Background
Henrietta Rodman was born in Astoria, New York, the daughter of Review Washington Rodman and Henrietta Blackwell Rodman. Her father was a Protestant Episcopal clergyman in West Farms, Bronx, and founder of Saint Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx.
Career
She was active on behalf of married women teachers" rights to promotion and maternity leave. She was a 1904 graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University. Rodman taught English and was a vocational counselor at Wadleigh High School for Girls in New York City.
If it does not affect her work, and if she is as good a teacher as she was before, she deserves promotion, if it comes to her." She also referred to the Board of Education, in print, as "mother baiters." She was suspended according to New York City Board of Education policy.
A well-publicized and lengthy appeal followed, serving Rodman"s purpose by keeping the issue in headlines. She agitated in the Liberal Club for the inclusion of African-American members, and for support of feminist causes.
In 1913 she was successful in leading the relocation of the Liberal Club to MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village. In 1914 Rodman formed the Feminist Alliance, uniting several feminist causes to work together.
Rodman took special interest in the collective housing, childcare, and communal kitchens, following the writings of Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
She made serious plans for an apartment building to demonstrate those feminist principles, hiring an architect and rounding up financial backers, but stiff opposition and the onset of war scuttled any chance of success.
Membership
Rodman was a member of the Liberal Club and of Heterodoxy. During World War I, she was a member of the executive board of the Woman"s Peace Party, and wrote and lectured on pacifism.