Florence Kelley, class of 1882, was a pioneering force of the Progressive Era. Born in 1859 to a politically progressive father and a Unitarian-Quaker mother, Kelley was encouraged to pursue her education—she saw her studies at Cornell as the first step towards a future political career. Upon graduation, Kelley co-founded the New Century Working Women’s Guild, promoting education for working women in Pennsylvania, and published “Should Working Women Despair?” a famous essay in support of legislation to improve women’s rights in industry.
This was the start of a remarkable career of activism and reform. Kelley’s accomplishments include her work in Chicago, where she served as chief factory inspector and published surveys of the city’s working conditions. In 1899, she became head of the National Consumer League, in which she championed the eight-hour workday for women. In addition, she helped found both the National Child Labor Committee and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Continually dedicated to academics, she translated the work of Frederick Engels, including his The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844.
Kelley used the discrimination she observed as well as experienced to fuel her passion for reform. After graduating from Cornell, Kelley was denied graduate study at the University of Pennsylvania on the basis of her gender. Undeterred, she decided to continue her studies (in government and law) at the University of Zurich. Kelley also left her abusive husband in 1891, battling for years to become legally divorced and gain custody of her three children. In 1894, she was awarded her law degree from Northwestern University, and was admitted to the Illinois bar.
Kelley worked tirelessly for equality and safety in what she saw as a rapidly evolving, but incredibly promising, industrial age. In 1907, in a spirited letter to her son, she remarked, “It certainly is the most interesting period in the history of the world!”
