Goodnow, Helen Elizabeth, 1894-

Margaret Foley was born on March 19, 1875, in Dorchester, Mass. A member of the Hat Trimmers' Union, MF was on the board of the Boston Women's Trade Union League (BWTUL). She was employed by the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association (MWSA) from 1906 to 1915 as a speaker and manager of organization work. After making open air suffrage speaking tours across Massachusetts, in 1911 MF attended the International Woman Suffrage Alliance convention in Stockholm and spent a month in London studying English suffrage tactics. Between 1912 and 1918 MF travelled to other states to help organizations campaign in critical referenda and elections.

In addition to her suffrage work, MF was a Trustee for Children in the Children's Institutions Department, 1913-1920, and deputy commissioner of the Child Welfare Division in the Institutions Department, 1920-1926, both for the City of Boston. MF never married and probably lived with her long time friend Helen Elizabeth Goodnow for many years. For further biographical information see the biography accompanying the Margaret Foley Collection (MC 404) in the Schlesinger Library. For additional papers, see MC 404, A/F663, and the Foley series of the Women's Rights Collection.

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