The Woman's Club of Albany |
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Early Civic Reforms
In its first decade, the WCA advocated for mandatory meat and milk inspection, city-wide garbage collection, fire protection programs, a woman on the board of education, and a female probation officer. Members visited slaughterhouses to examine practices and make recommendations. They pushed for higher pay for teachers and the elimination of shared drinking cups in schools. All these reforms were enacted. In addition, the Club held canteens and dances to keep children off the streets. The Club’s activities were focused on the domestic sphere of women and children, because women were unwelcome in the world of politics and business at that time.
According to original documents written by WCA members many years ago, the first female probation officer in Albany was Maude Miner, and Mrs. Rose Fitzgerald was a subsequent probation officer. The newspaper clippings presented below appeared in the WCA 1911-1912 scrapbook and help to illustrate the times.
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Mrs. Rose Fitzgerald Female probation officer in Albany Excerpt: Every member of the Social and Industrial department of the Woman's club of Albany who attended the meeting yesterday afternoon felt that the discussion was an incentive for real accomplishment and work. The speaker was Mrs. Rose Fitzgerald, probation officer in the police court, and she told of her work during the past year, the first there ever has been a woman probation officer in Albany. ... "I have received a large number of letters from girls who have been under my care, and who now are doing well in other places." |
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Tidbit from 1919
The publicity chairman of The Woman’s Club of Albany wrote in her annual report of 1919: “In our infancy it was a little easier to get front page newspaper notices because we were a unique idea in conservative Albany. All our undertakings were noted with interest and perhaps a little concern, but the past nine years have demonstrated that we are neither radical nor unduly impulsive.”