In preparation for the Reading Women, Writing Women English class that will continue this summer’s research on the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, I read the first chapter of Gere’s Intimate Practices book entitled “Literacy and Intimacy.” The chapter begins with quotes from different woman’s clubs’ minutes then goes into the history behind literacy in the United States. Apparently, in the 1880s, the United States began restricting immigration access to the country, and used literacy as a test to determine whether or not an individual was fit to enter the US. If the individual passed the literacy test, they may be permitted entrance. Gere continues to explain that women used literacy to create what is called an “imagined community” because it is a community that is not determined by the physical location of the women but constitutes a type of intellectual community.

The role that literacy played in this point in history is two-fold. On one hand, it was used to exclude a certain group of people who were deemed unfit due to their lack of US-approved literacy. On the other hand, literacy was a standard that brought a lot of women together in a time when women are still considered inferior to men. These women were not yet even allowed to vote, yet they formed these communities of like-minded individuals to read, write, and share their thoughts and works with one another. Like with many aspects of the Woman’s Literacy Club, this association between literacy and power gives me pause. In many cases, the question of literacy was used to strip power from people who could be considered disadvantaged. However, literacy gave power to many women and allowed them to find their voices in a time that did not necessarily always want to listen to what women had to say. This is something I look forward to exploring further this semester as we once again take to the archives to uncover the history of the Woman’s Literacy Club of Baltimore.