Mary Nelson Winslow (1887–1952) was a Washington, D.C., social worker who worked in the US Department of Labor's Women's Bureau from 1920 into the late 1930s, conducting many research projects on the status of working women. She was an officer of the

National Women's Trade Union League The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) (1903–1950) was a United States, U.S. organization of both working class and more well-off women to support the efforts of women to organize labor unions and to eliminate sweatshop conditions. The WTUL play ...

. When the

Inter-American Commission of Women The Inter-American Commission of Women ( es, Comisión Interamericana de Mujeres, pt, Comissão Interamericana de Mulheres, french: Commission interaméricaine des femmes), abbreviated CIM, is an organization that falls within the Organization of ...

was made a permanent subsidiary commission of the Pan-American Union (which later became the

Organization of American States The Organization of American States (OAS; es, Organización de los Estados Americanos, pt, Organização dos Estados Americanos, french: Organisation des États américains; ''OEA'') is an international organization that was founded on 30 April ...

) Winslow was made the official US delegate to the commission and served from 1938 to 1944.

Biography

Mary Nelson Winslow was born on September 22, 1887, to Francis Winslow and Harriet Livingston Patterson. On her mother's side, she descended of

Carlile Pollock Patterson Carlile Pollock Patterson (August 24, 1816 – August 15, 1881) was the fourth superintendent of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. He was born in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, the son of Commodore Daniel Todd Patterson. He was appointed ...

and the

Livingston Livingston may refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North American custom ...

family, which married into the

Jay A jay is a member of a number of species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the Crow family (biology), family, Corvidae. The evolutionary relationships between the jays and the magpies are rather complex. For examp ...

family and were some of the founding families of the United States. Winslow attended the New York School of Social Work and by 1920 she was working in the government service as an industrial agent for the US Department of Labor in the Women's Bureau. She had worked her way up to director and editor of exhibits by 1923 and by 1924 was conducting studies on the nature of women in the labor force, including the number of married women employed outside the home, the effect of women working on the family, and the non-acceptance of working wives by employers. Between 1929 and 1941, she also served as legislative representative in Washington, D.C., for the National Women's Trade Union League and then served on its executive board. continued in During that same time, Winslow was nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as the United States' representative to the

(CIM). In a large part, her nomination was used by FDR to oust Doris Stevens from the CIM and transform the organization from a quasi-autonomous advisory group into a subsidiary commission of the

Pan American Union The Organization of American States (OAS; es, Organización de los Estados Americanos, pt, Organização dos Estados Americanos, french: Organisation des États américains; ''OEA'') is an international organization that was founded on 30 April ...

. Winslow was appointed the US's official representative at the 1938 Conference of the Pan-American States, held in Lima, Peru and served on the CIM until 1944. She then became an adviser on women's affairs to

Nelson Rockefeller Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979), sometimes referred to by his nickname Rocky, was an American businessman and politician who served as the 41st vice president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. A member of t ...

. She died on May 2, 1952, in Washington, D.C., and her papers were donated by her older sister Harriet Winslow to

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...

Selected works

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

References

External links

Winslow, Mary N. (Mary Nelson). Papers, 1923-1951

WorldCat Selected works
{{DEFAULTSORT:Winslow, Mary Nelson 1887 births 1952 deaths American women's rights activists American social workers 20th-century American women writers United States Department of Labor officials