Happy Women’s History Month! here are some cool facts about the strong women that made history with the Y!
Miss Ellen Brown became the first female employee of a YMCA and the first “boy’s work secretary.” She taught a night class that grew so rapidly that it became a department of the Y.
When the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, the YMCA was involved in running military canteens (called post exchanges today) in the United States and France; 5,145 of those Y canteen workers were women.
When the war ended, Ys had changed, as had the world. Approximately 62 percent of YMCAs were allowing female members, and “other barriers began to fall one after the other, with families the new emphasis, and all races and religions included at all levels of the organization.” By 1946, women made up 12 percent of the membership.
- Jean Anne Durades, regional associate of Region 1 in 1970, the first black woman to hold such a position on the National Council of the YMCA
- Winifred Colton, the first female professional on the national YMCA staff; Colton was Secretary for Programs with Women and Girls (1957-1970) and Director of the YMCA National Family Communications Skills Center (1970-1979)
- Evonne Raglin, who became the first woman to lead a large urban association in 1985 as the CEO of the Miami Metro YMCA
- First Lady Michelle Obama, who chose the Y as the venue to launch her “Let’s Move” campaign to combat childhood obesity in 2010
2019- Helene Weir became the first female CEO of the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit!