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This year marks a milestone in ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõ history: 50 years ago, membership officially became open to women. Hundreds of thousands of women have since followed in the footsteps of those first female members.

Helen Blanchard, DTM, helped blaze the trail for this transformational change. In 1970, she began attending a ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõ in San Diego, California, and her fellow members urged her to apply for membership. She did so, deliberately choosing a name to disguise her gender; for application purposes, Helen Blanchard became Homer Blanchard. Three years later, the need for such surreptitious action was eliminated when ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõ broke down the all-male membership barrier, in place since the organization’s founding in 1924. In 1985, Blanchard became ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõ’ first female International President.

Pat Johnson, DTM, Past International President, has spoken with pride of the women who served as early leaders in ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõ. When she was inducted into office at the International Convention in 2010, Johnson had her photo taken with Past International Presidents Blanchard (who died in 2013); Pauline Shirley, DTM, of Richardson, Texas; and Jana Barnhill, DTM, of Lubbock, Texas. (In total, seven women have now held the position of International President.)

“It was a huge honor to stand with these women and share our experiences,” Johnson, of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, recalled in a 2020 Toastmaster magazine article.

Before 1973, women had attended ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõ meetings for many years, but not as official members. In the late 1930s, a group of women had formed a parallel (but independent) organization of ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõs: International Toastmistress ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõs. The women identified themselves as “wives and sweethearts” of ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõ members, and Toastmistress ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõs were modeled after the ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõ program.

In the mid-1960s, ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõ ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõs were allowed to form women’s auxiliary ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõ ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõs if they desired. Some ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõs also sponsored women as “honorary members,” and some women formed Gavel ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõs, open to those who don’t qualify for regular ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõ membership.

Then came the 1973 breakthrough, when the organization enabled all ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõs to admit women as members. Among many other benefits, the move was a boon to membership numbers. Ten years after the new policy was put into place, ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõ’s membership had doubled.

Editor’s Note: To learn more about the history of women joining ³Ô¹ÏÍ·Ìõ, read the story “From Toastmistress to Toastmaster” on page 22 in the February 2015 magazine.