On Tuesday, March 25, 2025 the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies hosted the 8th Annual Dr. Mary Baskin-Waters Lecture, featuring Dr. Elizabeth Dale. The title of the lecture was "Portraits of Women’s Philanthropy: Understanding Giving Through a Gender Lens".
Other speakers included Professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies, Dr. Ed Madden who read a selection of “postcard poems” and USC Alumna Tristan Johnson, who discussed her experience in her WGST 499 Community Service Internship and other departmental community work. WGST Chair, Dr. Leland Spencer, introduced the speaker, Dr. Elizabeth Dale, who currently serves as Frey Foundation Chair for Family Philanthropy at the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University.
Philanthropy is not just about being generous; it's about being strategic in creating meaningful change.
- Dorothy A. Johnson
Dr. Dale began by providing a glimpse into the history and social developments surrounding women as philanthropic actors, beginning with early benevolent societies, continuing through reform movements, to contemporary billionaires. She provided an overview of ways to define philanthropy, then set the scene of “separate spheres” ideology in the 1800s. Following an examination of the ways women often engaged in “invisible careers” when doing philanthropic work during this period, she began to track the history of early benevolent societies. These organizations were traced from the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children in 1797 through the Second Great Awakening when reform societies began to form. These societies developed new approaches to the issues they addressed and included a broader membership of women among varying classes. Part of this evolution played into the origins of the suffrage movement which led to direct political advocacy and challenges of system’s limiting women’s public participation. Dale also elaborated on the contrasts between Black Women’s Associations and the work white women were doing, asserting that these organizations often addressed different issues and rarely collaborated. This historical examination continued through the end of the Civil War, examining changes that developed with female voluntarism shifting into the public sphere.
Dr. Dale then began discussing individual portraits including Jane Addams and her work through the Hull House, establishing social work as a legitimate profession and becoming the first American women to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Following Addams, she discussed Madam C.J. Walker, who utilized entrepreneurship as a path to philanthropy, developing a social enterprise hiring Black women to sell products door to door, contributing to educational institutions, and donating to causes like the NAACP’s anti-lynching movement. Contemporary examples of women’s philanthropic paths included Oseola McCarty, who donated most of her life savings to a scholarship fund at the University of Southern Mississippi; Melinda French Gates, who committed one billion dollars over the span of several years for causes centering women and girls; and MacKenzie Scott who began giving unrestricted funds away to over 1,600 organizations, amounting to over $14 billion.
Dr. Dale ended the lecture with an examination of the future of women’s philanthropy noting the rapid growth of collective giving models, expanding definitions of philanthropy through gender-lens investing, the transfer of intergenerational wealth, and the expanded use of trust-based philanthropic approaches. Following the central portion of the lecture, Dale engaged in a short question and answer period, responding to questions about what individuals can do to raise funds for foreign aid and listening to audience reflections about their takeaways from the lecture.
During her campus visit, Dr. Dale also visited a section of WGST 112, had lunch with undergraduate students, and was a guest on the department's student-run podcast, WGST: Unboxed. You can listen to the episode here!
To learn more about the Dr. Mary Baskin-Waters lecture series, established in 2015, and our other annual lectures, please visit our Lectures page.