Funding Feminism: Monied Women, Philanthropy, and the Women's Movement, 1870-1967
Joan Marie Johnson examines an understudied dimension of women's history in the United States: how a group of affluent white women from the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries advanced the status of all women through acts of philanthropy. This cadre of activists included Phoebe Hearst, the mother of William Randolph Hearst; Grace Dodge, granddaughter of Wall Street "Merchant Prince" William Earle Dodge; and Ava Belmont, who married into the Vanderbilt family fortune. Motivated by their own experiences with sexism, and focusing on women's need for economic independence, these benefactors sought to expand women's access to higher education, promote suffrage, and champion reproductive rights, as well as to provide assistance to working-class women. In a time when women still wielded limited political power, philanthropy was perhaps the most potent tool they had. But even as these wealthy women exercised considerable influence, their activism had significant limits. As Johnson argues, restrictions tied to their giving engendered resentment and jeopardized efforts to establish coalitions across racial and class lines.

As the struggle for full economic and political power and self-determination for women continues today, this history reveals how generous women helped shape the movement. And Johnson shows us that tensions over wealth and power that persist in the modern movement have deep historical roots.
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Funding Feminism: Monied Women, Philanthropy, and the Women's Movement, 1870-1967
Joan Marie Johnson examines an understudied dimension of women's history in the United States: how a group of affluent white women from the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries advanced the status of all women through acts of philanthropy. This cadre of activists included Phoebe Hearst, the mother of William Randolph Hearst; Grace Dodge, granddaughter of Wall Street "Merchant Prince" William Earle Dodge; and Ava Belmont, who married into the Vanderbilt family fortune. Motivated by their own experiences with sexism, and focusing on women's need for economic independence, these benefactors sought to expand women's access to higher education, promote suffrage, and champion reproductive rights, as well as to provide assistance to working-class women. In a time when women still wielded limited political power, philanthropy was perhaps the most potent tool they had. But even as these wealthy women exercised considerable influence, their activism had significant limits. As Johnson argues, restrictions tied to their giving engendered resentment and jeopardized efforts to establish coalitions across racial and class lines.

As the struggle for full economic and political power and self-determination for women continues today, this history reveals how generous women helped shape the movement. And Johnson shows us that tensions over wealth and power that persist in the modern movement have deep historical roots.
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Funding Feminism: Monied Women, Philanthropy, and the Women's Movement, 1870-1967

Funding Feminism: Monied Women, Philanthropy, and the Women's Movement, 1870-1967

by Joan Marie Johnson
Funding Feminism: Monied Women, Philanthropy, and the Women's Movement, 1870-1967

Funding Feminism: Monied Women, Philanthropy, and the Women's Movement, 1870-1967

by Joan Marie Johnson

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Overview

Joan Marie Johnson examines an understudied dimension of women's history in the United States: how a group of affluent white women from the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries advanced the status of all women through acts of philanthropy. This cadre of activists included Phoebe Hearst, the mother of William Randolph Hearst; Grace Dodge, granddaughter of Wall Street "Merchant Prince" William Earle Dodge; and Ava Belmont, who married into the Vanderbilt family fortune. Motivated by their own experiences with sexism, and focusing on women's need for economic independence, these benefactors sought to expand women's access to higher education, promote suffrage, and champion reproductive rights, as well as to provide assistance to working-class women. In a time when women still wielded limited political power, philanthropy was perhaps the most potent tool they had. But even as these wealthy women exercised considerable influence, their activism had significant limits. As Johnson argues, restrictions tied to their giving engendered resentment and jeopardized efforts to establish coalitions across racial and class lines.

As the struggle for full economic and political power and self-determination for women continues today, this history reveals how generous women helped shape the movement. And Johnson shows us that tensions over wealth and power that persist in the modern movement have deep historical roots.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781469634708
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date: 08/04/2017
Series: Gender and American Culture
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 320
File size: 15 MB
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About the Author

Joan Marie Johnson is a historian and Director for Faculty in the Office of the Provost at Northwestern University.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Funding Feminism is a brilliantly conceived work that enriches our understanding and probes the complexities of feminism in the United States by demonstrating the ways that wealthy women both advanced feminist causes and—despite their commitment to a sisterhood of all women—sometimes exacerbated divisions among women based on class, race, and ethnicity.—Anya Jabour, University of Montana

With Funding Feminism, Joan Marie Johnson makes a significant contribution to U.S. women's history. Scholars and contemporary feminist philanthropists alike will benefit from the perspective this book offers.—Lynn Dumenil, author of The Second Line of Defense

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