Women's Educational and Industrial Union
In 1877 Dr. Harriet Clisby, one of America's first women physicians, established the Women's Educational and Industrial Union to respond to the social problems facing Boston in the late nineteenth century. After the Civil War, the city had become an important point of entry for immigrants who came to work in the area's rapidly growing industries. The Union incorporated in 1880, "to increase fellowship among women and to promote the best practical methods for securing their educational, industrial, and social advancement." One of the Union's earliest projects was a quite practical step towards these goals; the Union's store helped women, whether single or married, support themselves by selling crafts and other items they produced at home. The Union also offered women workers, domestic workers in particular, information and legal advice through the Protective Committee founded in 1878.
The Committee on Hygiene, which provided health education and free medical treatment to women, later developed into the Committee on Sanitary and Industrial Conditions, which investigated working conditions in shops and industry. This committee quickly evolved into the Union's Research Department. The Research Department offered research fellowships to young women who had recently graduated from college, among them Louise M. Bosworth who in 1909 completed a study of the wages of working women. Other research department studies included analyses of the domestic service industry, immigrant women, opportunities for girls and women in industries such as the paper box trade, the telephone industry, and clothing manufacturing among others, and the food of working women. The latter was published in conjunction with the Massachusetts State Department of Health as Records of the Vocational Adjustment Bureau.
The Union also provided women with practical training and vocational advice. In 1905 the Union began a retail training program that equipped women to work in department stores such as Filene's and Jordan Marsh where they were paid $6 per week. In 1910 the WEIU founded the Appointment Bureau. The Bureau became nationally known for its advising and placement of college-educated women in fields other than teaching, and operated a placement agency that connected women seeking work as domestics with potential employers. The Appointment Bureau also worked with other vocational guidance organizations including Intercollegiate Bureau of Occupations (later the Bureau of Vocational Information). Between 1911 and 1914 the Bureau published a series of vocational guidance pamphlets that outlined the necessary educational background and training, and discussed average salaries and burgeoning sub-fields. At the end of each pamphlet a short bibliography provided a list of books and articles that could be consulted for further information. These pamphlets covered a broad range of occupations including probation work, interior decorating, chemistry, and social work. The WEIU remains in operation and continues to advocate on behalf of women and their families; provide job training for women making career changes and low-income women; and works towards expanding opportunities for women in general.
OCP Resources
Books and Pamphlets
Parton, Mable. The Work of women and children in cordage and twine factories: its effect on health. Boston, 1905.
Smith, Mary Gove. Immigration as a source of supply for domestic workers: based upon a study of conditions in Boston. [Boston: Women's Educational and Industrial Union, 1906].
Simplified statement of laws affecting the employment of women and children in Massachusetts : September 1908 / issued by the Industrial Committee representing jointly the Massachusetts State Federation of Women's Clubs, and the Women's Educational and Industrial Union. [Boston]: Industrial Committee, 1908.
Courses for teachers of salesmanship and for teachers in trade schools, to be given by the Women's Educational and Industrial Union and Simmons College. [Boston: 1910 or 1911?].
Vocation series. 1-14. Boston: Women's Educational and Industrial Union, 1911.1. Probation work, 2. Advertising, 3. Home and school visiting, 4. Poultry raising, 5. Publishing house work, 6. Proof reading, 7. Real estate, 8. Industrial chemistry, 9. Bacteriological work, 10. Interior decoration, 11, Medical social service, 12. Organizing charity, 13. Social service for children, 14. Settlement work. Opportunities for women in financial houses in Boston, 1923.
Bosworth, Louise Marion. The living wage of women workers: a study of incomes and expenditures of 450 women in the City of Boston. New York: Longmans, Green, 1911.
Women's Educational and Industrial Union (Boston, Mass.). Dept. of Research. A trade school for girls: a preliminary investigation in a typical manufacturing city, Worcester, Mass. Washington: G.P.O., 1913.
The public schools and women in office service. Boston: Women's Educational and Industrial Union, [1914].
North, Lila Ver Planck. Teachers as participators in school planning and school administration. Boston: School-Voters' League, 1915.
Kingsbury, Susan M. Licensed workers in industrial home work in Massachusetts... Boston: Wright & Potter, 1915.
Industrial home work in Massachusetts. Boston: Women's Educational and Industrial Union, 1915.
Allinson, May. Dressmaking as a trade for women in Massachusetts. Boston: Women's Educational and Industrial Union, 1916.
The boot and shoe industry in Massachusetts as a vocation for women. Boston: Women's Educational and Industrial Union, 1915 [i.e. 1916].
Industrial experience of trade-school girls in Massachusetts. Boston: Women's Educational and Industrial Union, 1917.
The food of working women in Boston: an investigation. Boston: Wright & Potter Print. Co., 1917.
Training for store service: the vocational experiences and training of juvenile employees of retail department, dry goods and clothing stores in Boston. Boston: R.G. Badger, 1920.
Old-age support of women teachers: provisions for old age made by women teachers in the public schools of Massachusetts. Boston: Women's Educational and Industrial Union, 1921.
Adams, Elizabeth Kemper. Women professional workers: a study made for the Women's Educational and Industrial Union. New York: Macmillan Co., 1921.
Eaves, Lucile. Children in need of special care: studies based on two thousand case records of social agencies. Boston: Women's Educational and Industrial Union, 1923.
Cannon, Cornelia James. The History of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union: a civic laboratory, 1877-1927. Boston: T. Todd Co., [1927?].
Institutional Papers
Research Department reports and studies, 1895-1930 (inclusive).
Report of the Women's Educational & Industrial Union for the year ending ...[1879-1892] Boston: Women's Educational & Industrial Union, 1879.
Report for the year ending ...[1899] Cambridge [Mass.]: Co-operative Press, 1899.
Report for the year ending ...[1902-1905] Boston: Women's Educational and Industrial Union, [1902]-1905.
Year book of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union. Boston, Mass.: Women's Educational and Industrial Union, [1907].
Women's Educational and Industrial Union (Boston, Mass.). Annual report of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union. Boston Women's Educational and Industrial Union, [1908-1928?].
Appointment Bureau. History, 1909-1932 (inclusive).
Finding Aids
Records (1877-1980) of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union (Boston, Mass.) are housed by the Schlesinger Library of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.For more information consult the following Finding Aids:
Finding Aid: Addenda to the records of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union.
Finding Aid: Clippings of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union.
Web Resources