Jane Cunningham Croly was born in England in 1829. Her family emigrated to the United States when she was in her twelfth year. After settling in New York state, she added to her formal education through extensive reading. In her schooling, she showed an early predilection for journalism by editing her school’s newspaper.
When she was twenty-five, her father passed away and she moved to New York City out of economic necessity. Striving to write as much as possible for a living, her initial work was at a publication called Noah’s Sunday Times. The assignments she received were largely confined to writing about topics then regarded as suitable for women, especially fashion and cooking.
Not surprisingly, she encountered many obstacles to her career choice of journalism. However, she soon met her future husband, David Croly, who worked for the New York Herald. Their marriage in 1856 not only resulted in three surviving children, it also helped Jane Cunningham Croly get her foot in the door for other jobs in journalism. With the resistance of the male establishment in the discipline, it is not hard to imagine her career aspirations being thwarted without the support of her spouse.
Croly’s significant writing jobs included a ten-year stint at the New York World and also for many years at a magazine eventually named Demorest’s Monthly Magazine. She was a nationally-syndicated columnist, perhaps the first woman, under the pen name, Jennie June. Simply put, she was a trailblazer for women in the world of journalism.
Croly’s domestic responsibilities and salaried positions outside the home required her to work very long hours daily. Yet she was confident in her belief that women who wanted to do both needed to ensure that they took care of the domestic sphere first. As proof of this conviction, she published Jennie June’s American Cookery Book. It did much more than provide interesting recipes. The book was also a guide for women to create a well-ordered home life through planning and efficiency. In the chapter titled Housekeeping, she states on page 6:
“Regularity is the pivot upon which all household management turns; where there is a lack of system there is a lack of comfort, that no amount of individual effort can supply. Forethought also is necessary, so that the work may be all arranged beforehand; done in its proper order, and at the right time.”
In 1869, a chance occurrence sent her on an additional career path. Croly, as a female journalist, was not allowed to join her male counterparts listening to a lecture from the great novelist, Charles Dickens. Out of this disappointment, she organized a women’s club called Sorosis.
Croly sought to make a place where women could engage in free and frank discussion on various topics. The belief was that women needed to pursue their learning interests through clubs since other traditional avenues of education were usually reserved for men. Her work in this area eventually resulted in the formation of the The General Federation of Women’s Clubs(GFWC) in 1890. The GFWC is still active as one of the world’s preeminent women’s volunteer service organizations.
In her well-known book, The History of the Woman’s Club Movement in America , she voiced her steadfast belief that women needed more educational opportunities, and then the opportunities for advancement in their chosen careers. On page 11 under the chapter The Moral Awakening, she elaborates:
“The cry of the woman emerging from a darkened past was ‘light, more light,’ and light was breaking. Gradually came the demand and the opportunity for education; for intellectual freedom, for women as well as men; for cultivation of gifts and faculties.”
Jane Cunningham Croly worked tirelessly for her family in the home as a wife and mother, as a journalist, an author, and for the betterment of women in all aspects of life. Her beliefs concerning education for women amid the increasing prevalence of their dual roles in the home and the workforce necessarily evolved over her long life.
She passed away in 1901 at the age of eighty-two. She was honored with induction into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1994.
Sources:
Croly, Jane Cunningham, The History of the Woman’s Club Movement in America. New York: H.G. Allen & Co., 1898
Croly, Jane Cunningham, Jennie June’s American Cookery Book. New York: The American News Co., 1870.