page_title: Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry
section_title: Influence
hierarchical_section_title: Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry / History / Influence
caption_attribution_description: English: Students and faculty of the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry, 1921
context_page_description: The Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry was a residential summer school program that brought approximately 100 young working women—mostly factory workers with minimal education—to the Bryn Mawr College campus, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, each year for eight weeks of liberal arts study. As part of the workers' education movement of the 1920s and 30s, the experimental program was unique in several ways. It was the first program of its kind for women in the United States; it was conceived, directed, and largely taught by women; and it was hosted by a women's college.
  Originally the brainchild of Bryn Mawr president M. Carey Thomas, the program was funded by philanthropists such as John D. Rockefeller Jr. and taught by distinguished faculty drawn from local institutions. Under the direction of Hilda Worthington Smith it evolved into a successful workers' education program that served as the model for several others. Many of the students, who came from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds and worked in a variety of industries, went on to become union leaders.
context_section_description: Historian Rita Heller, who conducted a survey of the students in 1982, found that while some of the respondents were ambivalent about the program's usefulness, most credited it with improving their self-image and social skills and believed the school had helped them advance in their careers. Many went on to take leadership positions in their communities, churches, and trade unions. Elizabeth Nord became chairman of the New England Silk and Rayon Workers Union; Carmen Lucia became vice president of the United Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union; and Rose Finkelstein Norwood led the Boston chapter of the Women's Trade Union League.
  The school served as a model for several other workers' education programs, including the Wisconsin Summer School, Barnard Summer School, Vineyard Shore School, Southern Summer School, and the coeducational Hudson Shore Labor School.
  Summer school alumni and faculty gathered at Bryn Mawr for a three-day reunion in June 1984. Several women at the reunion were featured in a 1985 documentary, The Women of Summer, a collaboration of filmmaker Suzanne Bauman and historian Rita Heller. The film was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and has won several awards, including the American Film Festival's Red Ribbon and the CINE Golden Eagle.
caption: Students and faculty of the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry, 1921
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