Goldmark, Pauline, 1874-1962

The achievements of the Goldmark sisters were so various that a brief enumeration only suggests the breadth of their interests. PDG and JCG were born in Brooklyn, New York, to Joseph (1819-1881) and Regina (Wehle) Goldmark (1835-1925), Austrian political refugees from the revolution of 1848. There were eleven children, of whom one died at the age of six.

PDG was graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1896 and began a career as a social investigator as assistant secretary of the New York Consumers' League, a position she held until 1904; she later served as executive secretary (1905-1909) and as chair of the legislative committee (1908-1911). In 1907 she initiated the first investigation (1907-1908) of the canneries in New York State, a project that resulted in the book, Women and Children in the Canneries (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1908). By 1912 she was the assistant director of social research for the Russell Sage Foundation. She was a member of the industrial board of the New York State Labor Department (1913-1915), and during World War I served as executive secretary of the Committee on Women in Industry. As manager (1918-1920) of the Women's Service Section of the United States Railroad Administration, PDG toured the country, investigating the working conditions of women and children. From 1919 until her retirement in 1939, she worked in the research department of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company as their expert on the employment and health problems of women. She was let go shortly before completing twenty years of service, and was thus denied her retirement benefits. PDG was also vice-chair of the New York City Child Labor Commission and a director of the National Consumers' League. She was the compiler and editor, with Mary D. Hopkins, of a volume of poems entitled The Gypsy Trail .

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