The Junior League of Boston is a women’s service organization that has worked to improve the communities of the greater Boston area since the beginning of the 20th century. Founded in 1906, it was the second junior league in the world. The Boston League currently has over 800 members who together provide over 16,000 service hours each year. It is a member of the Association of Junior Leagues.
The Junior League of Boston’s official mission statement is: "The Junior League of Boston is an organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Its purpose is exclusively educational and charitable."
The organization’s primary goal is to improve the communities of the greater Boston area. Since its founding, it has provided both money and manpower to causes including increasing unemployment funds during the Great Depression and advocating for disability issues and child abuse during the 1960s and 1970s. In recent decades, it has focused its efforts on the empowerment of girls and women with service projects, including one-on-one mentoring and arts education for elementary school girls.
Beyond its primary purpose of service, the Junior League has also been a central piece of Boston society. Particularly in its early years, the League held some of Boston’s most prominent women as members. Speakers who have visited the organization include Booker T. Washington, William Howard Taft, and John F. Kennedy.
History
In 1906, former debutante Sarah Lawrence Slattery established the Sewing Circle League, a charity group based from her sewing circle of upper-class Boston women. She modeled the group after the Junior League of New York, founded in 1901, and aimed to provide young women opportunities to do stimulating work, to help their communities, and to form female friendships. In these early years, the group aimed its charitable efforts primarily towards poor children, the sick, and the elderly, but also expanded its reach to settlement houses. From the beginning, the group emphasized the training of its members. Training mainly consisted of field trips to various Boston charitable and municipal agencies, lectures on Boston’s social problems, and group workshops for the women. By 1912, the Sewing Circle League had 160 members and was engaged with over 50 charitable organizations. On October 25, 1916, the group voted to change its name to “The Junior League of Boston” and became the second Junior League in the United States.
Over the years, the Junior League adapted its efforts to changing times. During the Great Depression, the League raised money to supplement relief funds and unemployment assistance in Boston. During the World War II, the League helped other organizations that aided soldiers, including the American Red Cross. After the war, as awareness of limitations caused by disabilities increase, the League engaged in more related projects. In 1950, they released The Guide to Boston for the Handicapped. In the 1960s, the League produced several documentaries with WGBH-TV, including “The Innocents,” which examined establishments for people with disabilities. In the 1970s, the League established a child abuse center for the Massachusetts Welfare Department. In 1985, two members of the Junior League testified before Congress in hearing for a bill called “Amendments to the Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Program,” aiming to establish more transitional houses for homeless youth.
The League also underwent several demographic changes in the 1970s and 1980s. Originally, membership was only granted to women who were “proposed” by a current member, then “endorsed” by two others. As a result, the League tended to exclude non-WASP, non-elite women. The proposal and endorsement requirement was removed in the 1980s, as part of an increased effort to diversify the membership. The League saw an increase in employed members, meaning that members had fewer hours to spare for volunteering. In response, the league organized more workshops geared towards the professional world as part of member training. In addition, the average age of members increased from 22 to 31 between the 1970s and 1980s.