Founding of Labor Zionist group Pioneer Women February 1, 1925
Sophie Udin and six other women who had been active in the labor
Zionist organization Poale Zion, created the Pioneer Women’s
Organization of America on February 1, 1925. The organization
was renamed Pioneer Women in 1947 and Na'amat (a Hebrew acronym
for "Movement of Working Women and Volunteers") USA in 1981.
Udin and her colleagues had previously attempted to raise money
from American women in support of the creation of agricultural
schools in Palestine. The male leaders of Poale Zion argued that
their organization offered women full equality and that there
was no need for a separate women’s organization. The creators of
Pioneer Women, however, pointed to Poale Zion’s small number of
female members and its domination by male leaders. Moreover, the
middle-class orientation of the rapidly expanding Hadassah,
founded in 1912, made that organization seem less than welcoming
to many immigrant, working-class, and Yiddish-speaking women
Zionists. The