAs in Kenya, Uganda, Rhodesia, South Africa, and elsewhere. The YWCA has spread to over 100 countries and numbers over 25 million members.

Programs of YWCAs all around the world are amazingly parallel as they move to meet women's needs: child care, job training, housing, health services, education and leadership training for women and girls. Exchanges between countries continue to enrich leadership.

Throughout its 146 year history the key YWCA strands have always been: * cuts across differences of race, age, education, economics, religion * values diversity * is a women's movement * world movement * member supported * combines service and social action * utilizes volunteer-staff partnerships * and is committed to unlocking women's full potential

Kay Philips, September, 1999

Resources:

Eight Women of the YWCA. Marion 0. Robinson, 1966.

"The Past is Prelude: Fifty Years of Social Action in the YWCA." Elsie Harper, 1963.

The YWCA: An Unfolding Purpose. Mary S. Sims, 1950.

The Natural Hist2a of a Social Institution: the YWCA. Mary S. Sims, 1936

Fifty Years of Association Work Among Young Women. Elizabeth Wilson, 1916.