Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry
| Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry | |
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Students at the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry, ca. 1921
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| Coordinates | 40°01′27″N 75°18′50″W / 40.02405°N 75.31397°WCoordinates: 40°01′27″N 75°18′50″W / 40.02405°N 75.31397°W |
| Official name: Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry | |
| Type | Roadside |
| Designated | October 13, 2001 |
| Location | Bryn Mawr Campus, Morris Ave. at Yarrow St., Bryn Mawr |
 Location of Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry in Pennsylvania
Location of Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry in Pennsylvania
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The Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry (1921–1938) was a residential summer school program that brought approximately 100 young working women—mostly factory workers with minimal education—to the Bryn Mawr College campus, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, each year for eight weeks of liberal arts study. As part of the workers' education movement of the 1920s and 30s, the experimental program was unique in several ways. It was the first program of its kind for women in the United States; it was conceived, directed, and largely taught by women; and it was hosted by a women's college.
Originally the brainchild of Bryn Mawr president M. Carey Thomas, the program was funded by philanthropists such as John D. Rockefeller Jr. and taught by distinguished faculty drawn from local institutions. Under the direction of Hilda Worthington Smith it evolved into a successful workers' education program that served as the model for several others. Many of the students, who came from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds and worked in a variety of industries, went on to become union leaders. For political reasons, the program fell out of favor with the college board of trustees and was terminated in 1938.
The school is the subject of a 1985 documentary by Suzanne Bauman and Rita Heller, The Women of Summer.
Bryn Mawr College President M. Carey Thomas conceived the idea for the school some time after visiting Workers' Educational Association programs in England. According to Thomas, the inspiration came to her in the form of a vision while she was traveling in the Sahara Desert in 1919:
One afternoon at sunset I was sitting on my golden hilltop, rejoicing that British women had just been enfranchised and American women would soon be politically free ... when suddenly, as in a vision, I saw that out of the hideous world war might come as a glorious aftermath international industrial justice and international peace...I also saw as part of my vision that the coming of equal opportunity for the manual workers of the world might be hastened by utilizing the deep sex sympathy that women now feel for each other before it has had time to grow less.
In the fall of 1920, Thomas consulted with Dean Hilda Worthington Smith and Professor Susan M. Kingsbury about starting a summer school for working women. The planning committee also included labor leaders such as Mary Anderson from the U.S. Women's Bureau, Fannia Cohn from the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, and Rose Schneiderman (of "Bread and Roses" fame) from the Women's Trade Union League. The school's aim, as described in a 1929 recruiting pamphlet, was:
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