Illinois Woman's Press Association

The Illinois Woman's Press Association (IWPA) is an Illinois-based organization of professional women and men pursuing careers across the communications spectrum. It was founded in 1885 by a group of 47 women who saw a need for communication and support between women writers. The organization was incorporated on June 26, 1907.

During May 1885, Marion McBride of the Boston Post, press commissioner for the World Cotton Centennial in New Orleans, shared her dream of a national association of women journalists with others at the exposition. With the country fragmented from the American Civil War and a bleak economy that offered few opportunities for women journalists, benefits were nonexistent and working conditions dire. After hearing McBride's message, Chicago press correspondent Frances A. Conant returned to Illinois and agreed to recruit other women writers for a local group. After meeting with Chicago Evening Post writer Antoinette Van Hoesen Wakeman, author and publisher Alice Bunker Stockham, M.D., and others, Conant organized an auxiliary in Chicago. The group met at the law office of Myra Bradwell, the founder and editor of Legal News and a publisher of law books.

Many of the original group went on to become notable in their fields with founder and member Frances Willard possibly the best known as an author, publisher, editor and writer and president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. Many initial members belonged to the union. Myra Bradwell became the first woman to be admitted to the Illinois bar. These women were authors, writers of creative fiction, factual reporters, magazine publishers, editors, publisher of the most important weekly legal publication in the Midwest, playwrights, novelists, medical research correspondents, short story writers, cookbook publishers, and children’s book authors. Six female physicians would be counted among the founders.

IWPA was firmly rooted in the women’s club movement at the turn of the twentieth century. The association was linked with other professional and women’s groups including the National Editorial Association (NEA) and International League of Press Clubs. It was an auxiliary to the Illinois Woman’s Alliance which included twenty-four local communities, religious and professional organizations whose goal it was to establish a labor union for working women and children.

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