Heterodoxy was the name adopted by a feminist debating group in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

, New York City, in the early 20th century. It was notable for providing a forum for the development of more radical conceptions of feminism than the suffrage and

women's club The woman's club movement was a social movement that took place throughout the United States that established the idea that women had a moral duty and responsibility to transform public policy. While women's organizations had always been a part ...

movements of the time. The heterodoxy club was also known to be a space filled with people living remarkably diverse personal lives, allowing for women to congregate and talk about their experiences with one another in what was considered to be a safe space for conversation and change. The group was considered important in the origins of

American feminism Feminism in the United States refers to the collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending a state of equal political, economic, cultural, and social rights for women in the United States. Feminism has ha ...

History

Heterodoxy was founded in 1912 by Marie Jenney Howe, who specified only one requirement for membership: that the applicant "not be orthodox in his or her opinion". The club was formed on the basis of the motto: "The only taboo is taboo." The club's members had diverse political views, but used those differing views to focus on a multitude of different political and social issues centered around the rights of women. The membership also included bisexual and lesbian women, in addition to heterosexuals. The luncheon club, which started with 25 members, met every two weeks on Saturdays. Most of the women who belonged in the club were part of the generation born between the 1870-1880s, making this generation the first to emphasize women's rights. The club was disestablished in the 1940s. Group members referred to themselves as "Heterodites". Among the notable members were Mary Ware Dennett, Susan Glaspell,

Charlotte Perkins Gilman Charlotte Perkins Gilman (; née Perkins; July 3, 1860 – August 17, 1935), also known by her first married name Charlotte Perkins Stetson, was an American humanist, novelist, writer, lecturer, advocate for social reform, and eugenicist. She w ...

, and Ida Rauh. Heterodites Alice Kimball, Alison Turnbull Hopkins,

Doris Stevens Doris Stevens (born Dora Caroline Stevens, October 26, 1888 – March 22, 1963) was an American suffragist, woman's legal rights advocate and author. She was the first female member of the American Institute of International Law and first cha ...

, and Paula Jakobi were arrested in 1917 and 1918 suffrage protests, and served time in the Occoquan Workhouse, jail, or prison psychiatric wards. Grace Nail Johnson was the only African American woman who belonged to Heterodoxy. Beatrice M. Hinkle was another notable Heterodite, adding credibility to the group by being its only trained psychoanalyst while also examining a subcategory of psychology called feminist psychology. Many non-members addressed the group, including Helen Keller, Margaret Sanger, Emma Goldman, and

Amy Lowell Amy Lawrence Lowell (February 9, 1874 – May 12, 1925) was an American poet of the imagist school, which promoted a return to classical values. She posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926. Life Amy Lowell was born on Febru ...

. Heterodoxy meetings were valuable sources of information on the struggles for women's rights for its members. Although full of diverse lives and ideas, the women in the group were connected by their passion and desire to think unconventionally.

Activism

The Heterodoxy Club provided a safe space for activism to begin and progress, as it was the main feminist group in the early 20th century where diverse types of women could gather weekly to discuss their opinions on issues regarding women's rights while also reflecting on their diverse political views and personal lives with open minds. The majority of the members of the Heterodoxy had completed an undergraduate education, and many even pursued post-graduate degrees in fields including education, sociology, psychology, and law; moreover, their education arguably allowed them to be prepared to take stances on a multitude of women's rights issues while participating heavily in both political and social activism. Political activism within the club included members of the Heterodoxy fighting to ensure suffrage for all women, promoting the usage of birth control, and evaluating employment disparities between men and women. Social activism within the club revolved around the field of psychoanalysis, where members of the Heterodoxy examined Freudian ideas regarding psychosexual theories in order to form a branch of psychoanalysis that focused on feminism and the psychological disparities between women and men.

Political Activism

The political activism of the Heterodoxy Club includes a wide variety of political women's rights issues, including ensuring suffrage, working to create and promote different types of contraceptives, advocating for mothers, advocating against war, fighting for equal work opportunities, and advocating for immigrants. Because of the diversity of the ideas of the Heterodites, the political activism demonstrated by the club varied from person to person. The club began after women's suffrage laws had been passed; however, the group did discuss ways that women needed to fight to ensure that their right to vote would remain permanent. When the group began to move away from the women's suffrage movement after they were confident women's right to vote would not be outlawed, they moved into playing an active role in the birth control movement. They promoted and hosted many original members of the birth control movement, like Emma Goldman, Mary Ware Dennett, and Margaret Sanger. These non-official members of the Heterodoxy Club attended meetings in order to collect ideas from the Heterodites about how women would like to see different birth control forms being used in the future, discussing reproductive rights as a whole. The platform that the Heterodoxy Club gave these non-members played a role in Dennett's formation of the Volunteer Parenthood League and National Birth Control League and Sanger's ''The Birth Control Review,'' all contributing to the legalization of contraceptives''.'' Heterodites often advocated for mothers, providing mothers with psychological evaluations and assistance, sharing how motherhood impacts women's lives, and by pushing the idea that women are not only meant to be mothers, meaning that they have more skills than mothering and can be creative and work as well. Many members of the Heterodoxy Club identified themselves as pacifists, advocating against the usage of wars as a way to solve conflict through sharing their ideas and protest. Women in the Heterodoxy Club also fought for fair employment and fair wages, pushing women to get jobs and dismantling the idea that the man of the house needs to be the only one to provide financial support. Many women in the Heterodoxy Club also supported and advocated for immigrants, specifically immigrant mothers, by helping them find needed resources and reassuring them that their existence and their lives are legitimate.

