The 1930s
The 1930’s saw our club contributing to community funds, scholarships for girls, and speaking out for the rights of women to serve as jurors and against discriminatory legislation affecting women in the workforce.
In 1930, the Club invited the Business and professional Women’s Club to a luncheon meeting during which the history and accomplishments of the League of Nations was the speaker’s topic. That year the Club entertained 200 Zontians for several hours on their way to the International Convention in Seattle by train. They were joined on the train to Seattle by the Club’s delegates Caroline Retelsdorf and Harriet A. Redlin. The report of Lenore Rosing, Director of the Milwaukee School for Social Workers and Chairman of the National Service Committee, will be read at Convention.
Sadly, that year the Club lost its first president, Dr. Bessie Calvert Childs, to illness. In her memory, a Bessie Childs Fund was established for definite projects.
In 1931, the Club joined with other Milwaukee women’s organizations to offer scholarships to three women enrolled in the University of Wisconsin summer school for industrial workers. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel wrote “The purpose of the school is to develop leadership among industrial girls and to give the girl employed in a factory a glimpse of the large field of industry and her value in that field.”
The Club’s meeting format at the first luncheon meeting of the 1931 Zonta year, involved dinner tables for four and table discussions in lieu of speeches. Members then reported out what they had learned. This is a format that the Milwaukee club has utilized from time to time when brainstorming issues.
At a BPW meeting in May of 1932, Zonta joined with BPW, Quota, Altrusa, and Soroptomist clubs in determining how women’s service clubs can coordinate their community service.
On October 28, 1932, Amelia Earhart, was feted at an honorary banquet, sponsored by women’s business and professional organizations that included the Zonta Club of Milwaukee, at the Hotel Astor in Milwaukee. Zonta was the only non-aviation organization to which Ms. Earhart belonged.
Amelia Earhart 1932
The Milwaukee Journal, Nov. 9, 1938
In the 1930s, Zonta Day was observed by clubs around the globe. The forty Milwaukee members held a dinner and program at the YWCA in 1933.
In 1934 at the Zonta International Convention in Quebec, the Club’s Gertrude M. Jacobs was elected Treasurer.
The Club’s 10th Anniversary in 1936 was marked by a dinner at the Hotel Plankinton with speeches by Zonta President Dora Deun; Chairman of the 2nd District Mrs. Keith Preston; Chairman of the B Region of the 2nd District Ellen M. Anderson; and Executive Secretary Harriet C. Richards.
The legal status of women and legislation for women in Wisconsin were presented by Elizabeth Brandeis Rauschenbauer of UW-Madison and Maud Switt of Wisconsin’s industrial commission. Our Club had appointed a chairman to study local and state regulations affecting women. Later, Wisconsin Governor Philip F. LaFollette’s wife spoke to the Club about the art and science of government.
In November of 1938, the Club’s 65 members learned of the Amerlia Earhart scholarship, initially granted to Purdue University students.
Also that November, the Club’s dinner meeting, held at the YWCA, included a special WTMJ radio broadcast featuring eight Club members discussing their diverse jobs.
In January of 1939, Zonta International President Dr. Helen Pierce spoke informally at the College Women’s Club. In an interview with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Dr. Pierce revealed that more and more fields are opening up to capable women and that Zonta has had to enlarge its classification system to accommodate them.
In March of 1939, the Club sent a resolution to Milwaukee’s Common Council opposing the passage of any ordinance restricting employment of married women or men from city employment if their spouses are so employed.