Asociación Cristiana Femenina (YWCA)

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Asociación Cristiana Femenina (YWCA)

Asociación Cristiana Femenina (YWCA), organization founded (London, 1855; United States, 1858; World YWCA, 1894) for the "temporal, moral, and religious welfare of young women who are dependent on their own exertions for support," with affiliates appearing throughout Latin America in the 1890s. Resident "Yankee teachers" and Englishwomen established a branch in Buenos Aires in 1896; the Mexican YWCA was founded by social reformer María Elena Ramírez. The YWCAs offered temporary housing for women travelers, aid to immigrant women and girls, and recreational and educational programs for young working women. The YWCAs were centers for the discussion of feminist ideas on secular (or progressive Protestant) education, woman suffrage, abolition of prostitution and the white slave trade, and health care and civil rights for women.

See alsoWomenxml .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Marifran Carlson, ¡Feminismo! The Woman's Movement in Argentina from Its Beginnings to Eva Perón (1988).

Ward M. Morton, Woman Suffrage in Mexico (1962).

Additional Bibliography

Boyd, Nancy. Emissaries: The Overseas Work of the American YWCA, 1885–1970. New York: Woman's Press, 1986.

French, William, and Katherine Elaine Bliss. Gender, Sexuality, and Power in Latin America since Independence. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007.

Lavrin, Asunción. Women, Feminism, and Social Change in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, 1890–1940. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.

Tarrés, María Luisa, and Luzelena Gutiérrez de Velasco. Género y cultura en América Latina: Cultura y participación política. México, D.F.: Colegio de México, 1998–2003.

                                     Francesca Miller