A New Refuge for Working Girls
Concerned citizens organize to protect young women arriving in Seattle from the moral and economic perils of life alone in the city.
About 100 women met at the Chamber of Commerce yesterday afternoon for the purpose of forming a Young Women's Christian Association. The fact that several young girls coming to Seattle from the country in search of employment had been led into lives of shame for lack of Christian help and sympathy coming to the personal notice of several ladies led them to compare notes as to the necessity for something in the line of Christian endeavor toward saving these innocent girls from the temptations which beset them in their struggle with poverty. It was unanimously resolved to form an association whose object would be to establish a reading room and free employment bureau for girls and women.
“Saving these innocent girls from the temptations which beset them in their struggle with poverty.”
This 1891 report highlights the precarity faced by young women migrating to a booming Seattle, echoing contemporary debates about social services and housing support for vulnerable populations. It marks the early efforts to build the city's social safety net through the YWCA, which remains a central institution in Seattle today.
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