Social Justice Feminists in the United States and Germany

by Sklar, Kathryn Kish; Schuler, Anya; Strasser, Susan

• ISBN13: 9780801484698
• ISBN10: 0801484693
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-04-01
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr

Summary

Women reformers in the United States and Germany maintained a brisk dialogue between 1885 and 1933. Drawing on one another's expertise, they sought to alleviate a wide array of social injustices generated by industrial capitalism, such as child labor and the exploitation of women in the workplace. This book presents and interprets documents from that exchange, most previously unknown to historians, which show how these interactions reflected the political cultures of the two nations. On both sides of the Atlantic, women reformers pursued social justice strategies. The documents discussed here reveal the influence of German factory legislation on debates in the United States, point out the differing contexts of the suffrage movement, compare pacifist and antipacifist reactions of women to World War I, and trace shifts in the feminist movements of both countries after the war. Social Justice Feminists in the United States and Germany provides insight into the efforts of American and German women over half a century of profound social change. Through their dialogue, these women explicate their larger political cultures and the place they occupied in them.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	ix	(2)
Acknowledgments	xi	(2)
Editorial Note	xiii
INTRODUCTION: A TRANSATLANTIC DIALOGUE	1	(78)
PART I. PROMOTING A DIALOGUE: AMERICAN WOMEN FORGE TIES WITH GERMAN ACTIVISM, 1885-1908	79	(48)
1. Florence Kelley Tells American Suffragists to Attend to Working Women	79	(2)
2. Kelley Urges American Suffragists to Adopt a Program	81	(4)
3. Kelley Describes the German Workingwomen's Movement to American Suffragists	85	(5)
4. Kelley Explains Illinois Factory Laws to German Social Democrats	90	(5)
5. Kelley Reports on Women Factory Inspectors to a German Audience	95	(9)
6. Kelley Analyzes American Sweatshops for a German Audience	104	(10)
7. Mary Church Terrell Speaks in Berlin	114	(5)
8. Jane Addams Praises German Labor Legislation	119	(8)
PART II. GERMAN REFORMERS CONSIDER THE AMERICAN EXAMPLE, 1891-1914	127	(56)
1. An Early Report on the New York Consumers' League	127	(3)
2. Minna Cauer Describes the American Women's Movement	130	(10)
3. Kathe Schirmacher Reports on the International Women's Congress at the Columbian Exposition	140	(7)
4. Die Frau Reviews Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Eighty Years and More	147	(8)
5. A German Sociologist Describes American Women Factory Inspectors	155	(4)
6. Alice Salomon on American Settlement Work	159	(9)
7. A German Translation of Twenty Years at Hull House	168	(7)
8. A German Activist Responds to Twenty Years	175	(8)
PART III. THE DIALOGUE CHANGES DURING WORLD WAR I	183	(60)
1. A Sympathetic Journalist Describes German Women's War Efforts	183	(6)
2. German Radical Women Organize for Peace	189	(7)
3. A Mainstream German Woman Activist Opposes Pacifism	196	(6)
4. An American Report on the Hague Congress	202	(11)
5. Resolutions Adopted at the Hague Congress	213	(5)
6. Alice Hamilton and Jane Addams Tour Europe at War	218	(9)
7. German Women Appeal to Jane Addams and Edith Wilson	227	(2)
8. An American Report on the Zurich Congress	229	(10)
9. Florence Kelley Describes the Zurich Congress	239	(4)
PART IV. THE LIMITATIONS OF NATIONHOOD IN THE 1920S	243	(76)
A. Americans Respond to Germany's Need	243	(32)
1. Addams and Hamilton Tour a Ravaged Germany	245	(10)
2. A German Nun Writes to Jane Addams	255	(5)
3. A German Activist Appeals to Addams for Help	260	(6)
4. The Weimar President Praises Jane Addams	266	(1)
5. Florence Kelley on the 1921 Vienna Congress	267	(8)
B. Racializing the Dialogue	275	(12)
6. Racist German Propaganda Addressed to American Women	275	(4)
7. Mary Church Terrell Protests to Jane Addams	279	(3)
8. The WILPF Vienna Congress Resolution on Colonial Troops	282	(5)
C. German Women Return to the Dialogue	287	(32)
9. Red Scare Tactics Used on German Activist Visiting the United States	287	(5)
10. Jane Addams Plans for German Visitors	292	(2)
11. Pages from a Keepsake	294	(6)
12. Alice Salomon on the Modern American Woman	300	(6)
13. A Young German Reformer on American Welfare Laws	306	(7)
14. A German Politician Writes for American Reformers	313	(3)
15. Alice Salomon Salutes Jane Addams	316	(3)
EPILOGUE: THE DIALOGUE DESTROYED	319	(16)
Glossary of German Organizations	335	(5)
Biographical Notes	340	(14)
Selected Bibliography	354	(15)
Index	369