LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Women's
City Club of New York, and paying tribute to this year's Civic Spirit
Award honorees

WHEREAS, It is incumbent upon the people of the State of New York to
recognize and acknowledge those organizations within our midst who have
made significant contributions to the quality of life therein; and
WHEREAS, From time to time this Legislative Body takes note of certain
extraordinary individuals and organizations it wishes to recognize for
their valued contributions to the success and progress of society and
publicly acknowledge their endeavors which have enhanced the basic
humanity among us all; and
WHEREAS, This Legislative Body is justly proud to commemorate the
100th Anniversary of Women's City Club of New York on Thursday, April
21, 2016, and to pay tribute to this year's Civic Spirit Award honorees;
and
WHEREAS, This year's distinguished Civic Spirit Award recipients
include: Maria Cuomo Cole, Chair, H.E.L.P., USA and President, Cuomo
Cole Productions; Jessica Neuwirth, Founder/President, ERA Coalition,
Founder/Director, Donor Direct Action, and Founder, Equality Now; Jenni-
fer Buffett, Co-President and Pamela Shifman, Executive Director, NoVo
Foundation; and Helen D. Reavis, Managing Director, Reavis Parent Lehr-
er, LLC; and
WHEREAS, Women's City Club of New York (WCC), established in 1915, is
a nonprofit, non-partisan, multi-issue activist organization dedicated
to improving the lives of all New Yorkers; to promote responsive govern-
ment, the WCC shapes public policy through education, issue analysis,
advocacy and civic participation; and
WHEREAS, The founders and early members of the Women's City Club of
New York were visionaries and innovators; among them were: Katharine B.
Davis, who became the first woman to hold a top-level post in government
when she was appointed New York City's Commissioner of Corrections in
1914; Ida Tarbell, a journalist whose book, THE HISTORY OF THE STANDARD
OIL COMPANY, resulted in the dismantling of the Standard Oil monopoly;
Frances Perkins, the first woman appointed to the United States Cabinet
and the longest-serving cabinet member; Belle Moskowitz, a pioneer in
the use of political relations as evidenced by her leadership of Alfred
E. Smith's campaigns for Governor and U.S. President; Virginia Gilder-
sleeve, the first Dean of Barnard College and a leading advocate to
ensure Columbia University admitted women to its School of Law; Lillian
Wald, a nurse, advocate of social welfare programs and a founding member
of the NAACP; and Alice Duer Miller, a poet and novelist, as well as the
first president of WCC; and
WHEREAS, In addition, within five years of the founding of WCC, Elea-
nor Roosevelt became a member and for several years chaired its Legisla-
tive Committee and served as a Board Member; and
WHEREAS, The Founders of the Women's City Club of New York were driven
by the complexity of civic life and embraced a multi-issue advocacy
agenda; they argued and mobilized women for prison reform, workers'
rights, higher education for women, quality public school education,
reproductive rights, transparent government practices, and better hous-
ing for families; and
WHEREAS, WCC's very first public meeting in 1916, was with the Warden
of Sing Sing to discuss the role of women in prison reform while also
helping to organize a rally in Union Square to demand safe working
conditions for women in garment factories; and

WHEREAS, On September 15, 1917, the organization financed and estab-
lished the first free maternity clinic in New York City through which
they had only hoped to reach 1,000 patients but recorded reaching over
2,300 by October 1, 1918 and 3000, by January 1919; and
WHEREAS, Just one year later, WCC founders extended their civic
engagement globally when they financed and sent a volunteer ambulance
unit of eight fully equipped trucks to France; history notes that
women's participation in WWI changed the opinion of President Woodrow
Wilson and congressional leaders in favor of giving women the right to
vote; and
WHEREAS, In 1920, WCC had succeeded in abolishing sex discrimination
in the State civil service, and by mid-1924, they launched the campaign
for a 48-hour work week for women and participated in the drafting and
advocacy of New York State's first child labor laws; and
WHEREAS, Today, WCC continues its pursuit of economic, racial and
gender justice, with the goal to dismantle the social inequalities that
deprive citizens of the opportunity to thrive; and
WHEREAS, It is the sense of this Legislative Body that when individ-
uals and organizations of such noble aims and accomplishments are
brought to our attention, they should be celebrated and recognized by
all the citizens of this great Empire State; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Women's City Club of New York, and
to pay tribute to this year's Civic Spirit Award honorees; and be it
further
RESOLVED, That copies of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to Women's City Club of New York, and the aforementioned hono-
rees.