Mary Williams Dewson (1874–1962) was an American feminist and political activist. After graduating from Wellesley College in 1897, she worked for the Women's Educational and Industrial Union. She became an active member of the National Consumers League (NCL) and received mentorship from Florence Kelley, a famous advocate for social justice feminism and General Secretary of the NCL. Dewson's later role as civic secretary of the Women's City Club of New York (WCCNY) led to her meeting Eleanor Roosevelt, who later convinced Dewson to be more politically active in the Democratic Party. Dewson went on to take over Roosevelt's role as head of the Women's Division of the Democratic National Campaign Committee. Dewson's "Reporter Plan" mobilized thousands of women to spread information about the New Deal legislation and garner support for it. In connection with the Reporter Plan, the Women's Division held regional conferences for women. This movement led to a historically high level of female political participation.
Early life and education
Dewson was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, on February 18, 1874. She was the youngest of six children. Her mother, Elizabeth Weld Williams, and father, Edward Henry Dewson, lived in Roxbury when they had their first child, Francis Williams. After moving to Quincy, they had five more children: George Badger, William Inglee, Edward Henry Jr., Ellen Reed, and Mary Williams.
Dewson's mother took on a domestic role and took care of the household during Dewson's childhood, while her father worked in the leather business. Dewson was very athletic and played both baseball and tennis. She was not concerned with her appearance, and preferred to play with "boy's" toys like paper soldiers instead of the traditional dolls made for young girls.
She attended private schools, including Dana Hall School, before entering Wellesley College, from which she graduated as a social worker in 1897. At Wellesley, she was senior class president and her classmates believed she might one day be elected president of the United States.
Career
Early career, 1897–1912
Shortly after graduating from Wellesley in 1897, Dewson began working as research assistant at the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, an organization that originated in Boston to advocate for the social advancement of women, women's education, and rights of women in the workforce. Dewson was offered this job by Elizabeth Glendower Evans, a reformer from Boston and one of Dewson's mentors. During her time at the WEIU, Dewson conducted statistical studies and reported on women's poor working conditions. She also taught a course on household economics. The lack of reading material for the course inspired her to write and publish The Twentieth Century Expense Book (1899). It served as a basic guide to help American women budget a household and prioritize expenses.
In 1900, Dewson joined the Massachusetts State Industrial School for Girls, located in Lancaster, Massachusetts. By 1904, she became the first superintendent of their parole department. The school's goal was to rehabilitate young women delinquents, especially those who grew up in poverty. Dewson put her efforts towards understanding the different factors that affect female crime and delinquency. She gathered statistical data and used this information to improve the rehabilitation process. She wrote a paper titled "The Delinquent Girl on Parole" about her findings. She presented it in 1911 at the National Conference of Charities and Correction.
Even before leaving the Industrial School (1912), she became involved in the minimum wage movement (1911). She was named executive secretary of the Minimum Wage Investigative Committee, which produced a report that led to Massachusetts' (and the nation's) first minimum wage law. This report brought her national recognition.