Activism Relating to the Field of Psychology

Psychoanalysis done by Beatrice M. Hinkle, a widely recognized member of the Heterodoxy Club, provided a way for the club to participate in social activism; moreover, this specifically includes activism within the field of psychology relating psychological differences between men and women based on self-realization and expression. Hinkle originally studied with

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...

, but began to become wary of his ideas regarding psychosexual theories, as they sexualized women while also not considering them fully capable people. One of Freud's theories suggests that women are a part of the psyche of men which Hinkle heavily disagreed with, so she moved to create an area of psychology driven by feminism. She turned to analyze and support the ideas of Jungian psychology, which focused on the psychological growth of individuals as well as their creative outlets. In order to perform her psychoanalysis research, she utilized the help of many members of the Heterodoxy Club. Many Heterodites volunteered to, or paid to, participate in her analyses where Hinkle focused on allowing the participant to realize their full potential, open their creative minds, and think about sex and sexuality in a way that opposed the morals regarding sex typically seen during this time period. Through her analyses, she promoted the usefulness and creativity of women, the theory that women are more dominant than men when attempting to change societal views on sex and sexualities, and the idea that women face psychological consequences due to the power complex and social dominance of men. Hinkle critiqued the biases of psychoanalysis through a feminist lens by performing psychoanalysis on members of the Heterodoxy Club, promoting the psychological study of women, allowing women to achieve self-realization, and contradicting the sexism that frequented the psychology field. Hinkle also collaborated with other members of the Heterodoxy Club to spread awareness about her research on the psychology of women through her psychoanalyses. Her most significant partnership within the club was with Susan Glaspell, who wrote ''The Verge'', a play about unorthodox and creative experiments done by women, similar to the types of experiments Hinkle performed. This play reflected on Hinkle's research by showcasing the creative minds of women, which allowed Hinkle's ideas to reach a larger audience and in turn cause more women to emphasize creativity in their lives in order to find self-realization.

Members

The members of Heterodoxy lived primarily in Greenwich Village,

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

, and the Lower East Side. While some Heterodites were famous in their own right, little is known of many of them. * Katharine Anthony *

Sara Josephine Baker Sara Josephine Baker (November 15, 1873 – February 22, 1945) was an American physician notable for making contributions to public health, especially in the immigrant communities of New York City. Her fight against the damage that widespread ur ...

* Stella Cominsky Ballantine *

Bessie Beatty Elizabeth Mary "Bessie" Beatty (January 27, 1886 – April 6, 1947) was an American journalist, editor, playwright, and radio host. Early life and education Elizabeth Mary "Bessie" Beatty was born and raised in Los Angeles, one of four children o ...

* Edwine Behre * Frances Maule Bjorkman * Mary Bookstaver * Elinor Byrns * Elizabeth Ellsworth Cook *

Marion Cothren Marion Benedict Cothren (1880–1949) was an American suffrage and peace activist, lawyer, and children's author. Early life and education Marion Benedict was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York by her parents William Marsh Benedict (a lawyer) ...

* Mabel Potter Daggett * Maida Castellun Darnton * Agnes de Mille * Anna George de Mille *

Mary Dennett Mary Coffin Ware Dennett (April 4, 1872 – July 25, 1947) was an American women's rights activist, pacifist, homeopathic advocate, and pioneer in the areas of birth control, sex education, and women's suffrage. She co-founded the National ...

* Rheta Childe Dorr * Elsie Dufour * Crystal Eastman * Edith Ellis * Mateel Howe Farnham * Mary Fels * Eleanor Fitzgerald *

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (August 7, 1890 – September 5, 1964) was a labor leader, activist, and feminist who played a leading role in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Flynn was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union ...

