Lucy Stone League
Encyclopedia
The Lucy Stone League is a women’s rights organization founded in 1921. Its motto is "My name is the symbol of my identity and must not be lost". It was the first group to fight for women to be allowed to keep their own maiden name, or birth name, after marriage—and to use it legally.
It was among the first feminist groups to arise from the suffrage movement, and gained attention for seeking and preserving women's own-name rights, such as the particular ones which follow in this article.
The group took its name from Lucy Stone
(1818–1893), the first woman in the United States
to carry her birth name through life, despite her marriage in 1855. The New York Times called the group the "Maiden Namers". The group held its first meetings, debates and functions at the Hotel Pennsylvania
in New York City, including its founding meeting on 17 May 1921.
The founder of the Lucy Stone League was Ruth Hale
, a New York City journalist
and critic
. The wife of New York World columnist Heywood Broun
, Ruth Hale challenged in federal court any government edict that would not recognize a married woman, such as herself, by the name she chose to use. The only one in her household called Mrs Heywood Broun was the cat.
The League became so well-known "that a new phrase was invented for a person who believes a wife should keep her name – a Lucy Stoner, a phrase that eventually got into the dictionaries."
Some of the members often attended the Algonquin Round Table
. Since many League members wrote for a living, they could and did write frequently about the group in New York City newspapers.
There were many well-known women who were Lucy Stoners and kept their names after marriage but were not known to be League members, such as (listed alphabetically) Isadora Duncan
(dancer), Amelia Earhart
(aviation celebrity), Margaret Mead
(anthropologist), Edna St. Vincent Millay
(poet), Georgia O'Keeffe
(artist), Frances Perkins
(first woman appointed to any U.S. cabinet), and Michael Strange (poet, playwright, actress) – aka Blanche Oelrichs
– aka the wife of actor John Barrymore
.
Ruth Hale's first battle (begun in 1920) with the government was to get a passport
issued to her by the U.S. State Department in her own name – just as for any man. Victory was attained five years later in 1925, by the League, when "the first married woman in the United States to get such a passport" was Doris Fleischman, the wife of Edward L. Bernays.
An earlier victory for the group came in May 1921 when Hale got a real estate
deed issued in her birth name rather than Mrs. Heywood Broun. When the time came to transfer the title of the Upper West Side
apartment building, Hale refused to go on record as Mrs. Heywood Broun; the papers were changed to Ruth Hale.
The League pioneered and fought for other married women's rights, in the 1920s U.S., to do each of the following in their own names: to register at a hotel, to have bank accounts and sign checks, to have a telephone account or a store account or an insurance policy or a library card, to register (to vote) and to vote, to get a copyright, and to receive paychecks. These rights are taken for granted today – but the legal right of a married woman in the U.S. to use her own name (and not her husband's name) was wrongly denied by many officials and even in the courts until a crucial 9 Oct 1972 court decision, as described and documented fully in the 1977 book Mrs Man, by Una Stannard.
In its first incarnation the League was short lived. The group's lawyer, Rose Bres, died in 1927; by 1931 "Ruth Hale was seriously depressed, believing as she did that 'a woman is through after forty'," and she died in 1934. By the early 1930s the Lucy Stone League was inactive.
, plus twenty two former members, its first meeting being on 22Mar50 in New York City. Promptly, Grant "got the Census Bureau to agree that for the purpose of census-taking a married woman had the right to have her maiden surname
officially recognized as her real name (The New York Times, April 10, 1950)."
But the "legal stone wall" that U.S. women ran into with many officials and even in the courts – wrongly, as mentioned above – persisted and worsened until the U.S. Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment
on 22 Mar 1972 (never ratified by the U.S.). This crucial 1972 event, plus the researching of and documentation of past legal cases by assiduous women lawyers, led to the above-mentioned crucial 9 Oct 1972 court decision.
So in the 1950s and 1960s period, prior to 1972, the "new" League had to change its approach – it widened its focus and "concerned itself with sex discrimination in general"; the League "was a proto
– National Organization for Women
" (NOW).
