Texas Business Women: Empowering Women Since 1919
By: Emily Howell
Published: March 5, 2025
Updated: March 5, 2025
Texas Business Women began as the Texas Federation of Business and Professional Women in 1919 to unite women across the state for women’s rights issues as well as promote advancements of women in education and business-related career fields. On July 12, 1919, forty women from across Texas met at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas to organize the group. Minnie Maffett, an abdominal surgeon and physician, was elected as the first president along with other officers. They also selected delegates who immediately traveled to St. Louis to attend a meeting to establish the National Federation of Business and Professional Women on July 16, 1919.
With the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, women gained the right to vote, but the Texas Federation of Business and Professional Women recognized the pressing need to aid women in the business field and other areas of society. In 1948 the organization established its permanent state office in Fort Worth. Texas membership through the years has included such well-known figures as Judge Sarah Hughes, Kate Adele Hill, and Dallas attorney Hermine Tobolowsky. In 1957 the Texas Federation sent Tobolowsky to fight for married women’s property rights before the Texas legislature. She argued that married women should have separate control of their property (see SEPARATE PROPERTY LAW). Though the effort was not successful, it was one step in the decades-long fight for equity for all women. Tobolowsky, a president of the Texas Federation, aided in exponentially growing the grassroots organizations that helped lead the campaign for the passage of the Texas Equal Rights Amendment in 1972. The Texas Federation also launched efforts to reduce the influence of groups, such as Women Who Want to be Women, pushing for the repeal of the Texas Equal Rights Amendment.
The Texas Federation of Business and Professional Women not only advocated equal pay and the advancement of women in the workplace but also focused attention on education, marital rights, and other key issues. In the late 1980s, with Tobolowsky as legal advisor, the organization explored the idea of a partnering foundation, and in 1990 the Texas Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Foundation was chartered to “carry on educational, literary, scientific and charitable purposes….” The group (which became the Texas Business and Professional Women’s Foundation in 2009) is known for offering scholarships for women to continue their education. The Minnie L. Maffett Scholarship provided assistance in medical education. Other funds include the Hermine D. Tobolowski Scholarship Fund for education in the fields of law and public service, and the Gilda Murray Scholarship for business training.
In 2003 the Texas Federation reorganized from fifteen districts to seven regions. In the 2020s the organization, now known as Texas Business Women and with a state office located northwest of Dallas, contained approximately ten local chapters (called “Local Organizations”), and was dedicated to helping women “grow their careers through education, networking, and community outreach.”
Bibliography:
Kyle Goyette, "The Good Fight: Texas Women and the Battle for the ERA, 1972–1982," Journal of the American Studies Association of Texas 40 (November 2009). Texas Business and Professional Women’s Foundation: Our Heritage (https://www.texasbpwfoundation.org/our-heritage/), accessed February 13, 2025. Texas Business Women’s History, Texas Business Women (https://www.tbwconnect.com/history), accessed February 13, 2025. Texas Federation of Business and Professional Women Records, 1918–2004, Women’s Collection, Texas Women's University.
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The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
Emily Howell, “Texas Business Women,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/texas-business-women.
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- March 5, 2025
- March 5, 2025
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