Heterodoxy Suffragists

The Heterodoxy Club was a feminist group of unorthodox suffragists, many of whom lived in Greenwich Village in the early 20th century. The Heterodoxy (meaning nonconforming, unorthodox) provided the suffragists a forum to debate concepts of feminism that were more radical than the traditional women’s clubs in the US at the time.

Founded in 1912 by Marie Jenney Howe, a Unitarian minister and leader in the National American Woman Suffrage Association and later the more radical National Women’s Party, the group is considered critically important in the origins of American feminism. 

The Heterodoxy Club attracted accomplished, notable intellectuals, including Inez Milholland, Agnes DeMille, Doris Stevens, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Sara Josephine Baker, Ruth Hale, Mary Shaw, Mabel Potter Daggett, Rheta Childe Dorr, Zona Gale, Anna George DeMille, Kathleen de Vere Taylor, Ellen La Motte, Beatrice M. Hinkle, Grace Nail Johnson, among many others.  The women led absolutely fascinating and accomplished lives not only as suffragists but as authors, scientists, stock brokers, lawyers, actors, philosophers, playwrights, and activists.  It is important to note that at the time that a woman working out of the home was viewed as rebellious, so members of the Heterodoxy Club were not only bohemian but also pioneer career women. 

The group would meet at Polly’s Cafe on MacDougal Street in New York on alternate Saturdays but eventually changed their meeting locations each time for safety reasons. Requirements to join the bohemian group included having an interest in women’s issues and produce work that is creative. Membership was open to heterosexual, lesbian, and bisexual women.