The reborn League operated as a non-political and non-partisan center of research and information on the status of women. It sponsored college scholarships and set up feminist libraries in high schools. It worked for gender equality
in legal, economic, educational, and social relationships.
As of the early 1990s the Lucy Stone League "still gave nursing scholarships and hosted a combination annual meeting and strawberry festival" – "though many of its issues were taken over by NOW (1966) and other women's groups."
For more information about the current activities of the League, see the website itself, including the activity descriptions within the source file "LSL History" already used as a history source. For example, the website's stated goals include:
The website states that the Lucy Stone League "plans to remain in operation until its goals are achieved".
It was among the first feminist groups to arise from the suffrage movement, and gained attention for seeking and preserving women's own-name rights, such as the particular ones which follow in this article.
The group took its name from Lucy Stone
Lucy Stone
Lucy Stone was a prominent American abolitionist and suffragist, and a vocal advocate and organizer promoting rights for women. In 1847, Stone was the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree. She spoke out for women's rights and against slavery at a time when women were discouraged...
(1818–1893), the first woman in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to carry her birth name through life, despite her marriage in 1855. The New York Times called the group the "Maiden Namers". The group held its first meetings, debates and functions at the Hotel Pennsylvania
Hotel Pennsylvania
The Hotel Pennsylvania is a hotel located at 401 7th Avenue in Manhattan, across the street from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden in New York City.- History :...
in New York City, including its founding meeting on 17 May 1921.
The founder of the Lucy Stone League was Ruth Hale
Ruth Hale (feminist)
Ruth Hale was a freelance writer who worked for women's rights in New York City, USA, during the era before and after World War I...
, a New York City journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
. The wife of New York World columnist Heywood Broun
Heywood Broun
Heywood Campbell Broun, Jr. was an American journalist. He worked as a sportswriter, newspaper columnist, and editor in New York City. He founded the American Newspaper Guild, now known as The Newspaper Guild. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he is best remembered for his writing on social issues and...
, Ruth Hale challenged in federal court any government edict that would not recognize a married woman, such as herself, by the name she chose to use. The only one in her household called Mrs Heywood Broun was the cat.
The League became so well-known "that a new phrase was invented for a person who believes a wife should keep her name – a Lucy Stoner, a phrase that eventually got into the dictionaries."
Members
The group was open to women and men. Some early members were, in alphabetical order:- Franklin Pierce AdamsFranklin Pierce AdamsFranklin Pierce Adams was an American columnist, well known by his initials F.P.A., and wit, best known for his newspaper column, "The Conning Tower", and his appearances as a regular panelist on radio's Information Please...
, columnist - Heywood BrounHeywood BrounHeywood Campbell Broun, Jr. was an American journalist. He worked as a sportswriter, newspaper columnist, and editor in New York City. He founded the American Newspaper Guild, now known as The Newspaper Guild. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he is best remembered for his writing on social issues and...
, columnist - Janet FlannerJanet FlannerJanet Flanner was an American writer and journalist who served as the Paris correspondent of The New Yorker magazine from 1925 until she retired in 1975. She wrote under the pen name "Genêt"...
, Paris correspondent for The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast... - Zona GaleZona GaleZona Gale was an American author and playwright. She became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama, in 1921.-Biography:Gale was born in Portage, Wisconsin, which she often used as a setting in her writing...
, Wisconsin-based author and playwright, first woman to win the Pulitzer PrizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
for drama, and political-campaigner for women's rights - Jane GrantJane GrantJane Grant was a New York City journalist who co-founded The New Yorker with her first husband, Harold Ross.-Her life:...
, New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
reporter, wife of Harold RossHarold RossHarold Wallace Ross was an American journalist and founder of The New Yorker magazine, which he edited from the magazine's inception in 1925 to his death....
(founder of The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
), and cofounder of The New Yorker - Ruth HaleRuth Hale (feminist)Ruth Hale was a freelance writer who worked for women's rights in New York City, USA, during the era before and after World War I...
, journalist and publicist - Fannie HurstFannie HurstFannie Hurst was an American novelist. Although her books are not well remembered today, during her lifetime some of her more famous novels were Stardust , Lummox , A President is Born , Back Street , and Imitation of Life...
