Eleanor Gladys Copenhaver

Eleanor Gladys Copenhaver (also known as Eleanor Copenhaver Anderson) (1896–1985) was a social worker and activist who spent over 40 years as an organizer and community service worker for the YWCA. She began as a community organizer and worked her way up to the labor division, finally becoming head of the Industrial Division from 1937 to 1947. At the end of World War II, when women were phased out of the labor market, she was briefly dismissed, but then hired back to organize support for the communities springing up around the defense industry.

Biography Eleanor Gladys Copenhaver was born on June 15, 1896, in Marion, Virginia to Laura Lu (née Scherer) and Bascom Eugene Copenhaver. Both of Copenhaver's parents taught at the school her grandfather Scherer had founded, Marion Female College. She spent her childhood at the family home, "Rosemont", which also housed Rosemont Industries, an organization established by her mother, which marketed local handicrafts. After completing her primary education at the public schools of Marion, Copenhaver began her university studies at Marion College before she transferred in 1914 to Westhampton College in Richmond, Virginia. She completed her B.A. in English in 1917 which explored the tenets of internationalism that had sprung up after the first World War. The YWCA believed that if women used their moral and professional authority, they would reshape the world. Copenhaver participated in the "Conference at the Lake" and after their presentation on relationships with Syrian and Japanese women, and the Bible study, she directed a play, which she had written with her mother. The basic theme was modernity and the enlightenment of women who could draw upon the past, their spirituality and their ability to work and use their intelligence. until the Industrial Department was phased out soon after the end of World War II. When that happened, in 1947, Anderson took a two-year assignment with the international YWCA in Italy to help with relief efforts. At the end of her assignment, she returned from Italy and was terminated by the Y due to their elimination of women's employment programs.