The July 1905 Alpha Phi Quarterly included this letter from Irene Osgood (Andrews) an initiate of the Iota Chapter at the University of Wisconsin:
With the release from college work come the plans for summer changes. The seaside or mountains is the usual end of our desires, but last summer I decided upon a less common atmosphere – that of the East Side, New York City. Life in the Ghetto was even more fascinating than I had imagined. Jacob Riis did not exaggerate. It is quite impossible to describe the crowded condition. Our Fourth with all our country friends in town is not half so exciting or so confusing.
No distinction is made between streets and sidewalks – both are filled. Let a traveling organ appear and the street is immediately blocked with an interested crowd. The children do not stand and stare as do our American children, but immediately break into the dance – not a waltz or two-step, but some graceful foreign movement. It is indeed a happy sight – and happiness is quite characteristic of the East Side, which is both fortunate and unfortunate – fortunate that they not constantly grieve over their lot; unfortunate that they are blind to a different life. But the settlements are rapidly opening their lives and helping them to the fulfillment of higher ideals.
She lived in the College Settlement house, which was started by a group of Smith College alumnae in 1889. The “charming residents would alone compensate for the loss of sea air and mountain lakes.” Women from Vassar, Barnard, Smith and others arrived in a steady stream to work. She reflected on her summer experiences:
In a two months’ visit one gets but a glimpse into social problems – but contact with actual conditions is a strong factor in a liberal education. Also from the subjective point of view, the experiences throws a vitality into one’s philosophy of life that may lead to broader and clearer thinking.
Before earning her degree at Wisconsin, she trained at the New York School of Philanthropy and this may have contributed to her career in working to improve the lives of women in the workforce. The College Settlement House had “for many years carried on a series of sociological studies; largely into aspects of women’s and children’s life and labor,” according to a Russell Sage College publication. Perhaps this summer experience laid the seed of the future work that Irene Osgood Andrews would undertake.
As an undergraduate, she was a member of the Committee on National Conference of Corrections and Charities. In that capacity, she attended the convention of Associated Charities in Portland Oregon. At Wisconsin, she was a charter member of the Wislinks, an interfraternity society of about 15 junior and senior women.
According to the chapter report in The Quarterly,she graduated in February 1906. The San Francisco earthquake took place on April 18 and she traveled west to do “relief work among the San Francisco sufferers during the summer. ” She won a University of Wisconsin scholarship in Economics. It allowed her to spend a year in research while working in the University Settlement in Milwaukee. In 1907, she became head resident at the Northwestern University Settlement located on Augusta and Noble Streets in Chicago.
Irene Osgood married Dr. John Andrews in New York City at a 5 o’clock ceremony the day before they were to sail to Europe. The Alpha Phi Quarterly included this info about the marriage:
Irene Osgood, ’06, and John B. Andrews, both of Madison, were married in Brooklyn, NY on August 8, and immediately left for Europe, where Mr. Andrews will act as delegate to four international conferences on labor legislation, at Brussels, Paris, Berlin and London. The bride until recently was an assistant in the work of Prof. John R. Commons of the university. The groom is secretary of the International Association for Labor Legislation, which had its headquarters at Madison, but will henceforth be at New York.
A son, John Osgood Andrews, was born August 6, 1915, but his birth did not seem to slow his mother down. She continued to work for improved conditions for women in the labor force.
In 1918, Economic Effects of the War upon Women and Children in Great Britain debuted. She authored it along with Margaret A. Hobbs. Andrews’ other publications are Minimum Wage Legislation, Working Women in Tanneries, and Irregular Employment and the Living Wage for Women.
The 1919 Alpha Phi Quarterly noted that Andrews had “gone abroad to study labor conditions in the Allied countries. She is assistant secretary of the American Association for the Advancement of Labor Legislation, of which her husband is the head. Dr. Andrews will follow.” A report of the New York City alumnae organization noted that Andrews and Imogene Ireland, Mu Chapter, were members of the “YWCA Industrial Commission in France, England, Italy and Switzerland. They are present at the International Congress of Women which met in Berne Switzerland, May 5.”
A writer and activist, she was concerned about women and the effects of factory work. For more than 30 years she served with the American Association for Labor Legislation as its executive secretary.
As a New York City resident, she helped found the Women’s City Club. Andrews volunteered with the Maternity Center Association and the NYC branch of the League of Women Voters. A widow for 20 years, she died on February 5, 1963 at the age of 86.
