IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0106 2SJA
Held at: Women's Library
Title: St Joan's International Alliance
Date(s): 1911-2004
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 39 boxes42 A boxes; 1 album; 4 oversize items
Name of creator(s): St Joan's International Alliance
Catholic Women's Suffrage Society
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The Catholic Women's Suffrage Society, predecessor of the St Joan's International Alliance was founded in 1911 by Gabrielle Jeffery and May Kendall. Their aim was to create an organisation which was non-party political and which would encourage support for women's suffrage within the Catholic Church. An inaugural meeting was organised in Kensington Town Hall in July of that year and attracted participants who became the core of its 200 members under the leadership of Kathleen Fitzgerald as chairperson and Jeffery as secretary. Men were encouraged to join but could not hold posts in the group and branches were established in Liverpool, Brighton and Hastings by the end of the following year, with others to follow in Bristol and Edinburgh. In 1912, the society affiliated to the Federated Council of Suffrage Societies. From 1914, the CWSS published the newspaper the Catholic Suffragist, renamed the Catholic Citizen from early 1918, which continues to be published today. After the granting of limited franchise to women in Britain in 1918, a development that was mirrored in a large number of countries across the world, the society refocused its aims on a wider scale to consider social issues affecting women. This prompted a change of name to reflect this: it became the St Joan's Social and Political Alliance in 1923. From this time on, its international work expanded, from becoming a founder member of the liaison committee of international female organisations in 1924 to the presentation of a report to the League of Nations on the subject of female status in African and Asian states in 1937. This international work continued after the Second World War. Its areas of interest now included the slave trade, women's education and professional development, employment, divorce, prostitution and marital abuse, advising the United Nations on these matters and becoming recognised as an official consultative body by the UN, UNESCO and the World Labour Organisation since 1952. The group which continued in the United Kingdom became known as the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Section of the St Joan's International Alliance in 1954 and was active in the international body's efforts to support the introduction of women priests since the Vatican Council of 1961. However, it has declined to become a 'Catholic' organisation and remained an 'organisation of Catholics' from that time in order to maintain its independence of opinion.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
The archive consists of early Catholic Women's Suffrage Society material as well as more recent accessions from the St. Joan's International Alliance, both its own papers and those of Joan Morris, a prominent member.
St Joan's Social and Political Alliance: minutes of the committee and the annual general meeting (1911-1952, 1958-1976, 1984-2004); copy minutes with some agendas and papers (1971-1989); Annual General Meeting report (1912, 1913, 1915, 1946) and attendance sheets (1946), agendas and draft minutes (1966-1979), agendas and other papers (1980-1983, 1988-1989); Accounts: annual (1967-1983), cashbook (1958-1973), petty cashbook (1955-1973, 1980-1983), Miscellaneous accounts ([c.1945], 1981-1983); membership mailing lists c1950-1990; biographical notes on members (1940-1984); notices of meetings and circulars; reports of meetings including northern branch (1973-1983), minutes and agendas of Merseyside branch (1959-1961); notes of arrangements for the papal visit and press release; newsletters, publicity leaflets, booklets, sample stationery; newspapers, menus, ephemera. St Joan's International Alliance: Council meeting minutes, programmes, reports, papers, accounts, correspondence, resolutions (1968-1991, 1999); reports, correspondence and papers of committee and other meetings (1965-1966, 1978, 1981-1984, 1985, 1987-1989); copies of constitutions, by-laws and papers on amendments (c.1970-1982); newsletters, leaflets; correspondence files of officials (1969-1985); general correspondence; St Joan's Quincentenary appeal, booklet and autograph volumes; awards certificates; correspondence, papers and press cuttings regarding film `The Tower and The Dove' and supporting tour of the Far East; biographical notes; research notes, drafts, typescripts and translations of `The Hidden History of Women'; copies, drafts, notes, proofs, typescripts and illustrations for `Pope John VIII. An English Woman', with lecture notes. Typescripts, research notes, copies of `The Pentecost', `Dual Cathedrals in the Middle Ages', `History of the Role of Women in Church Government', `Women Doctors of the Church' (with lecture notes), `Eucharistic Celebration by Women', `The True tradition of Women in the Church', `Women in Male Disguise; texts of lectures and published articles; research papers and notes on sources; reports on meetings.
Subject files on ordination of women, women in the Church, revision of canon law, liturgical language, women's Action Day (1980), International Women's Day, sex equality, abortion; Bulletin of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Section (1984-1986, 1989, 1990); accounts, mailing lists, correspondence, copies of articles sent for publication, paste-ups and editions (1987-1991) of The Catholic Citizen; publications of French, Belgian, Canadian and United States' sections. Papers and correspondence regarding St Joan's Alliance participation in United Nations Commissions and conferences including reports, leaflets, programmes, publicity materials and cuttings. Photographs of members and groups and illustrations; press cuttings, unmounted and in volumes. Newsletters, information sheets, papers, reports and conference reports, publications, periodicals and leaflets issued by other religious organisations and groups dealing with status of women.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English, French and German
System of arrangement:
Conditions governing access:
This collection is partially available for research. The catalogued portion of the collection is available for research, uncatalogued material remains unavailable. Readers are advised to contact The Women's Library in advance of their first visit.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
This archive was deposited as several accessions. The initial accessions deposted with the Library were made prior to the archive accession register being created and therefore were not given accession numbers. Also one acquisition in 1993 appears to have been made without an accession number.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
See the St Joan's Alliance banner TWL.1998.39: the 2SJA archive accession 1984/03 includes a banner, which was probably removed to TWL Banner Collection and catalogued as TWL.1998.39.
See also St Joan's International Alliance (German Section) Records, 1952-1981 5SJG at the Women's Library.
Records are also held by Notre Dame University, United States of America under the reference CMBL 3/11-13.
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Created and used with the kind permission of the Archives Hub. Amended by Genesis Project Manager, April 2002. Collection description by the Archives Hub, 17 Oct 2001, amended by Genesis Project Manager, Apr 2002. Fawcett Library Catalogue Mar 1992. Objects Listed Apr 1992. [Additional survey list of uncatalogued material (SJA/X) dated Apr 1998. Catalogued Feb 2008]. Catalogue descriptions and repackaging of photographs (2SJA/K) by Jennian Geddes, The Women's Library volunteer, Aug 2008. Edited for AIM25 by Sarah Drewery.
Date(s) of descriptions: 17/10/2001