Margaret Foley

Margaret Foley speaking to a crowd at a suffrage rally.

Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University

Quick Facts

Significance:

Suffragist, factory worker, union organizer

Place of Birth:

Dorchester, Massachusetts

Date of Birth:

February 19, 1873

Place of Death:

June 14, 1957

Date of Death:

Dorchester, Massachusetts

Place of Burial:

Roslindale, Massachusetts

Cemetery Name:

Mt. Calvary Cemetery

Suffragist Margaret Foley relied on her captivating personality and trained voice to draw attention to women’s suffrage in Boston. Called "heckler-in-chief" by a Boston Herald journalist, Foley followed anti-suffrage politicians throughout the state, asking them how they would vote on prospective state suffrage bills.¹ Historians credit "the Heckler" with pushing multiple anti-suffrage politicians out of office.

Born on February 19, 1873 to Irish immigrant parents in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Foley's life experiences differed from many of the wealthier suffrage leaders.² Graduating from Girls’ High School in Roxbury, Foley worked in a hat factory and served as the treasurer for the Hat Trimmers' Union. She also held a position on the board of the Boston Woman's Trade Union League (BWTUL).³ As a working-class woman, Foley believed that all women deserved the right to vote. In particular, she argued that those who paid taxes, especially those overlooked by society, deserved a political voice:

Some men say that they think a tax-paying woman should have the ballot. I contend that the poorest factory girl is helping pay the taxes and she should have a right to say something about the care, fire protection and sanitary condition of property.⁴

Throughout her career, Margaret Foley worked for different suffrage organizations, including the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association (MWSA) and the Margaret Brent Suffrage Guild. As an MWSA field manager, she solicited support for suffrage by organizing talks and rallies, speaking on street corners and in public meeting houses, and drawing the public’s attention to women’s suffrage. Foley believed, "out-door meetings are a tremendous power in the way of impressing people with the ‘votes for women' idea."⁵

Even before traveling to London with Florence Luscomb to study under the militant Suffragettes, Foley used drastic tactics to promote suffrage. This included heckling anti-suffrage politicians on the campaign trail and distributing suffrage pamphlets from a hot air balloon over a fair in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1910. While her presentation and tactics sometimes clashed with local suffrage leaders of the middle and upper class, Foley's working-class immigrant background gave her the means to reach broader audiences. Foley extended these skills beyond Massachusetts, traveling across the country to help in various suffrage campaigns.⁶

While Margaret Foley never married, she did have one constant relationship until the end of her life. Helen Elizabeth Goodnow, a wealthy Boston suffragist, first met Foley when they both worked for the MWSA. In 1916 when the MWSA arranged for Foley to tour the southern states to promote suffrage, Goodnow volunteered to work as Foley’s secretary. At the end of the tour, they attended the Women’s Suffrage Conference in Minnesota. In letters to her grandmother, Goodnow wrote about their activities in Minnesota, and how "Foley likes me better than most any other of her friends. Funny isn’t it."⁷ Goodnow later wrote,

I think of the hundreds of people who would give anything to be with her for a week. We read together, walked together, got up and went to bed when we felt like it. And she really loves me. Think of Margaret Foley liking little me.⁸

Foley and Goodnow lived together for the rest of Foley's life, although how they defined the nature of their relationship remains unclear.

While the Boston Globe called Foley a "pioneer suffragist" upon her death in 1957, Boston publicist William H. McMasters felt she deserved an even greater accolade. Writing to the Editor, he commented on his "great privilege to work with her for the cause to which she dedicated her life." Calling Foley a woman of "high ideals and undaunted courage," McMasters closed with a hope that her spirit would find peace in a place of equality.⁹ 

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Footnotes:

1. “M’Inerney is Heckled Again,” Boston Herald, September 22, 1911.
2. Margaret Foley and Helen Elizabeth Goodnow Papers. Baptism certificate and legal documents, 1928. MC 840, folder 2.1. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Accessed September 2020, https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:37952148?n=1 ; Her father, Peter Foley, became a naturalized citizen in Boston in 1877, Margaret Foley and Helen Elizabeth Goodnow Papers. Accessed September 2020, https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:37952148?n=18.
3. James J. Kenneally, “Catholic and Feminist: A Biographical Approach,” U.S. Catholic Historian Vol. 3, no. 4 (Spring 1984); “Woman’s Talk Sets Women All Buzzing,” Boston Journal, April 19, 1910. And https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/8/resources/8102
4. “Attacks Gov Foss.: Miss Foley Says When Women Vote They Will Not Forget 54-Hour Bill, at Meeting on Common,” Boston Daily Globe, August 30, 1911.
5. "Suffrage Campaign Review," Boston Herald, September 24, 1910
6. “Margaret Foley, Ex-City Official, Suffragette, Dies,” The Boston Globe, June 15, 1957.
7. Margaret Foley and Helen Elizabeth Goodnow Papers. Letters from Helen Elizabeth Goodnow to her grandmother, April-June 1916. MC 840, folder 2.6. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Accessed September 2020, https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:39987625?n=50.
8. Margaret Foley and Helen Elizabeth Goodnow Papers. Letters from Helen Elizabeth Goodnow to her grandmother, April-June 1916. MC 840, folder 2.6. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Accessed September 2020, https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:39987625?n=68.
9. “What People Talk About: She Lives to See Long Fight Won,” The Boston Globe, June 23, 1957.