Kate Waller Barrett - Legacy

Legacy

Dr. Kate Waller Barrett had a tremendous impact on the developing field of social work and on services for women and children. “Under her leadership, the NFCM became an established social service organization that provided a wide spectrum of services to women. The mission initiated activities that many now consider essential services for women and children. Florence Crittenton homes pioneered women-oriented policies in the areas of health care, employment for women, and children’s rights. The organization campaigned for equality for women and for recognition of women’s needs.… Despite differences in class and race with most of their clients, FC volunteers tried to emphasize gender identity.... It would be a long time before a group of women had the resources to duplicate Crittenton efforts.”

Insisting that all mothers had something to say and a right to act, Barrett also successfully led large numbers of women to push the boundaries of what was acceptable for women to pursue. Historian Katherine Aiken finds Barrett’s current relatively small profile illuminating. “One of the most prominent women of her time, Kate Waller Barrett is today a virtually unknown historical character.” Aiken notes that popular culture and historians have focused on female activists and social scientists “who tended to be single, career women. Certainly, as a physician and trained nurse, Barrett’s professional status was on par with any progressive reformer, male or female. However, unlike many of her contemporaries, Barrett relied on her role as wife and mother to establish her credentials.... Recent studies of maternalism have made it clear that middle-class women often used the rhetoric of motherhood to make inroads toward achieving changes favorable to women. Barrett and the NFCM illustrate this phenomenon….”

Educator and social worker Janie Porter Barrett (1865-1948), although unrelated to Katherine Harwood Waller Barrett, advocated many of the same voting rights and women's empowerment causes within black communities in Atlanta and Virginia, within Katherine Barrett's lifetime and afterward.