Sorosis

For skin disease, see Psoriasis.

Sorosis was the first professional women's club in the United States. The club was organized in New York City with 12 members in March 1868, by Jane Cunningham Croly. Among its founding members was Fanny Fern, a popular columnist who had been angered at newspaper women being excluded from the all-male New York Press Club when it had an honorary dinner for the author Charles Dickens the month before.^[1] Sorosis was incorporated in January 1869. Alice Cary was the first president. Within one year, Sorosis had 83 members.

Sorosis meant "aggregation". Its object was to further the educational and social activities of women, and to bring together for mutual helpfulness, representative women in art, literature, science, and kindred pursuits.

References

^ Warren, Fanny Fern: An Independent Woman, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1994, p. 270, accessed 19 January 2011

Article about Sorosis at about.com
Rakow, Lana F. and Kramarae, Cheris, Women's Source Library, Vol. IV: The Revolution in Words, pp. 243-245

External Links

The University of Texas at San Antonio houses a collection of records for the San Antonio chapter of Sorosis. The collection spans the years 1923 through 1991 and provides information about the club's members and activities primarily through minutes, photographs, scrapbooks and yearbooks.

This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.