What About the Ladies?

Women Consuming America

First International Congress of Working Women Called by the National Women's Trade Union League,  Washington D.C.

Women had a difficult time in the early 1900s establishing equal rights. There was a significant difference in the treatment of men and women.  For example, women could not vote, could not own property, were not allowed to attend most colleges and universities, and were not allowed to participate in the affairs of the church. Some women began to contribute to society by acting on their passion for equal treatment. Many fought for the right to vote, and many began to enter the workforce.  Typical jobs women held were teachers, nurses and nannies. However, with WWI beginning in 1914, thousands of women were able to enter the workforce.  The war expanded professional opportunities for women.  More women could enter the profession of teaching since the supply of male students was dwindling, the Law School of Western Reserve University began to admit women in 1918 and so did the university's medical school.

Women Consuming America

Florence Ellinwood Allen

Florence Allen was born on March 23, 1884 to the parents of Corinne Marie Tuckerman Allen and Clarence Emir Allen, a former professor of Latin and Greek at Western Reserve College. She attended the Western Reserve University and graduated with honors in music in 1904. She pursued a graduate degree in political science and constitutional law at Western Reserve and received her master's degree in 1908.  She then moved to New York City to work for the New York League for the Protection of Immigrants. She also earned a law degree from the New York University School of Law in 1913.  Allen returned to Cleveland, gaining admittance to the Ohio bar and established her own law practice She worked very hard to challenge the discrimination against women throughout her career. She was the first woman to serve as a justice on the Ohio Supreme Court. Here are more of her amazing accomplishments...

-Active suffragette.  She gave 92 speeches in Ohio's 88 counties in support of women's suffrage (1912)

-Successfully argued a case to help women gain the right to vote in municipal elections in East Cleveland and Lakewood (1916)

-Assistant Prosecutor of Cuyahoga County (1919)

-Judge of the Court of Common Pleas (1920)

-The first woman to sit on the Ohio Supreme Court (the first woman to serve on the supreme court of any state (1922)

-Appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Sixth Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals (1934)

-Inducted in the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame

Women Consuming America

Myrta L. Jones

Myrta Jones was a native Cleveland social reformer who was dedicated to improving the working conditions for women.  In 1901, she began a life-long membership on the executive committee of the Consumers League of Ohio serving as their president from 1908-1915 and from 1918-1920. Under her leadership she worked tirelessly to create campaigns to improve the working conditions for women, including shorter hours for women working in department stores during the Christmas shopping season. During WWI, chaired two committees on women in industry, woring to recruit women to take men's places in wartime factories while seeking to protect the health and safety of women.  Some of her accomplishments are as follows...

-Vice president of the National Consumers League in 1910s and 1920s.

-Member of the League of Women's Voters of Cleveland

-Active suffragette

-Founder of the Fortnightly Musical Club

-Helped organize Alta House

Women Consuming America

Belle Sherwin

Belle Sherwin was born in Cleveland in 1869 to Henry Alden Sherwin, founder of Sherwin-Williams Company and Frances Mary Smith.  She graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1890 from Wellesley College and then attended Oxford University.   After Oxford, she taught history for four years at St. Margaret's and Miss Hersey's School for Girls, a private school in Boston.  After teaching in Boston, she returned to Cleveland in 1900 and became the first president of the Consumers League of Ohio.  She received honorary degrees from Western Reserve University (1930), Denison University (1931), and Oberlin Colege (1937). Here are a few of her other accomplishments...

-Active member of Visiting Nurses Association

-Active member of Federation for Charity and Philanthropy

-Active member of Council for Social Agencies

-Director of Cleveland Welfare Federation

-Vice President of National League of Women Voters (1921-1924)

-President of National League of Women Voters (1924-1934)

-Board member of National Urban League

-Founder of the Women's City Club in Cleveland