Grace Strachan

Grace Strachan
Strachan, from a 1911 portrait
Born
Grace Charlotte Strachan

(1863-11-27)November 27, 1863
Buffalo, New York, U.S.
DiedJuly 21, 1922(1922-07-21) (aged 58)
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Other namesGrace Strachan Forsythe
OccupationsEducator, labor leader

Grace Charlotte Strachan Forsythe (November 27, 1863[1] – July 21, 1922[2]) was an American educator and labor leader. She led a successful campaign for equal pay for women teachers in early twentieth-century New York City.

Early life and education

Strachan was born in Buffalo, New York, one of the nine children born to Thomas F. Strachan and Maria Byrne Strachan. Her father was born in Scotland and her mother was born in Ireland.[3] She graduated from St. Brigid's School and the State Normal School in Buffalo, with further studies at New York University.[4]

Career

Strachan taught school in Buffalo and was a school principal and assistant superintendent in Brooklyn.[3] She was co-founder and president of the Interborough Association of Women Teachers.[5] She led thousands of women teachers campaigning for equal pay in New York City schools.[6][7][8] After the equal pay fight was won in 1911,[9] Strachan's methods were questioned, with rumors of a $200,000 endowment fund for her, raised from city teachers.[10] "I not only do not know of any such gift, but I would not stand for it if it were offered," she told The New York Times.[11]

While Strachan was a leader for equal pay,[12][13] she worked against teachers' rights in other ways. She opposed married women teachers, and especially pregnant teachers, in contrast to Henrietta Rodman of the Teachers' League.[14][15] During World War I, she advocated for firing teachers who held foreign citizenship.[16]

Strachan was defeated in runs for president of the National Education Association in 1912[17] and 1915.[3][18] In 1920, she acknowledged an interest a federal-level appointment, or in a Congressional seat.[19]In January 1922, she was elected Associate Superintendent of Schools, the first time a woman held that position in New York City.[20][21] She took sick leave beginning in March, and resigned weeks before her death in July of that year.[3]

Publications

  • Equal Pay for Equal Work: The Story of the Struggle for Justice Being Made by the Women Teachers of the City of New York (1910)[22]

Personal life

Strachan married her publicist, Timothy J. Forsythe, in 1917; she was 43, and he was 24, at the time.[23] She died in 1922, at the age of 58, in Brooklyn.[2][3][24]

References

  1. ^ Strachan's birth year varies in sources. 1863 is the year given on her gravestone, and that matches her age in the 1870 and 1880 censuses.
  2. ^ a b "Grace Strachan, Noted Educator, is Dead at 63". The Brooklyn Daily Times. 1922-07-21. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-10-21 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Grace S. Forsythe, Long Ill, Dies at 59; Associate Superintendent of Schools Succumbs to Arthritis at Her Home; Champion of Equal Pay; Led Five Years' Successful Fight for Sister-Teachers and Brought Many Reforms to School System". The New York Times. 1922-07-22. p. 7. Retrieved 2025-10-21.
  4. ^ The Biographical Cyclopaedia of American Women ... Halvord Publishing Company. 1924. pp. 304–305.
  5. ^ Nolan, Janet A. (1992). "Irish-American Teachers and the Struggle Over American Urban Public Education, 1890-1920: A Preliminary Look". Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. 103 (3/4): 13–22. ISSN 0002-7790. JSTOR 44211182. Archived from the original on 2023-07-20. Retrieved 2025-10-21.
  6. ^ Westwood, Elizabeth Howard. "How Women Make Laws" New Idea Woman's Magazine 17(2)(February 1908): 14.
  7. ^ Dismore, David M. (2020-09-29). "Today in Feminist History: Women Teachers Demand Equal Pay (September 29, 1906)". Ms. Magazine. Archived from the original on 2024-08-04. Retrieved 2025-10-21.
  8. ^ Urban, Wayne J. (1978). "Foreshadowing the Seventies: Teacher Militancy and the NEA, 1900 – 1922". California Journal of Teacher Education. 5 (2): 55–82. ISSN 0278-6052. JSTOR 45476253.
  9. ^ "Thanks to the Mayor for Equal Pay Bill; Forty Teachers, Headed by Miss Grace Strachan, Thank Him for Signing It". The New York Times. October 21, 1911. p. 12. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-10-21.
  10. ^ "The Strachan Fund Again". The New York Times. November 19, 1912. p. 14. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-10-21.
  11. ^ "Tale of Endowment for Grace Strachan; Controller Looking into Report That Women Teachers Will Give Her $200,000". The New York Times. November 15, 1911. p. 2. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-10-21.
  12. ^ Rosenberg, Rachel (February 2024). ""Women Teachers' Lobby": Justice, Gender, and Politics in the Equal Pay Fight of the New York City Interborough Association of Women Teachers, 1906-1911". History of Education Quarterly. 64 (1): 24–42. doi:10.1017/heq.2023.49. ISSN 0018-2680.
  13. ^ Blount, Jackie M. (2006-07-03). Fit to Teach: Same-Sex Desire, Gender, and School Work in the Twentieth Century. State University of New York Press. p. 12. doi:10.2307/jj.18253246.5. ISBN 978-0-7914-8416-6.
  14. ^ Phelps, Christopher. "How Teachers Won the Right to Get Pregnant" Archived 2025-08-08 at the Wayback Machine Jacobin (July 2021).
  15. ^ "Women Teachers Hiss Miss Strachan; District Superintendent, Criticising the Teacher-Mothers, Arouses Storm at Meeting". The New York Times. November 14, 1914. p. 11. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-10-21.
  16. ^ "Wants Loyal Teachers; Grace Strachan Urges Legislators to Oust All Aliens Here". The New York Times. March 23, 1917. p. 18. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-10-21.
  17. ^ "Strachan Forces Sure of Winning; Doubt About Mrs. Young's Vote at Election of National Education President To-day". The New York Times. July 10, 1912. p. 9. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-10-21.
  18. ^ "Miss Strachan Resigns; Withdraws from Educational Association After Defeat for Presidency". The New York Times. August 22, 1915. p. 13. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-10-21.
  19. ^ "Sees Nation's Need of Education Head; Grace Strachan Forsythe Urged to Run and Seek Cabinet if Post Is Created". The New York Times. February 8, 1920. p. 36. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-10-21.
  20. ^ "Mrs. Grace Strachan Forsythe Is Elected First Woman Associate School Superintendent". The New York Times. January 26, 1922. p. 1. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-10-21.
  21. ^ "Here and There". Express and Telegraph. 1922-05-09. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-10-21 – via Trove.
  22. ^ Strachan, Grace Charlotte (1910). Equal pay for equal work; the story of the struggle for justice being made by the women teachers of the city of New York. New York: B. F. Buck & company. Archived from the original on 2024-07-29. Retrieved 2025-10-21 – via HathiTrust.
  23. ^ "Grace C. Strachan Long a Secret Bride; President of Women's Teachers' Association Married to T.J. Forsythe, 24 Years Old, on April 6". The New York Times. 1917-06-20. p. 11. Retrieved 2025-10-21.
  24. ^ "The Passing of Mrs. Forsythe". Journal of Education. 96 (5): 115. August 17, 1922. doi:10.1177/002205742209600501.
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