Katherine Philips was born in Ohio. Her father, a Union surgeon in the Civil War, supported women's rights and women's education. She studied music in Chicago, where she met her husband. They married in 1890 (they were to divorce in 1925) and moved to California.

Katherine became active in woman suffrage work, and, after moving to Los Angeles in 1900, joined the Friday Morning Club founded by Caroline Severance. She worked on municipal reform and health issues and on the 1911 suffrage campaign which resulted in winning the vote in California.

In 1912, Katherine Edson was elected to the Los Angeles Charter Revision Commission, was named to the executive committee of the National Municipal League (a first for a woman), was appointed to the Progressive Party's state central committee, and was appointed as a special agent of the California Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In that latter capacity, she investigated state labor laws in practice and proposed a comprehensive wage and hour reform law that passed the legislature in 1913. This law covered minimum wage, working hours and conditions for women. She served as a member for eighteen years on the Industrial Welfare Commission by appointment of the governor, and also became executive commissioner in 1916 and chief of California's Division of Industrial Welfare in 1927. She served until replaced by the incoming governor in 1931.

During World War I she served as a government mediator and arbiter. President Harding appointed her in 1921 to an advisory committee on arms limitation. From 1932 until her death in 1933 she served on the national board of the League of Women Voters.

Katherine Philips Edson on the Web

Katherine Philips Edson
From the Encyclopedia Britannica

Bibliography

• California History Quarterly Index: find print references in this journal to Katherine Edson.

More biographies, by name:

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

Text copyright 1999-2006 © Jone Johnson Lewis.