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 Introduction Boyfriend’s Lament (To the tune of “The Man on the Flying Trapeze”) Once I was happy but now I’m forlorn O how I wish I had never been born Left all alone for to weep and to mourn Betrayed by the girl that I love, I plead for her love and I beg her to wed, She joins a new club down at central instead. They call her a leader, I call her misled, Alas and alack—and alas Now some weekends are sacred to cupid, say some But not to this viper in skirts. She goes to a conference stupid and dumb And when I protest she says “nerts”—O— She floats through the “Y” with the greatest of ease She helps raise the budget because they say “please” She won’t give me dates though I beg her on my knees That “Y” has blighted her love. —Song from the Volunteer Training Program, YWCA Y-Dames, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania The lyrics of this comical song for new members of the Y-Dames club in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, suggest that the women who sang the tune realized the challenges they posed to popular expectations about women’s behavior . Not afraid to ridicule those expectations, the Dames used the song to express their satisfaction with the educational and leadership opportunities the club afforded—opportunities to intervene in traditional patterns of courtship and to explore alternative outlets for women’s energies. I begin with the song from the Y-Dames in order to explain the direct,and some might say personal, connection between this project and my life. As many historians have argued,writing history is not merely an exercise in the objective recording of factual information. Rather, it entails the care-  Introduction ful selection and arrangement of historical traces from among an infinite number of possibilities. JoAnn Campbell has remarked that the writer of a historical account “is never a disinterested, objective observer of fact but always a selector of objects and interpreter of tales,[and therefore] the writing of history requires recognizing the location of the teller, the impetus of her investigation, and her vested interest in the tale” (305). The “vested interest ”that propels historical investigation often involves feelings of admiration: There is love here between writer, reader, and historical subject, and that love fuels the search for historical predecessors. As we articulate our individual relationships with the dead,we challenge writing conventions that would compartmentalize the history and historian,the text,and the love that produced and discovered the text.(308) In a similar vein,Patricia Bizzell has suggested that “we perhaps need more discussion of the part played in the setting of scholarly agendas and the constructing of scholarly arguments by our emotions about research topics”(12). By explaining my vested interests in the telling of this tale here,at its beginning , I resist compartmentalizing the elements of this history and effacing the emotions that helped me to engage with this project. Naomi Steward,my maternal grandmother,was a longtime member of the Y-Dames of Bethlehem.My brother and I knew that Grandma frequently got together with her friends and ladies from her church—her “old cronies” as we jokingly referred to them—and we assumed that these meetings involved teas, shopping outings, crafts, and other social activities. When Grandma came over,as she regularly did,for dinner and a game of Yahtzee,she never said much about what the Dames did,and we never thought to ask because we assumed we already knew. During my early years in graduate school, Grandma passed away,and my family faced the difficult task of going through her years of collected memories. Among many scrapbooks, postcards, and photos,she had also saved programs,letters,and yearbooks from the Dames and several other women’s organizations she had been active in throughout her lifetime. To my great surprise, the materials included records of meetings and collaborative projects that were devoted to, among other things, reforming international affairs,studying political history,and advancing career opportunities for women. There were social activities of course, but these were not,as I had mistakenly believed,the organizations’exclusive or even primary business. My surprise upon discovering these materials was followed by sharp disappointment .I had not learned about these organizations in my many years of education,and I had missed the chance to talk with my grandmother about  Introduction how she and so many other women used collective rhetorical practices to participate...

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