Women's Clubs

Arkansas Federation of Women's Clubs
Photograph courtesy of the Special Collections, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville

While some women took part in temperance and suffrage crusades, other women with more moderate and non-militant inclinations were attracted to literary and aesthetic clubs as vehicles for personal, domestic, and community improvement. But since these clubs were oriented toward improvement and change, women in these clubs were drawn into the nation-wide Progressive Era reform effort that often led them to activists' agendas and more public roles than they initially envisioned for themselves. So widespread became the "club movement", that in 1890 the General Federation of Women's Clubs organized on the national level, and in 1897 the Arkansas Federation of Women's Clubs joined the national federation.

Participation in a club offered opportunities to broaden the horizons of women by challenging them to refine critical thinking skills, to engage in debate and speaking exercises, and to become knowledgeable in a wide range of fields. Many clubs emphasized study, reading and discussion, and some chose to limit their scope to these areas exclusively.

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