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The National Federation of Republican Women (NFRW) is the women's wing of the Republican Party in the United States.
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The National Federation of Republican Women (NFRW) is the women's wing of the Republican Party in the United States.
Founded in 1938 by Joyce Porter Arneill and Marion Martin, [1] the Federation is a political organization with more than 1,600 local clubs in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories. [2] Members at the local, state and national levels work to recruit and elect Republican candidates, advocate the party's philosophy and initiatives, and advance women in the political process. [2] The NFRW's national headquarters is located in Alexandria, Virginia.
Membership is open to every Republican woman through her local club or national associate membership. Members of a local club are also granted membership in their state Federation.
Once an auxiliary of the Republican National Committee (RNC), the NFRW is financially and organizationally independent today. The goals of the organization are to:
The NFRW hosts a biennial convention in odd-numbered years to conduct organizational business, including the election of national officers, and provide members with educational, leadership, and networking opportunities.
Beginning in the late 1930s, Marion Martin, the assistant chair of the Republican National Committee and National Committeewoman for Maine, saw a need for uniformity amongst the numerous Republican women's clubs nationwide. These clubs lacked a standard set of by-laws and were too detached from the Republican party, so Martin worked to present the goals of the women's clubs as relevant to the male leadership within the party. After a national committee vote in December 1937, the National Federation of Women's Republican Clubs was formed. The original 11 statewide federations organized as charter members were California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The first meeting was held in September 1938 at the Palmer House in Chicago, representing 85 clubs and 95,000 women. [3] : 73 Acting as an auxiliary to the Republican National Committee, the NFRW was designed primarily to educate members of party politics, to promote loyalty to the Republican Party, and to emphasize the potential roles of women within the party leadership. Pamphlets and study programs were disseminated to the clubs to ensure a standardized educational platform. Martin pushed for a more partisan outlook toward politics, hoping to spread republican philosophy while avoiding supporting controversial issues. [3] : 75 When the United States entered World War II, the NFRW decreased its efforts to build a unified partisan organization. Twenty-five percent of American women worked for the wartime effort, moving away from Republican club meetings and towards a more wide-ranging patriotic effort. The Federation avoided taking a stance on isolationism, pledging to continue an objective educational program. While criticized, the Federation believed this non-position to be the best way to support the Republican Party and women becoming more involved in politics by developing informed opinions. [3] : 79–80, 85
In 1948, Elizabeth Farrington became president of the NFRW. Rather than continuing with Martin's administration of the Federation, Farrington expanded the organization by appealing to new constituencies, like women in the Southern United States and African-American women. Unlike Martin, who believed that women's issues were not separate from men's, Farrington emphasized distinct and unique female problems relevant to all women, and in doing so, she united the women's movement within the Republican Party. [3] : 99 Under Farrington's leadership, the NFRW became the National Federation of Republican Women in January of 1953 and moved out from under the financial umbrella of the RNC. This allowed for leadership of the NFRW to be selected from within the organization rather than appointed by the RNC, as it had been in the past. [3] : 102 Farrington also integrated religious symbolism and practices into the Federation, as well as a strong anti-communist belief, which attracted a flood of new members. Under Farrington's leadership, the Federation's membership rose to half a million women. [3] : 111, 135
During the Eisenhower administration, the use of television took politics out of just the public sphere and placed it within the private sphere of the home as well. The Federation took advantage of this exposure by holding political events with candidates and prominent Republican figures in their homes and neighborhoods, thus leading to a stronger grassroots movement at the local level. [3] : 139 By the 1950s, the NFRW was recognized as a thriving organization by the Republican Party. It was praised for its altruistic motivations to educate the public on republican ideals. As unpaid volunteers, members of the NFRW were seen as doing work for the good of the public and the good of their own families, not for their gain, leading to a stronger foundation of American values and morals within their communities. [3] : 144 This ultimately aided in the formation of a value-based identity for the Republican platform for decades to come.
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