* Zona Gale *

* Susan Glaspell * Myran Louise Grant *

Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale (1883 – 5 September 1967) was an English actress, lecturer, writer, and suffragist. Early life Beatrice Forbes-Robertson was born in England, the daughter of Gertrude Knight and Ian Forbes-Robertson, and the gran ...

* Ruth Hale * Anne Herendeen * Ami Mali Hicks * Beatrice M. Hinkle * Leta Stetter Hollingworth * Alison Turnbull Hopkins * Marie Jenney Howe * Helen Hull * Fannie Hurst * Elisabeth Irwin * Inez Haynes Irwin * Paula O. Jakobi * Grace Nail Johnson * Gertrude Kelly *

Edna Kenton Edna Kenton (March 17, 1876 – February 28, 1954) was an American writer and literary critic. Kenton is best remembered for her 1928 work ''The Book of Earths,'' which collected various unusual and controversial theories about a hollow earth, Atl ...

* Fannie Kilbourn * Alice Mary Kimball * Fola La Follette * Ellen La Motte * Eleanor Lawson * Katherine Leckie * Rose Strunsky Lorwin *

Mabel Dodge Luhan Mabel Evans Dodge Sterne Luhan (pronounced ''LOO-hahn''; née Ganson; February 26, 1879 – August 13, 1962) was a wealthy American patron of the arts, who was particularly associated with the Taos art colony. Early life Mabel Ganson was the heir ...

Mary Margaret McBride Mary Margaret McBride (November 16, 1899 – April 7, 1976) was an American radio interview host and writer. Her popular radio shows spanned more than 40 years. In the 1940s the daily audience for her housewife-oriented program numbered from si ...

* Inez Milholland * Alice Duer Miller *

Elsie Clews Parsons Elsie Worthington Clews Parsons (November 27, 1875 – December 19, 1941) was an American anthropologist, sociologist, folklorist, and feminist who studied Native American tribes—such as the Tewa and Hopi—in Arizona, New Mexico, and Mex ...

* Mary Field Parton *

Ruth Pickering Pinchot Ruth Pickering Pinchot (born Ruth Pickering; 1893–1984) was an American writer, critic, and activist. Early life Ruth Pickering was born in 1893 in Elmira, New York. She was born to a family of Quakers who ran a small company, Peerless Dyes. R ...

* Grace Potter * Ida Sedgwick Proper * Nina Wilcox Putnam * Ida Rauh *

Henrietta Rodman Henrietta Rodman (August 29, 1877 – March 21, 1923) was an American educator and feminist. She was active in advocating on behalf of married women teachers for their right to promotion and maternity leave. Early life and education Rodman ...

* Netha Roe * Lou Rogers * Florence Guy Woolston Seabury * Mary Shaw * Anne O'Hagan Shinn *

Sarah Field Splint Sarah Field Splint (1883–1959) was an American author, editor, domestic science consultant, and feminist. Biography Sarah Field Splint, of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, was an alumnus of Colby College. From 1914 to 1919 she was the editor of the ma ...

Rose Pastor Stokes Rose Harriet Pastor Stokes (née Wieslander; July 18, 1879 – June 20, 1933) was an American socialist activist, writer, birth control advocate, and feminist. She was a figure of some public notoriety after her 1905 marriage to Episcopalian mill ...

* Vida Ravenscroft Sutton * Kathleen de Vere Taylor * Signe Kristine Toksvig *

Mary Heaton Vorse Mary Heaton Vorse (October 11, 1874 – June 14, 1966) was an American journalist and novelist. She established her reputation as a journalist reporting the labor protests of a largely female and immigrant workforce in the east-coast textile indus ...

* Elizabeth C. Watson *

Helen Westley Helen Westley (born Henrietta Remsen Meserole Manney; March 28, 1875 – December 12, 1942) was an American character actress of stage and screen Early years Westley was born Henrietta Remsen Meserole Manney in Brooklyn, New York on March 28, ...

Vira Boarman Whitehouse Vira Boarman Whitehouse (September 16, 1875 – April 11, 1957) was an American suffragette, government official, and businessperson. She was the owner of the Whitehouse Leather Company and an early proponent of birth control. She directed the Sw ...

Margaret Widdemer Margaret Widdemer (September 30, 1884 – July 14, 1978) was an American poet and novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize (known then as the Columbia University Prize) in 1919 for her collection ''The Old Road to Paradise'', shared with Carl Sandburg ...

Margaret Wycherly Margaret De Wolfe Wycherly (born Margaret De Wolfe, 26 October 1881 – 6 June 1956) was an English stage and film actress. She spent many years in the United States and is best remembered for her Broadway roles and Hollywood character parts. On ...

* I. A. R. Wylie * Rose Emmet Young

Notes

References

*(=Thesis M.A., 1977) {{Authority control Feminist organizations in the United States Feminism in New York City