Humanities › History & Culture What Was Heterodoxy? A 1910s-1930s Group for Unorthodox Feminists Print Artists in Macdougall Alley, Greenwich Village: print, 1910. GraphicaArtis/Getty Images History & Culture Women's History History Of Feminism Important Figures Key Events Women's Suffrage Women & War Laws & Womens Rights Feminist Texts American History African American History African History Ancient History and Culture Asian History European History Genealogy Inventions Latin American History Medieval & Renaissance History Military History The 20th Century View More By Jone Johnson Lewis Jone Johnson Lewis Women's History Writer B.A., Mundelein College M.Div., Meadville/Lombard Theological School Jone Johnson Lewis is a women's history writer who has been involved with the women's movement since the late 1960s. She is a former faculty member of the Humanist Institute. Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on March 18, 2017 The Heterodoxy club of New York City was a group of women who met on alternate Saturdays in Greenwich Village, New York, beginning in the 1910s, to debate and question various forms of orthodoxy, and to find other women with a similar interest. What Was Heterodoxy? The organization was called Heterodoxy in recognition that the women involved were unorthodox, and questioned forms of orthodoxy in culture, in politics, in philosophy—and in sexuality. Although not all members were lesbians, the group was a haven for those members who were lesbians or bisexual. Membership rules were few: Requirements included an interest in women’s issues, producing work that was “creative," and secrecy about what went on in the meetings. The group continued into the 1940s. Read More New York Radical Women: 1960s Feminist Group By Linda Napikoski The group was consciously more radical than other women’s organizations of the time, particularly women’s clubs. Who Founded Heterodoxy? The group was founded in 1912 by Marie Jenney Howe. Howe had been trained as a Unitarian minister, though she was not working as a minister. Notable Heterodoxy Club Members Some members became involved in the more radical wing of the suffrage movement and were arrested in White House protests in 1917 and 1918 and jailed at Occoquan workhouse. Doris Stevens, a participant in both Heterodoxy and the suffrage protests, wrote of her experience. Paula Jacobi, Alice Kimball, and Alice Turnball were also among those protestors who had connections with Heterodoxy. Other notable participants in the organization included: Katherine Susan Anthony Sara Josephine Baker Agnes de Mille Crystal Eastman Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Charlotte Perkins Gilman Susan Glaspell Marie Jenney Howe Fannie Hurst Elizabeth Irwin Mabel Dodge Luhan Mary Margaret McBride Inez Milholland Alice Duer Miller Doris Stevens Rose Pastor Stokes Margaret Widdemer Speakers at group meetings, who were not members of Heterodoxy, included: Emma Goldman Helen Keller Amy Lowell Margaret Sanger Cite this Article Format mla apa chicago Your Citation Lewis, Jone Johnson. "What Was Heterodoxy?" ThoughtCo, Aug. 26, 2020, thoughtco.com/heterodoxy-club-organization-3529906. Lewis, Jone Johnson. (2020, August 26). What Was Heterodoxy? Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/heterodoxy-club-organization-3529906 Lewis, Jone Johnson. "What Was Heterodoxy?" ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/heterodoxy-club-organization-3529906 (accessed April 25, 2024). copy citation