MINNESOTA FEDERATION OF BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL WOMEN'S CLUBS:

The Minnesota Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs was formed on July 26, 1920, one year after the organization of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs and one day before the second annual convention of the National Federation held in St. Paul on July 27, 1920. Fifteen statewide and local organizations with a total of 2,500 individual members were represented at the founding of the Minnesota Federation. The founding groups included the Minnesota Educational Association, the Minnesota Library Association, the Minnesota Society of Medical Women, the Minnesota State Organization of Nurses, the Minnesota Society of Women Lawyers, the Sixth District Registered Nurses Association, the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, the Minneapolis Teacher's League, the Minneapolis Froebel Club, the Minneapolis Women's Rotary Club, the Minneapolis Grade Teacher's Association, and the Business and Professional Women's Clubs of Austin, Minneapolis, Owatonna, and St. Paul. Ten years later, the Federation's membership numbered 18 local clubs, a number which had grown to 48 clubs at the Federation's seventieth anniversary in 1990.

Since its founding the objectives of the Minnesota Federation, and subsequently the objectives of its local clubs, have paralleled the mission of the National Federation: "to elevate the standards and promote the interests of business and professional women." To achieve these ends, the Minnesota Federation has actively supported anti-discriminatory legislation at both the state and national levels. The commitment of the Minnesota Federation paralleled the National Federation's affirmation of July 1939 "to work for legislation directed toward the establishment and preservation of the following principle: 'The right to work for compensation, being a property right, shall not be abridged or denied by reason of race, religion, sex, economic, or marital status.'" Issues which have caught the attention of the Minnesota Federation have included the ratification of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the adoption of an equal rights policy by the League of Nations, and the passage of laws regarding child labor, age discrimination, marital status discrimination, equal opportunity, and pay equity.

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The collection includes organizational and administrative documents, meeting minutes, reports, membership statistics, financial data, subject files, legislative correspondence, memoranda, printed material, photographs, and news clippings documenting the formation, internal administration, civic activities, legislative advocacy, educational programs, and social events of the federation.

The bulk of the collection focuses on the federation's internal operations, its annual conventions, the histories of its local club members, and its support of anti-discriminatory legislation, in particular, the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.

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These documents are organized into the following sections:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Minnesota Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs. Federation Records. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,245; 16,556; 16,585

Processing Information:

Processed by: Monica Manny Ralston, October 1997; Shelby Edwards, July 2011

Catalog ID number: 990017349160104294

Processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with a Basic Project grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

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The Federation's official publications, The Minnesota Bulletin (1936-1958) and The Minnesota Business Woman (1958- ), are available in the Minnesota Historical Society serials collection.

Issues of the magazine published by the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Independent Woman, are available in the Minnesota Historical Society serials collection.

Records of the Business and Professional Women's Club of Minneapolis and the Business and Professional Women's Association of St. Paul are available in the Minnesota Historical Society manuscript collections.

The newsletter of the St. Paul Association, The Saint Paul Business Woman, is also available in the Minnesota Historical Society serials collection.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Associations, institutions, etc. -- Minnesota.

Discrimination -- Law and legislation.

Equal pay for equal work -- United States.

Equal rights amendments -- United States.

Women -- Minnesota -- Societies and clubs.

Women in the professions -- Minnesota.

Women's rights -- United States.

Working-women's clubs -- Minnesota.

Organizations:

National Federation of Business and Women's Clubs.

National Woman's Party.

Occupation:

Businesswomen -- Minnesota.

Title:

Equal Rights (Washington, D.C.: 1923).

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