Woodsmall, Ruth Frances, 1883-1963

Ruth Woodsmall

Ruth Frances Woodsmall was born in Atlanta, Georgia, September 20, 1883, the youngest of three children of Harrison S. Woodsmall, a lawyer and teacher, and Mary Elizabeth Howes, an art teacher. She grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana and attended local schools. She received her A.B. from the University of Nebraska in 1905 and her A.M. from Wellesley in 1906. From 1906 to 1917 she worked as a high school English teacher and principal in Nevada and Colorado. Beginning in 1917 and for the next 30 years (with the exception of 1928-32) Woodsmall held various positions with the National and World YWCA. As a member of the National Board of the YWCA of the United States, she worked with the War Work Council directing Hostess Houses in the United States and France during World War I. From 1918 to 1920 she did post war work and field studies of the Baltic and Balkan countries. In 1920 Woodsmall became executive secretary of the Near and Middle East, a post she held until 1928. In 1928 she received a traveling fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation to conduct a study of the changing status of Moslem women in the Middle East. Her 1930 report was later published in 1936 as Moslem Women Enter a New World . In 1930 Woodsmall participated in the Laymen's Foreign Mission Inquiry, an independent ecumenical project of the Protestant churches to assess missionaries' record in converting non-western populations. Her Eastern Women Today and Tomorrow (1933) contained the results of this project. In 1932 Woodsmall returned to the YWCA as staff specialist for the National Board, and in 1935 she became General Secretary for the World YWCA, a post she held until 1947. Between 1947 and 1948 she did special service for the YWCA in Japan.

In 1949 Woodsmall became Chief of the Women's Affairs Section of the U.S. High Commission for Occupied Germany, a position she held until 1952. She was appointed by the Department of State to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women for two sessions in 1949 and 1952. In 1951 she was a member of the UNESCO Working Party on the Equality of Access of Women to Education. In the years following her retirement she continued her research and writings, updating her earlier research in Study of the Role of Women, Their Activities and Organizations in Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Syria (1955) and Women and the New East (1960). She died in New York City on May 25, 1963.

For additional biographical information, see "Ruth Frances Woodsmall" in American National Biography (Oxford University Press, 1998) and Notable American Women: the Modern Period (volume IV), Belknap Press, Harvard University, 1980.

Teacher; YWCA overseas official.

Ruth Frances Woodsmall was born in Atlanta, Georgia 20 Sept 1883, the daughter of Harrison S. Woodsmall, a lawyer and teacher and Mary Elizabeth Howes, an art teacher. She grew up in Indiana and attended local schools. She received her A.B. from University of Nebraska, 1905 and her A.M. from Wellesley, 1906. She worked as a high school English teacher and principal in Nevada and Colorado, 1906-17. From 1917 she held various positions within the YWCA, including director of Hostess Houses in the U.S. and France 1917-19; Executive Secretary of the Near East, 1921-28; and General Secretary of the World's YWCA, 1935-1948. She then worked as Chief of the Women's Affairs Section of the U.S. High Commission for Occupied Germany, 1949-1952, for which she received the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of West Germany. At the same, she did extensive research on the changing status of Moslem women in the Middle East and published several works including Eastern Women Today and Tomorrow (1933); Moslem Women Enter a New World (1936); Study of the Role of Women, Their Activities and Organizations in Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Syria (1955); and Women and the New East (1960). In recognition of her work with women and international relations, she received honorary degrees from the University of Nebraska (1945) and the University of Indiana (1954). Ruth Woodsmall died in New York City 25 May 1963.