, author - Beulah Livingstone, silent movie publicist
- Anita LoosAnita LoosAnita Loos was an American screenwriter, playwright and author.-Early life:Born Corinne Anita Loos in Sisson, California , where her father, R. Beers Loos, had opened a tabloid newspaper for which her mother, Minerva "Minnie" Smith did most of the work of a newspaper publisher...
, playwright-author - Neysa McMeinNeysa McMein-Life:Born Marjorie Moran in Quincy, Illinois, she attended the Art Institute of Chicago and in 1913 went to New York City. After a brief stint as an actress, she turned to commercial art...
, illustrator - Solita SolanoSolita SolanoSolita Solano, real name Sarah Wilkinson was an American writer, poet and journalist.-Life:...
, drama critic, editor, and writer
Some of the members often attended the Algonquin Round Table
Algonquin Round Table
The Algonquin Round Table was a celebrated group of New York City writers, critics, actors and wits. Gathering initially as part of a practical joke, members of "The Vicious Circle", as they dubbed themselves, met for lunch each day at the Algonquin Hotel from 1919 until roughly 1929...
. Since many League members wrote for a living, they could and did write frequently about the group in New York City newspapers.
There were many well-known women who were Lucy Stoners and kept their names after marriage but were not known to be League members, such as (listed alphabetically) Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan was a dancer, considered by many to be the creator of modern dance. Born in the United States, she lived in Western Europe and the Soviet Union from the age of 22 until her death at age 50. In the United States she was popular only in New York, and only later in her life...
(dancer), Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...
(aviation celebrity), Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s....
(anthropologist), Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American lyrical poet, playwright and feminist. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and was known for her activism and her many love affairs. She used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for her prose work...
(poet), Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was an American artist.Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe first came to the attention of the New York art community in 1916, several decades before women had gained access to art training in America’s colleges and universities, and before any of its women artists...
(artist), Frances Perkins
Frances Perkins
Frances Perkins , born Fannie Coralie Perkins, was the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, and the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet. As a loyal supporter of her friend, Franklin D. Roosevelt, she helped pull the labor movement into the New Deal coalition...
(first woman appointed to any U.S. cabinet), and Michael Strange (poet, playwright, actress) – aka Blanche Oelrichs
Blanche Oelrichs
Blanche Oelrichs was an American poet, playwright, and theatre actress known by the pseudonym, "Michael Strange."-Biography:...
– aka the wife of actor John Barrymore
John Barrymore
John Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III...
.
First historical period
The founding of the League was presented above, in the introduction.Ruth Hale's first battle (begun in 1920) with the government was to get a passport
Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
issued to her by the U.S. State Department in her own name – just as for any man. Victory was attained five years later in 1925, by the League, when "the first married woman in the United States to get such a passport" was Doris Fleischman, the wife of Edward L. Bernays.
An earlier victory for the group came in May 1921 when Hale got a real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
deed issued in her birth name rather than Mrs. Heywood Broun. When the time came to transfer the title of the Upper West Side
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...
apartment building, Hale refused to go on record as Mrs. Heywood Broun; the papers were changed to Ruth Hale.
The League pioneered and fought for other married women's rights, in the 1920s U.S., to do each of the following in their own names: to register at a hotel, to have bank accounts and sign checks, to have a telephone account or a store account or an insurance policy or a library card, to register (to vote) and to vote, to get a copyright, and to receive paychecks. These rights are taken for granted today – but the legal right of a married woman in the U.S. to use her own name (and not her husband's name) was wrongly denied by many officials and even in the courts until a crucial 9 Oct 1972 court decision, as described and documented fully in the 1977 book Mrs Man, by Una Stannard.
In its first incarnation the League was short lived. The group's lawyer, Rose Bres, died in 1927; by 1931 "Ruth Hale was seriously depressed, believing as she did that 'a woman is through after forty'," and she died in 1934. By the early 1930s the Lucy Stone League was inactive.
