WESTERN RESERVE PRESBYTERIAL ASSN. See PRESBYTERIAN WOMEN.
WESTROPP, CLARA E. (7 July 1886-25 June 1965), cofounder of WOMEN'S FEDERAL SAVINGS BANK and a leading supporter of Roman Catholic missions, was born in Cleveland to Thos. P. and Clara Stoeckel Westropp, graduated from West High School and Dyke School of Commerce, and later studied at the Savings & Loan Institute in Mercersburg, Pa.
WESTROPP, LILLIAN MARY (9 May 1884-15 Aug. 1968), Cleveland Municipal Court judge and cofounder of WOMEN'S FEDERAL SAVINGS BANK, was born in Cleveland to Thos. P.
WHAT SHE WANTS, "Cleveland's Monthly Feminist and Lesbian Newspaper," published its first issue in May 1973. It began as an effort by a group of WOMEN to provide a voice for the woman's movement in Cleveland. The paper was at first distributed on a small scale, in places like Coventry Books in CLEVELAND HTS.
WHITAKER, MAY TARBELL CANNON (15 Oct. 1858-14 July 1944) writer and civic leader, was elected to the Cleveland School Council (1900-04), served on the executive committees of both the state and the CUYAHOGA COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY, and was an associate editor for the Cleveland PRESS in 1915.
WHITE, STELLA GODFREY. See BIGHAM, STELLA GODFREY WHITE.
WHITLEY, R.(ROUSARA) JOYCE (20 May 1930-22 Dec. 1992), architect, city planner, and writer, served as chief planner for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (1967-68). She received awards for her architectural designs in Chicago and St. Louis.
AMANDA (HUNT) WICKER (1900-September 19, 1987) was born in Sandersville, Georgia, and was raised by her mother, who was widowed when Wicker was very young. Wicker was one of seven children. She graduated from Tuskegee Normal School for Teachers in 1923. The following year, Wicker was an apprentice at the Clarke Training School in Washington, DC, where she learned the dressmaking trade under Mrs. Addie Clarke.
WICKHAM, GERTRUDE VAN RENSSELAER (18 Mar 1844-20 May 1930), journalist and local historian, was born in Huron, daughter of Sanders and Malinda Woodruff (Hayward) Van Rensselaer. She attended public schools and married Capt. Samuel Wickham on 1 Aug. 1864, with whom she had a daughter, Katherine. After his death in 1869, Wickham for a few years was a principal of the lower grades at Huron High School.
WIEDER, JUDITH MARX (4 Aug. 1916-19 Dec. 1992) served as president (1970s) and chair of the board of trustees (1950s-60s) of Mill Distributors, Inc., a textile company founded in 1926 in Cleveland by her mother, Beatrice S. Marx. Wieder was born in Cleveland to Beatrice Sacheroff and Herbert Marx. She graduated from Cleveland Heights High School and Cornell University (1937).
WILLIAMS, GERALDINE (1915-30 Aug. 1993), civic activist and strategist in POLITICS, planned and worked with other AFRICAN AMERICANS to draft and elect Carl Stokes as mayor of Cleveland (see MAYORAL ADMINISTRATION OF CARL B. STOKES).
WILSON, ELLA GRANT (7 Sept. 1854-16 Dec. 1939), florist and author who wrote about EUCLID AVE.'s "Millionaires' Row," was born Ella Lawton Grant in Jersey City, N.J., to Gilbert W. and Susan Lawton and came to Cleveland when she was 6.
WINGER, CLAIRE HARRIS (January 18th, 1891-October 26th, 1968) was an American science fiction author who primarily wrote during the early to mid-20th century. Born in Freeport, Illinois, Claire was the eldest child of Mary Porter Stover and Frank Stover Winger. She graduated from Lake View High School in Chicago in 1910 and went on to attend Smith College in Massachusetts, but dropped out in order to marry Frank Clyde Harris.
WINSLOW, LOUISE MARJORIE OTTERMAN (19 August 1917 - 16 May 2001) was a Cleveland based pioneer in sewing, cooking, and craft "how-to" programs on radio and television in the late 1940s, 50s, and 60s.
WINTER, HAROLD EDWARD (14 Oct. 1908-22 July 1976), a writer, and his wife, THELMA FRAZIER (17 Dec. 1908-24 June 1977), a sculptor, were both enamelists who studied at the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART and married on 21 Dec. 1939.
WOLFENSTEIN, MARTHA (1869-16 Mar. 1906) was, perhaps, the first Jewish woman author to write Jewish stories for the secular press. She was born in Insterburg, Prussia, to Samuel and Bertha (Briger) Wolfenstein and brought to the U.S. as an infant when her father became rabbi of Congregation B'nai El in St. Louis.
The WOMAN’S FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY was founded in 1872 at Second Church on Superior St., with the purpose of helping and supporting female Presbyterian missionaries in their work in foreign countries.
WOMAN'S TEMPERANCE LEAGUE OF CLEVELAND. See WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION, NON-PARTISAN, OF CLEVELAND and TEMPERANCE.
WOMEN. Tabitha Stiles, who accompanied her husband on MOSES CLEAVELAND's survey expedition, remained on the shores of Lake Erie and was rewarded with a sizable land grant. She was an exception. Women helped tame the wilderness but seldom held title to it. Nor did many women own the homes, stores, and factories that marked the urban landscape in the years that followed.
WOMEN TOGETHER. See CENTER FOR THE PREVENTION OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.
The WOMEN'S BUREAU OF THE CLEVELAND POLICE DEPT. (CPD) provided the only police work open to women for nearly 50 years, although the CPD had employed women as jail matrons since 1893.
WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSN. OF CLEVELAND. See YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSN. (YWCA)
The WOMEN'S LAW FUND, INC., opened in Sept. 1972 in Cleveland as a pilot project of the Ford Foundation and the CLEVELAND FOUNDATION, was the first nonprofit organization in the country to address sex-discrimination cases. The fund does not litigate, but rather funds litigation for select cases. In the first case supported by the Women's Law Fund, LaFleur vs.
WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE. Cleveland and northeast Ohio played an important role in the long struggle for women’s rights and the passing of the 19th Amendment.
WOMEN'S WELSH CLUBS OF AMERICA. See WELSH HOME.
