Margaret Kelly was an American civil servant, notable for being the first female Assistant Director of the

United States Mint The United States Mint is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury responsible for producing coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce, as well as controlling the movement of bullion. It does not produce paper money; tha ...

, at that time the highest official position held by a woman. She grew up in

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, in a politically unconnected family, and was educated in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. In 1896 she passed the

stenography Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''ste ...

test and entered the

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

. For the first year she worked in the office of the Appointments Clerk in the Treasury Department. Then she transferred to the Mint, and worked her way up from stenographer over 14 years, to assistant to

George E. Roberts George Evan Roberts (August 19, 1857June 6, 1948) was Director of the United States Mint from 1898 to 1907, and again from 1910 to 1914. Biography George E. Roberts was born in Colesburg, Iowa, on August 19, 1857, the son of David and Mary (Harv ...

. Edward T. Taylor, a congressman from

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

, considered her position "an epoch in the history and development of women in the business world". Kelly supported

votes for women A vote is a formal method of choosing in an election. Vote(s) or The Vote may also refer to: Music *''V.O.T.E.'', an album by Chris Stamey and Yo La Tengo, 2004 *"Vote", a song by the Submarines from ''Declare a New State!'', 2006 Television * " ...

and

equal pay Equal pay for equal work is the concept of labour rights that individuals in the same workplace be given equal pay. It is most commonly used in the context of sexual discrimination, in relation to the gender pay gap. Equal pay relates to the full ...

for men and women, but was not an active suffragette. ''

Popular Mechanics ''Popular Mechanics'' (sometimes PM or PopMech) is a magazine of popular science and technology, featuring automotive, home, outdoor, electronics, science, do-it-yourself, and technology topics. Military topics, aviation and transportation o ...

'' magazine called her the best paid woman on the government payroll.August 2011
/ref>

References

Sources

*''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' Sunday Magazine, 6 August 1911. Reprinted 6 August 201
here
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Margaret People from New Hampshire 20th-century United States government officials American women civil servants United States Department of the Treasury officials Year of birth missing Year of death missing 20th-century American women