Cleveland Business and Professional Women's Club.

Founded in 1919 under the authority of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs. Since its beginning it has placed an emphasis on education as the basis for professional women's progress. It supports laws affecting women's wages and advancement opportunities, vocational training of women, scholarship funds, and public education on national women's issues such as the ERA.

The Cleveland Business and Professional Women's Club was founded in November 1919, by a spirited group of women who appealed to women who were already established within the business community of Cleveland, Ohio, or who hoped to join this community in the new post-war period. The founders, many of whom were politically active, were represented by such accomplished women as Florence Allen, Grace Doering McCord, Margaret Mahoney, Frances Payne Bolton and Marie Wing.

During World War I, Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker sent out an urgent call to make coordinated woman power available for the war effort. Planned as a war measure, mobilization of women for this purpose was rendered moot by the signing of the Armistice, but the enthusiasm generated among business and professional women, a group as yet unorganized, continued into the post-war period. Leota Kelly, a Clevelander, was a signer of the original articles of incorporation for the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Club in July 1919 which became the national chartering organization under which all state and local clubs would exist.

In Cleveland, women were ready to found a local organization. When a dinner announcement was published in November of 1919, to discuss the formation of the club, 800 women responded. The 800 members at the first meeting quickly grew to one thousand, and by 1923 membership was near 2,000. The fast growth of the organization forced a move from their offices in the downtown Statler Hotel to a former mansion purchased by the organization at 2728 Euclid Avenue. By 1923, the need to be centrally located downtown led to a third move to the former headquarters of the Women's City Club in the Stillman Building.

From the early days, the organization has been interested in higher standards of education, both general and vocational, for the prospective business or professional woman. In 1923, endorsement was given to the resolution of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Club recommending a high school education as a foundation for all training for business. The Cleveland club also voted to make an organized effort "to convince young people and their parents, and their employers as well that a high school education was a desirable foundation for business." As a result, the club established scholarships to enable young women to gain thorough training before entering a business career.

In 1933, the Cleveland club participated in the National Federation's survey to determine how widespread discrimination against women was in the commercial and professional fields and to determine whether women in clerical positions suffered disproportionately from men during the Great Depression. In 1937 the National Federation, followed later by state and local clubs, became the first major women's organization to endorse the Equal Rights Amendment. By the end of the decade, however, membership decreased, expenses were curtailed, and reluctantly the club was moved to smaller headquarters.

By 1944, the membership of the club had dropped to 220. As recorded history of the club, the decline could have been the result of several factors: "It may have been that women in their widening horizons were developing too many interests or it may have been that economic conditions were against us." Those women who remained had no intention of allowing the club to dissolve as "the essence, the spirit, the purpose were still there." Some of the accomplishments of the club on the state and local level during World War II included the purchase of ten million dollars' worth of war bonds and contributions to the American Bureau for Medical Aid to China for training young Chinese women as nurses, towards the building of hotels in Great Britain for women defense workers, and to purchase ten mobile kitchen units for women in Great Britain.

In the 1980s, the Business and Professional Women's Club continued to nurture and encourage future business women. It continued to support laws affecting women's wages and advancement opportunities, the vocational training of women, scholarship funds, and the education of the public on issues of national scope affecting women like the Equal Rights Amendment.