Catherine Filene Shouse - 1917-1963: Activist and Organizer

1917-1963: Activist and Organizer

Catherine Filene was born on June 9, 1896 in Boston, Massachusetts to Abraham Lincoln Filene and the former Thérèse Weill. Born into a wealthy merchandising family, her grandfather William Filene founded Filene's department store, her father was the founder of the Boston Symphony and her mother started the Boston Music School for Underprivileged Children.

When Shouse was an undergraduate student at Wheaton College, she convened a lecture series. It was the first Intercollegiate Vocational Conference for Women. The focus of the conference was to make jobs more accessible for women. The lecture series was held at Wheaton College and it initiated annual vocational conferences at Wheaton College until the 1950s. Shouse then proceeded to found Wheaton's first Vocational Bureau, which assisted alumnae in locating employment. In 1917, Shouse was able to utilize experience acquired through her undergraduate and her prior activist activities. She was employed by the Women's Division of the United States Employment Service of the Department of Labor. Shouse was hired as the assistant to the chief. Three years later (1920), she published her original work, Careers for Women, which Shouse revised in 1934. Her personally signed first copy is housed in Hood College's Catherine Filene Shouse Career Center. Hood College named their career center after Catherine Shouse after her substantial contribution which enabled the college to obtain most of their modern technological equipment for worldwide career information.

President Coolidge appointed Shouse chair of the Federal Prison for Women in 1926. She was the first woman to occupy this position and immediately began to transform the system. Shouse established job training and rehabilitation programs. Three years later (1929), Shouse created the Institute of Women's Professional Relations. This organization hosted national conferences which highlighted opportunities for women with education beyond high school. In 1925, Shouse was the first woman to be appointed to the Democratic National Committee. Four years later, she served as editor of the Women's National Democratic Committee's Bulletin from 1929 to 1932.

Shouse was a prolific supporter of the arts. She was a volunteer fundraiser for the National Symphony Orchestra. Candlelight Concerts in Washington, DC were organized and sponsored by Shouse from 1935 to 1942 in order to supplement the National Symphony Orchestra's salaries. She was the first to do such. From 1957 to 1963, Shouse served as Chair of the President's Music Committee's Person-to-Person Program. During her tenure, the program produced annual national and international performances. Under Shouse's direction, the President's Music Committee's Person-to-Person Program organized the first International Jazz Festival in 1962, which was one year after Shouse donated forty acres of her farm at Wolf Trap to the American Symphony Orchestra (1961).