Bryn Mawr College. Summer School for Women Workers in Industry

Dates:
Establishment 1921
Disestablishment 1938
Gender:
Female
Americans,
English,

History notes:

The Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry (1921–1938) was a residential summer school program that brought approximately 100 young working women—mostly factory workers with minimal education—to the Bryn Mawr College campus, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, each year for eight weeks of liberal arts study. As part of the workers' education movement of the 1920s and 30s, the experimental program was unique in several ways. It was the first program of its kind for women in the United States; it was conceived, directed, and largely taught by women; and it was hosted by a women's college.

Originally the brainchild of Bryn Mawr president M. Carey Thomas, the program was funded by philanthropists such as John D. Rockefeller Jr. and taught by distinguished faculty drawn from local institutions. Under the direction of Hilda Worthington Smith it evolved into a successful workers' education program that served as the model for several others. Many of the students, who came from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds and worked in a variety of industries, went on to become union leaders. For political reasons, the program fell out of favor with the college board of trustees and was terminated in 1938.

The school is the subject of a 1985 documentary by Suzanne Bauman and Rita Heller, The Women of Summer.

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Information

Permalink:
http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kx66m7
SNAC ID:

Subjects:

  • Immigrants
  • Labor
  • Trade union movement
  • Women

Occupations:

not available for this record

Places:

  • PA, US

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