The World's Congress of Representative Women was a week-long convention for the voicing of women's concerns, held within the World's Congress Auxiliary Building in conjunction with the World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago, May 1893).[1] At 81 meetings, organized by women from each of the United States, 150,000 people came to the World's Congress Auxiliary Building and listened to speeches given by almost 500 women from 27 countries.[2]
The World's Congress of Representative Women was arranged, sponsored and promoted by the Board of Lady Managers of the World's Congress Auxiliary, under the guidance of President Bertha Palmer, the wife of prominent Chicagoan Potter Palmer. The men of the Auxiliary formed seventeen departments and held more than 100 congresses with a variety of political, social and technical agendas;[3] the women's branch held just one congress. Of all the congresses at the World's Columbian Exposition, the World's Congress of Representative Women was the most highly attended.[4]
- ^ Maddux 2019, p.58.
- ^ Smith 2000, p. 354.
- ^ ChestOfBooks.com. Manual of Useful Information, by J. C. Thomas. World's Congress Auxiliary. Retrieved on May 13, 2009. "A series of world's congresses in all departments of thought are a feature during the Exposition season. This work is divided into seventeen great [men's] departments, as follows: Agriculture, Art, Commerce and Finance, Education, Engineering, Government, Literature, Labor, Medicine, Moral and Social Reform, Music, Public Press, Religion, Science and Philosophy, Temperance, Sunday Rest, and a General Department, embracing congresses not otherwise assigned. These general departments have been divided into more than one hundred divisions, in each of which a congress is to be held. [...] Representative men from all parts of the world take part in these gatherings."
- ^ Smith 2000, p. 356.