Brief History of the YWCA

  • The YWCA started in London, England in 1855, coming to the New York in 1858
  • The organization was created and supported by white middle-class women, most of whom were financially supported by their husbands.
  • The YWCA services were targeted working class women.
  • The YWCA provided services such as job trainings and employment services as well as resources like gyms, libraries and inexpensive restaurants.
  • The YWCA started engaging in advocating for protective labor legislation and other reforms in 1904. They never took a stance on protective labor legislation for domestic work, but worked to understand the pros and cons of both sides for workers and employers alike.
  • The YWCA focused much activism on relations between workers and employers, serving as a bridge between domestic workers and their employers by advocating for both groups.
  • The YWCA helped to find employment for domestic workers, which they interpreted as meaning that they should help make workers more appealing to employers.
  • The YWCA only served white women until 1889 when the first African American branch was open in, Dayton, Ohio,
  • In 1890 a branch for Native American Women was opened in Oklahoma.
  • Because women of color were marginalized in mainstream political arenas, white women engaged in the political work while women of color focused more on programming in their organizations.
  • The Harlem and Brooklyn Branches (both segregated for African American women) began to hold training programs for domestic workers in the early 1930s, being the first branches to develop such services.
  • While the African American branches of the YWCA were the first to support and provide for domestic workers, other chapters soon caught on and began to work with other organizations that were working with domestic workers such as the Domestic Workers Union (DWU) and the Urban League.

Sources:

“History,” Young Women’s Christian Association.

Wolfe, Lahle. “The History and Impact of the YWCA on Women’s Rights,”  The Balance. Sept. 14 2016.

May, Vanessa H. Unprotected Labor Household Workers, Politics, and Middle-Class Reform in New York, 1870-1940. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011.