Inspiring, radical ... racist: US women’s clubs grapple with their tainted past

The 150-year-old women’s club movement changed America, but many groups excluded Black members

One hundred years ago, if you were a white middle-class housewife living in Iowa’s gold-domed capital city, you were probably a member of the Des Moines Women’s Club.

It was founded in 1885 by a group that included Calista Halsey Patchin, the first female reporter at the Washington Post, as part of a national movement to help women seeking intellectual fulfilment and civic duty outside the home.

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