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Training a Nation: The General Federation of Women’s Clubs’ Rhetorical Education and American Citizenship, 1890-1930

White, Kristin Kate

Abstract Details

2010, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, English.

Historical scholarship in the field of rhetoric and composition has flourished in the last thirty years and developed a rich and diverse picture of the history of American women’s rhetorical practices. Much of the recent research surrounding women’s clubs has focused on written documents and an analysis of rhetorical strategies to demonstrate how nineteenth-century women advocated for political and social change. Scholars like Karen Blair (1980), Theodora Martin (1987), Anne Meis Knuper (1996), Anne Ruggles Gere (1997), and Jacqueline Jones Royster (2000) have focused on the civic accomplishments and reading and writing practices of African American, Jewish, Mormon, working-class, and white middle-class clubwomen. My dissertation, “Training a Nation: The General Federation of Women’s Clubs’ Rhetorical Education and American Citizenship, 1890-1930,” extends existing scholarship to include a focus on how white-middle class clubwomen developed and sustained their own programs of rhetorical education during a historical era in which women were still excluded from educational institutions, barred from most professions, and lacked any formal training in rhetoric in the United States.

Existing scholarship has not focused on the connection between the seemingly less significant activities that occurred in individual women’s clubs and the public efforts of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs to educate and train better American citizens. These internal and external programs of rhetorical education established the General Federation as an influential cultural institution. My study focuses on the concrete and self-conscious pedagogical tools that women used to educate one another and develop a model of social change rooted in education, which had mixed results. My archival research demonstrates how the white women’s clubs of the General Federation advocated structured pedagogical techniques, such as prescribed reading lists for children and adults, uniform club programs and discussion questions, and patriotic plays and pageants, to contribute to the dialogue surrounding citizenship and thus the formation of American identity in the progressive era. The General Federation’s rhetorical campaign for promoting American citizenship both reinforced racist notions of an idealized white citizenship and, at the same time, attempted to invite immigrants, newly naturalized citizens, and young adults into the conversation.

The General Federation of Women’s Clubs promotional materials and pedagogical techniques reveal how its members were a product of the ideological heritage in the Progressive movement of the early twentieth century with its focus on the cultivation of a particular kind of good American citizen that was rooted in ideas of obedience and mass education. The club movement also represents a site of rhetorical education which can show us how clubwomen in the General Federation were learning and teaching each other the politics of rhetoric in very public but non-academic sites. Ultimately, I argue that it is important to study sites where women created and supported rhetorical education to develop civic consciousness because these sites reflect evidence of clubwomen’s contributions to rhetorical theory and history.

Nan Johnson, Dr. (Advisor)
Beverly Moss, Dr. (Committee Member)
Jacqueline Royster, Dr. (Committee Member)
Jim Fredal, Dr. (Committee Member)
191 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • White, K. K. (2010). Training a Nation: The General Federation of Women’s Clubs’ Rhetorical Education and American Citizenship, 1890-1930 [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1279827080

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • White, Kristin. Training a Nation: The General Federation of Women’s Clubs’ Rhetorical Education and American Citizenship, 1890-1930. 2010. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1279827080.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • White, Kristin. "Training a Nation: The General Federation of Women’s Clubs’ Rhetorical Education and American Citizenship, 1890-1930." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1279827080

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)