Woman's Committee (Public Safety Commission)
Active dates:1918-1919
Authority:
Public Safety Commission resolution
Function: The Woman's Committee concerned itself with food conservation, Americanization, child welfare or child "conservation," public health and social welfare, foreign relief, patriotic education, vocational training for women, and education in all aspects of home economics. Its Committee on Women in Industry cooperated with the state Department of Labor in conducting a survey of women employed outside the home, lobbied for the "Women's 8-Hour Bill," and generally monitored the situation of working women with respect to wages, hours, and working conditions. The state Woman's Committee supervised a network of district chairmen (from 10 congressional districts), county chairmen, town chairmen, and ward and block workers. It cooperated with or worked through many existing women's organizations.
History:
The Woman's Committee (officially the Women's Division) was created by resolution of the Public Safety Commission on May 21, 1918, with the appointment of Mrs. T. G. Winter as state director, followed by the formation of an executive committee comprising representatives of major women's organizations and also of the state Board of Education, the state Department of Labor, and the University of Minnesota "Farm School."
The same committee was also authorized by the Council of National Defense to act as the Minnesota unit of the National Women's War Organization. It was sometimes also referred to as the women's auxiliary of the Minnesota Commission on Public Safety.
The committee closed its office in May, 1919.
Membership:
Original appointees: Alice Ames Winter (Mrs. Thomas G.), director/chairman; Miss Josephine Berry; Miss Agnes Peterson; Mrs. Edwin Stuhr; Miss Marian Vannier; Miss Annie Shelland; Mrs. Francis Buell Olson; Miss Caroline Crosby; Mrs. Elbert Carpenter; Mrs. Walter Thorp; Mrs. Bertha Allen; Mrs. W. T. Coe; Mrs. Bertha Dahl Laws; Mrs. W. R. Mandigo; Mrs. Charles P. Noyes; Mrs. Cordenio Severance; Mrs. George Squires; Mrs. J. L. Washburn.; Additional members; Miss Aimee Fisher, secretary; Miss Mildred Weigley; Mrs. James Swan; Mrs. John N. Jackson; Mrs. George H. Partridge; Miss Elizabeth Congdon.
Record last updated:
01/29/2016
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