Mabel Edna Gillespie

Mabel Edna Gillespie
Gillespie, from a 1910 publication
Born(1877-05-04)May 4, 1877
Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
DiedSeptember 24, 1923(1923-09-24) (aged 46)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
OccupationsLabor reformer, settlement worker

Mabel Edna Gillespie (May 4, 1877 – September 24, 1923) was an American labor reformer and state official in Massachusetts. She was executive secretary of the Boston Women's Trade Union League from 1909 to 1923, and served on the state's Minimum Wage Commission from 1913 to 1919.

Early life and education

Gillespie was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the daughter of James Gillespie and Ida Scott Gillespie. She was raised by an aunt in Concord, Massachusetts. She graduated from high school in Concord in 1897, and attended Radcliffe College from 1898 to 1900.

Career

After Radcliffe College, Gillespie worked with Helena Dudley as a settlement worker at Denison House in Boston. She was active in the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL). From 1904 to 1909 she was executive secretary of the New York Consumers' League branch in Buffalo, New York. Her investigations of labor practices involved undercover experiences. She worked in a Buffalo cannery for four months, and she found a job as a health inspector to document child labor violations in Buffalo stores.

Gillespie, as photographed by Bachrach

From 1909 to 1923, Gillespie was executive secretary of the Boston Women's Trade Union League. She was also a member of the national executive board of the WTUL. She helped organize unions in Boston, and worked with other labor organizations in the city. She was arrested for handing leaflets to workers at a razor factory in 1910. She supported the 1912 Lawrence textile strike, and when it succeeded she was appointed to chair the state's new Minimum Wage Commission. In 1913 she went to England for two months, to study women's working conditions in Birmingham.

She became first president of the Boston Stenographers' Union, and was the first woman to serve on the executive board of the Massachusetts Federation of Labor. During World War I she served on the Women's Committee on Industry. After the war she was an advisor to the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers and helped establish the Boston Trade Union College. She was nominated for the presidency of the Massachusetts A. F. of L. in 1921.

Death

Gillespie died from heart failure in 1923, at the age of 46, at her workplace in Boston.

References

  1. 1 2 "Woman Leader Dies Suddenly; Miss Mabel Gillespie Was Prominent in A.F. of L." The Boston Globe. 1923-09-25. p. 13. Retrieved 2026-09-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Sklar, Robert. "Mabel Edna Gillespie" Notable American women, 1607-1950. Volume 2, G-O. (Cambridge, Mass, 1971): 35-36.
  3. ↑ Annual Report of the Town of Concord, Massachusetts. The Town. 1898. p. 30.
  4. ↑ Radcliffe College Student Directories: 1879-1919. Radcliffe College. 1919. p. 64.
  5. ↑ "Miss Gillespie Radcliffe Graduate". The Boston Globe. 1912-08-01. p. 8. Retrieved 2026-09-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. 1 2 "Women in Trade Unions". Boston Post. 1921-01-12. p. 8. Retrieved 2026-09-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ "Boston Notes". Union Labor Advocate. 10 (6): 15. June 1909.
  8. ↑ "Miss Mabel Gillespie to Speak Here Tonight; 'Minimum Wage Legislation' Subject of Address". Springfield Evening Union. 1913-02-27. p. 5. Retrieved 2026-09-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. 1 2 Nutter, Kathleen B. (2019-05-24). The Necessity of Organization: Mary Kenney O'Sullivan and Trade Unionism for Women, 1892-1912. Routledge. pp. 147–148. ISBN 978-1-317-73378-2.
  10. ↑ "Excitement in Boston; Mrs. Evans and Miss Gillespie Under Arrest". Union Labor Advocate. 11 (7): 15. July 1910.
  11. ↑ "Women in Industry; Conference at Y.W.C.A.; 50 Leaders of Work Present". The Springfield Daily Republican. 1915-01-27. p. 3. Retrieved 2026-09-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ "Tells Conditions of Women Workers; Miss Mabel Gillespie Explains Aims of State Minimum Wage Commission". Springfield Evening Union. 1913-02-28. p. 4. Retrieved 2026-09-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "Returning Bostonians; Arabic Arrives From Liverpool; Miss Gillespie of the Wage Commission on Board". The Boston Globe. 1913-06-26. p. 3. Retrieved 2026-09-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "Miss Mabel Gillespie and J. F. Driscoll for A. F. of L. Presidency". Springfield Evening Union. 1921-08-09. p. 1. Retrieved 2026-09-05 – via Newspapers.com.