Valeria Hopkins Parker (February 11, 1879 – 1959) was an American physician and
suffragette
A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
. A governor appointee as director of the Connecticut State Farm for Women (1919),
she was the first "woman policeman ever to be given supervision over state policemen in the US", these being policewomen who supervised girls in the
New London, Connecticut area.
Among her other achievements, she was also the Executive Secretary of the US Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board.
Biography
Born in
Chicago,
Illinois in 1879, she was the daughter of Anson S. and Martha (Loath) Hopkins. She graduated from Hyde Park High School (1895), receiving a prize in an oratorical contest;
Oxford College,
Ohio, A.B. degree, 1898;
Hering Medical College, Chicago, M.D., 1902. She married Edward O. Parker, M.D. in
Holyoke, Massachusetts
Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, that lies between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 38,238. Located north of Springfield ...
on November 26, 1905; there were children: Mason (b. June 29, 1907); Leath (b. Jan. 9, 1909). She traveled in Europe for three years after taking a medical degree. She spent some time in
Davos Platz, Switzerland, with a patient. She was a member of the Pen and Brush Club of N.T.; actively interested in the founding of Emily Bruce House, a home for children; especially interested in sex and social hygiene, special physiology class in the Lanier School-in-the-Woods.
Actively interested in anything pertaining to the welfare of women and children. Delivered special lectures to senior girls at Rosemary Hall on "The Physiology of Life," June 1912 and 1913. Favored woman suffrage; member of the Greenwich Equal Franchise League, founded at her home, August 1909 (1st vice president, 1909–11; president, 1911–12; later treasurer). Press chairman of
Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association, 1910–11. Wrote for various newspapers and publications, and addresses delivered in various places, notably article on the International Congress of Eugenics in London (''Woman's Journal'', September 1912). Congregationalism member, Mothers' Club, Travel Club, Alliance Française, United Workers, Housewives' League, Consumers' League, Connecticut Society of Social Hygiene; visitor for Connecticut Children's Aid Society; chairman Emily Bruce House Committee; member Greenwich College Women's Club.
She also served as the Assistant Educational Director, American Social Hygiene Association; Director, Social Morality Department, National Women's Christian Union; and National Chairman, Social Hygiene Committee, National League of Women Voters.
Selected works
* ''Social hygiene and the child'' (1939)
* ''First aid for adolescence'' (1937)
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Valeria H
1879 births
1959 deaths
American women physicians
American non-fiction writers
American women non-fiction writers
Suffragists from Connecticut