Second historical period
The League was restarted in 1950 by Jane GrantJane Grant
Jane Grant was a New York City journalist who co-founded The New Yorker with her first husband, Harold Ross.-Her life:...
, plus twenty two former members, its first meeting being on 22Mar50 in New York City. Promptly, Grant "got the Census Bureau to agree that for the purpose of census-taking a married woman had the right to have her maiden surname
Surname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
officially recognized as her real name (The New York Times, April 10, 1950)."
But the "legal stone wall" that U.S. women ran into with many officials and even in the courts – wrongly, as mentioned above – persisted and worsened until the U.S. Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and, in 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time...
on 22 Mar 1972 (never ratified by the U.S.). This crucial 1972 event, plus the researching of and documentation of past legal cases by assiduous women lawyers, led to the above-mentioned crucial 9 Oct 1972 court decision.
So in the 1950s and 1960s period, prior to 1972, the "new" League had to change its approach – it widened its focus and "concerned itself with sex discrimination in general"; the League "was a proto
Proto
Proto- is a prefix meaning "first".Proto may also refer to:- Organizations :* Proto , a tool company , now a division of Stanley Black & Decker...
– National Organization for Women
National Organization for Women
The National Organization for Women is the largest feminist organization in the United States. It was founded in 1966 and has a membership of 500,000 contributing members. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S...
" (NOW).
The reborn League operated as a non-political and non-partisan center of research and information on the status of women. It sponsored college scholarships and set up feminist libraries in high schools. It worked for gender equality
Gender equality
Gender equality is the goal of the equality of the genders, stemming from a belief in the injustice of myriad forms of gender inequality.- Concept :...
in legal, economic, educational, and social relationships.
As of the early 1990s the Lucy Stone League "still gave nursing scholarships and hosted a combination annual meeting and strawberry festival" – "though many of its issues were taken over by NOW (1966) and other women's groups."
Third (and current) historical period
A modern version of the League was started in 1997, as follows: By 1997 the activities of the League had ceased and a report was published that "Alas, the League is no more." When he read this report, Morrison Bonpasse, a past-president of the League, was "inspired" to restart the League, at the same time shifting the focus back to name equality – which was/is not addressed by NOW. This restart eventually became "the re-launching of the website (lucystoneleague.org) under the direction of a new board and its current president Ms. Cristina Lucia Stasia. The website's current aim is to educate and to address issues regarding name change equality." (The new board includes Morrison Bonpasse, as one learns on the website by clicking on the tab "Contact".) There is, however, a group of women in New York who are still active under the name "Lucy Stone League" and this group has been a dues paying affiliate of the International Alliance of Women (http://www.womenalliance.org) for decades. It hosted the IAW Trienniel Congress in New York City in 1999.For more information about the current activities of the League, see the website itself, including the activity descriptions within the source file "LSL History" already used as a history source. For example, the website's stated goals include:
- "Equal rights for women and men to retain, modify and create their names."
- "Equality of patrilineal/matrilineal name distribution for children."
- "Equal actual frequency of name retention, modification and creation between men and women at marriage and throughout life."
The website states that the Lucy Stone League "plans to remain in operation until its goals are achieved".
See also
- Gender equalityGender equalityGender equality is the goal of the equality of the genders, stemming from a belief in the injustice of myriad forms of gender inequality.- Concept :...
- Married and maiden namesMarried and maiden namesA married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....
- Matrilineal
- MatrinameMatrinameMatrilineal surnames, or equivalently matrinames, are inherited or handed down from mother to daughter in matrilineal cultures, and this line of descent or "mother line" is called a matriline...
- Patrilineal
- Women's rightsWomen's rightsWomen's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
General literature
- Jane GrantJane GrantJane Grant was a New York City journalist who co-founded The New Yorker with her first husband, Harold Ross.-Her life:...
, Confession of a Feminist, in The American MercuryThe American MercuryThe American Mercury was an American magazine published from 1924 to 1981. It was founded as the brainchild of H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured writing by some of the most important writers in the United States through the 1920s and 1930s...
, vol. LVII, no. 240, Dec., 1943 (microfilm), pp. 684–691. This article gives more background on the formation of the League.