Maud Nathan

• Born: October 20, 1862
• Birthplace: New York, New York
• Died: December 15, 1946
• Place of death: New York, New York

Activist, social reformer, and feminist

Nathan made significant contributions in educating consumers, in obtaining better working conditions for women, and in getting women the right to vote.

Early Life

Maud Nathan (mawd NAY-thihn) was born in New York City on October 20, 1862, into a socially and religiously prominent Sephardic Jewish family. Her parents were Annie Augusta Florance and Robert Weeks Nathan. Maud Nathan had two brothers, Robert Florance and Harold, and a sister, Annie. Nathan spent her childhood and adolescence in New York City, with the exception of four years, during which the family lived in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where she graduated from high school. In 1878, her mother died. In 1880, she married her first cousin, Frederick Nathan, a successful broker. She and her husband had one child, Annette Florance Nathan, who died in 1895. Nathan became involved in New York society and was active in various charities. She and her husband spent summers in Saratoga Springs, New York, a fashionable resort area frequented by the high society of the time.

As a result of her participation in charitable work, Nathan met Josephine Shaw Lowell, who was involved with bettering the lives of workingwomen. In 1890, in collaboration with several other women activists, Lowell and Nathan formed the Consumers League of New York, which sought better working conditions for women and a sanitary environment for the manufacture of consumer goods. Nathan was also concerned about child labor. In 1894, she spoke before a New York legislative committee in favor of a bill to regulate the employment of women and children in retail stores.

Life’s Work

After the death of her daughter, Nathan became even more involved in the Consumers League of New York. In 1897, she became the organization’s president, and she held the office for twenty-one years. Nathan and the other members of the league advocated better wages for working women, a clean and appropriate workplace, and protection from sexual advances by employers. The league addressed problems of women working in manufacturing and in retail stores. Nathan also emphasized the importance of consumer education. She insisted that consumers had a responsibility to know the conditions under which products were manufactured and to not buy products made in unsanitary workplaces and by individuals, especially women, earning unreasonably low wages.

Nathan believed women to be equal to men, and she strongly opposed a social context that confined women to the domestic sphere and taught them they needed a husband to support them. She believed that unless women could vote, they could not have significant input into legislation and social reform. Both she and her husband played an important role in the women’s suffrage movement. She was a member of both the New York State and the National Woman Suffrage Association, and she repeatedly made speeches and wrote letters and newspaper articles demanding the right for women to vote. She spoke at the International Congress of Women in London in 1898 and again in 1904 in Berlin. In 1904, she also spoke in favor of woman suffrage before a United States Senate committee. In 1912, she received the New York Herald Prize for the best letter supporting the vote for women.

Her husband died in 1919, but Nathan continued to call for better working conditions for women and for their right to vote and for consumer education. She traveled abroad and exchanged ideas with activists and social reformers throughout Europe. She wrote two books and maintained extensive scrapbooks about her activity as a social reformer. In 1926, she published The Story of an Epoch-Making Movement about the Consumer League and in 1933 Once Upon a Time and Today about her work for women’s suffrage and for assistance to Jewish immigrants.

In addition, throughout her life, Nathan played an active role in the Jewish community, both in religious and in social contexts. In 1897, she spoke at the Sephardic synagogue Shearith Israel on the topic “The Heart of Judaism.” She was a member of the board of directors of the Hebrew Free School Association and taught English to Jewish immigrants. Nathan died, after an illness of several years, on December 15, 1946, in New York City.

Significance

Nathan played a significant role both as a member of the Jewish faith and as an activist and social reformer, improving the lives of working women, of children, and of consumers, both men and women. She insisted upon equality between men and women and advocated for the economic and political rights of women and their ability to contribute in spheres other than the home. She called for a liberal and tolerant religion that involved social reform and improvement of the quality of life for members of her faith and for people in general.

Bibliography

Antler, Joyce. The Journey Home. New York: Free Press. 1997. An overview of Jewish American women during the twentieth century. Nathan made contributions in politics, consumerism, and working conditions for women.

Boris, Eileen. Home to Work: Motherhood and the Politics of Industrial Homework in the United States. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Good discussion of reform movements to improve working conditions of women. Describes Nathan’s role in the consumer movement.

Chatriot, Alain, et al., eds. The Expert Consumer: Associations and Professionals in the Consumer Society. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2006. Excellent for Nathan’s interaction with the European consumer movement.

Nathan, Maud. Once Upon a Time and Today. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1933. Nathan recounts her work for woman suffrage and her involvement in aiding Jewish immigrants and other social reforms.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Story of an Epoch-Making Movement. New York: Doubleday, Page, 1926. Nathan’s account of the consumer movement.

Rogow, Judith. Gone to Another Meeting: The National Council of Jewish Women, 1893-1993. Tuscaloosa, Ala.: University of Alabama Press, 2005. Explores impact of Jewish American women in Jewish and general American society. Places Nathan in this context.