Junior League Cookbooks
I was interviewed for this story that was posted yesterday on NPR’s food blog, The Salt. Above is an image of my copy of a cookbook produced by the Augusta Junior League.
“It was an example of women using their power behind the scenes, says Kimberly Voss, a food historian and associate professor at the University of Central Florida. But “in the ’70s, there was a huge backlash against women’s groups that produced cookbooks as fundraisers because it was somehow reinforcing the tradition of the woman in the home.”
In recent years, she says, feminist researchers have reconsidered the role of these cookbooks, which required a lot of entrepreneurial muscle to publish. “Now it’s actually considered a feminist thing to do to create a cookbook,” she says.”
The women’s pages of newspapers often covered the work of women’s clubs like the Junior League. In large cities during the 1950s and 1960s, there were often hundreds of clubs to be covered. Roberta Applegate reported on women’s clubs for the Miami Herald. In a speech to a women’s club she said:
“For many years, women’s clubs have been the butt of jokes — their hats, their pink teas and their gossip. I object to that interpretation of clubwork. Sure, sometimes we wear odd hats, we enjoy teas, and I’m afraid we gossip. But look at men’s ties, their get-togethers — and did you ever hear a bunch of men talking? Women have no monopoly on gossip. And women do so much that is fine and outstanding, both in their own right and as a prod to the men.”
Here is a link to my article about Roberta Applegate, focusing on her early career in Michigan.
