Hilda Muhlhauser Richards was an American government official during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. She aimed to protect

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

as chief of the Woman's Division of the Federal Employment Service in the

United States Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemploym ...

Early life

Hilda Muhlhauser was from

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, the daughter of Frederick Muhlhauser and Antoinette Kahnheimer Muhlhauser. Her father, born in Switzerland, was the owner of the Northern Ohio Woolen Mills. As a young woman, inspired after a visit to

Hull House Hull House was a settlement house in Chicago, Illinois, United States that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located on the Near West Side of the city, Hull House (named after the original house's first owner Cha ...

, Hilda Muhlhauser worked in a settlement house in Cleveland.Ada Patterson
"Can I Help You?"
''The Continent'' (November 14, 1918): 1285-1286.

Career

In 1909 Hilda Muhlhauser spoke at a meeting of the Council of Jewish Women in Buffalo, about her work on the Council of Educational Alliance in Cleveland. She was head of the Girls' and Women's Employment Bureau in that city. She was on the board of the Consumers' League of Ohio, the Woman's Suffrage Association, and the Woman's City Club of Cleveland. Muhlhauser attended the

Panama–Pacific International Exposition The Panama–Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California, United States, from February 20 to December 4, 1915. Its stated purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely se ...

in 1915 as a representative on Cleveland. In 1915 she was the only woman named to an advisory board of twelve national experts, to work on coordinating employment policy at federal, state, and municipal levels. She published a report on public employment bureaus during this time. She was vice president of the International Association of Public Employment Services from 1915 to 1917, focusing on the employment issues of women and girls. In January 1918, Richards was appointed chief of the Woman's Division of the Federal Employment Service in the

U. S. Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemploym ...

. Her policy positions included "equal pay for equal work" and the eight-hour work day. "We will protect the women hired to replace men from exploitation by unscrupulous employers," she explained of her division's wartime mission."Woman Now Directs Nation's Women Workers"
''New York Times'' (February 3, 1918): 56. She resigned her post in August 1918, after the program was reorganized. Her successor was Margaretta Neale. In 1919, she wrote a syndicated newspaper column titled "Woman and her Job."

Personal life

In 1917, Hilda Muhlhauser married Charles Russell Richards (1865–1936), director of

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

."On Page Seven Today"
''Courier-Journal'' (March 26, 1919): 3. via

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Richards, Hilda Muhlhauser American suffragists People from Cleveland Activists from Ohio Year of birth missing Year of death missing