To see where the YWCA veered off course, compare it to the YMCA, also formed in the mid-1800s to protect young people who had moved to the cities to work in factories. The YMCA has gone through many changes over the last 160 or so years, but it has never wavered from its purpose: to provide a moral underpinning for the young and vulnerable.
Perhaps that explains why the YMCA has been so much more successful than the YWCA. Or why there are 2,400 YMCAs and only 313 YWCAs in the United States. YMCAs boast 17.9 million members, making it America's largest community service organization, while the YWCA has perhaps 1 million members. The YMCA brought us basketball, volleyball, softball, the first summer camps in this country and the first aerobics classes ... the YWCA brought us some of the nation's earliest backing of a women's "right" to abortion.
Regarding the liberation of Iraq, the YMCA – as it has done in every conflict since the Civil War – pitched in and helped those affected by the war with Iraq. Its efforts focused this time on the families of soldiers, but during World War II, it ministered to prisoners of war from 36 countries, and during the Civil War its members helped treat the wounded. The YWCA busied itself during the last few months with issuing proclamations against the liberation of Iraq.
During the Vietnam War and afterward, the YMCAs got busy reinventing themselves to meet the challenges of a new, more disillusioned America. They placed new emphasis on physical training, which had begun to gain interest in the country in the early 1970s. And, in the 1980s, they started new programs focused on character building for youth that continue to this day. The YWCAs offered one more shrill voice against war and everything American.
If Patricia Ireland wants to fix the YWCA, she should return it to its true roots – helping women meet the substantial, and sometimes overwhelming, moral and physical challenges in the world today. Many women are looking for guidance in these areas and the company of others on the same path.
And they shouldn't have to go to the Young Men's Christian Association to find it.