Dewson, Mary (Molly) Williams, 1874-1962
Name Entries
person
Dewson, Mary (Molly) Williams, 1874-1962
Computed Name Heading
Name Components
Surname :
Dewson
Forename :
Mary (Molly) Williams
Date :
1874-1962
eng
Latn
authorizedForm
rda
Williams, Mary, 1874-1962
Computed Name Heading
Name Components
Surname :
Williams
Forename :
Mary
Date :
1874-1962
eng
Latn
alternativeForm
rda
Genders
Female
Exist Dates
Biographical History
Mary ("Molly") Williams Dewson (February 18, 1874 - October 21, 1962) was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, to Edward Henry Dewson and Elizabeth Weld (Williams) Dewson. After earning her A.B. degree from Wellesley College (1897), Dewson was hired as secretary of the Domestic Reform Committee of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union in Boston. She left this position in 1900 to become the superintendent of parole at the Massachusetts State Industrial School for Girls, Lancaster, where she remained until 1912. There she met Mary ("Polly") G. Porter (1884-1972). Porter, a student at the Boston School for Social Workers, began an internship under Dewson's supervision in 1909. When her internship ended, she withdrew from school, choosing to remain at the Industrial School as a volunteer. By 1910, Dewson and Porter had come to think of their relationship as a "partnership"; it was to last for 52 years.
After a brief stint running a small dairy farm with Porer, Dewson returned to reform work, a field that occupied her for the next two decades. She was particularly active in the woman's suffrage movement, and in the National Consumers' League's campaign to secure passage of minimum wage laws for women and children. During World War I Dewson and Porter spent 15 months with the American Red Cross's Bureau of Refugees in France. Between 1917 and 1938 the two women lived in New York City, spending summers at the Porter family's house in Castine, Maine. While she was working in various reform movements, the independently wealthy Porter bred and raised Sheltie dogs at a kennel Dewson owned in Connecticut.
By the late 1920s, Dewson became convinced that needed reforms could best be accomplished from within organized political parties; she therefore initiated efforts to increase the number of women active in the Democratic Party. She organized women to work in Alfred E. Smith's presidential campaign (1928); and for Franklin D. Roosevelt's New York State gubernatorial race (1930), and his subsequent bids for the presidency. In 1933, thanks to the influence of Eleanor Roosevelt, her political ally and personal friend, she was appointed to head the Women's Division of the Democratic National Committee. She is credited with securing leadership positions for many women within the Democratic Party and the Roosevelt Administration. In 1937 she was appointed to the Social Security Board, but she resigned from the position the following year.
Dewson and Porter spent the early years of their retirement in Castine, Georgetown (Connecticut), and New York, but eventually established permanent residence in Castine (1952), where Dewson died in 1962.
For additional biographical information, see Notable American Women: The Modern Period (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980), Who Was Who in America (1961-68), and Partner And I: The Life of Molly Dewson, New Deal Politician, by Susan Ware (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987). See also the Dewson papers (A-60) at the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College. Her papers at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York, document mainly her involvement with the Democratic Party.
External Related CPF
https://viaf.org/viaf/6383413
https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n85275583
https://id.loc.gov/authorities/n85275583
https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6779318
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Languages Used
eng
Latn
Subjects
Age discrimination
Age discrimination
Campaign literature, 1936
Christmas cards
Companionate marriage
Consumer protection
Dogs
Economic security
Elections
Equal rights amendments
Friendship
Juvenile delinquency
Legislation
Lesbians
Minimum wage
New Deal, 1933-1939
Pay equity
Political parties
Politics, Practical
Politics, Practical
Presidents
Refugees
Single women
Social security
Voyages and travels
World War, 1914-1918
World War, 1914-1918
Women
Women
Women
Women
Women
Women
Women
Women political activists
Women's rights
Women travelers
Nationalities
Americans
Activities
Occupations
Lecturers
Women social reformers
Legal Statuses
Places
Connecticut
CT, US
AssociatedPlace
Residence
Castine
ME, US
AssociatedPlace
Death
Boston
MA, US
AssociatedPlace
Residence
Quincy
MA, US
AssociatedPlace
Birth
Convention Declarations
<conventionDeclaration><citation>VIAF</citation></conventionDeclaration>