Tea & Toil at The Woman’s Club

TEA & TOIL AT THE WOMAN’S CLUB by Bainy Cyrus is a lively, richly detailed book combining memoir and tangled histories: that of the Martin Mansion and the family that built it; the 100 year old Woman’s Club of Norfolk and the fight to preserve the decaying mansion that housed it; and the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, founded in 1890 by journalist Jane Cunningham Croly, when she was refused a ticket to an all-male dinner honoring Charles Dickens. Cyrus, whose personal history is entwined with the club, shares detailed anecdotes bringing to life the determined, resourceful women committed to social, political, and economic change. A history with heart, TEA AND TOIL points out how what’s often dismissed as “women’s work” is actually the bedrock for community.