Overview
Clemson University did not become coeducational until 1955. In the popular narrative, that is when the history of women at and around Clemson begins. However, women in this area had been working to improve themselves and their community for decades before this by way of women’s groups.
Women’s clubs have their origins in the mid 1800s. These groups were formed as a means for women to educate themselves and to engage in social activity with likeminded women. With these goals was often a streak of advocacy – a desire to improve the situation of women and their communities. However, they were often quite insular; they welcomed white middle-class women (I would be remiss not to mention there was a parallel club movement for Black women), and those that did seek advancement did so in a distinctly middle-class way. Women’s clubs also engaged in community service endeavors. Efforts to aid lower-class children via kindergartens and public libraries were some of the most common forms this community service took. Several watersheds in the twentieth century (ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, the 2nd wave of feminism in the 1960s and 70s, etc.) led to the decline of the club movement, but by no means did it fizzle out entirely. Two out of three of the clubs explored in this project are still active today.
The Clemson area was fortunate to have many varied clubs active in the early to mid-twentieth century. The three that are to be explored in this project are the Once-a-Week Club, the Clemson Woman’s Club, and the American Association of University Women Clemson Branch falling under the categories of Study, Socialize, and Serve, respectively. Designating these organizations under these terms is done not to suggest each has a singular focus, but to illustrate what the archival evidence reveals to be the primary purpose.