Mary Elisabeth Dreier

Background

Mary Elisabeth Dreier was born on September 26, 1875, in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Theodor Dreier, a businessman, and Dorothea Adelheid.  Her parents had emigrated from Bremen, Germany.  

Education

Dreier was educated by private tutors and then attended the School of Philanthropy in New York City.

Career

In 1906 Mary became president of the New York branch of the National Women's Trade Union League (WTUL), an association of employed working-class women and middle- and upper-class "allies" devoted to the organization of working women into trade unions.  She retained that post until 1915; she again served as acting president in 1935.  Dreier wrote articles for the WTUL's journal, Life and Labor, to encourage unionization.  In addition, the NYWTUL worked to educate working women to their work and civic opportunities, and pressed for legislation aimed at protecting employed women and children.  

Dreier, who remained on the national board of the WTUL until 1950, worked closely with her sister, Margaret Dreier Robins, who was active in the Chicago branch and who served as president of the national organization.  

From 1911 to 1915, Dreier served on the New York State Factory Investigating Commission, which carried out a massive survey of industrial working conditions that provided evidence for the passage of factory reform legislation.  In 1915, Mayor John Mitchell appointed her to the New York City Board of Education.  Dreier resigned all of these posts in spring 1915, in order to participate completely in the final drive to achieve the vote for women.  She chaired the Industrial Section of the New York State Woman's Suffrage Party, the Americanization Committee for New York State, and the New York City Woman's Suffrage Party.  

In 1917, Dreier became chairman of the New York State Committee on Women in Industry of the Advisory Commission of the Council of National Defense.  After the war she was a member of the executive committee of the New York Council for Limitation of Armaments from 1921 to 1927 and headed the Committee for the Outlawry of War of the WTUL.  

Dreier's activities on behalf of labor, civic, and social improvement and of the disadvantaged continued with service on the national board of the Young Women's Christian Association, the New York Commission for Law Enforcement, the Ellis Island Committee, the Regional Labor Board in New York, and the Federal Advisory Council of the United States Employment Service.  She was also head of the Women's Joint Legislative Conference,  secretary of the New York Conference for Unemployment Insurance Legislation, head of the New York State Conference for Ratification of the Child Labor Amendment (1937), and frequent consultant to New York City and New York State officials regarding social and industrial matters of concern to women.

After Pearl Harbor she chaired the War Labor Standards Committee and was appointed by the labor commissioner to serve on the Women's Commission in 1942.  She also continued her peace activities as a member of Promoting Enduring Peace. In 1950 she published a biography of her sister, Margaret Dreier Robins: Her Life, Letters and Work. Dreier died at her summer residence in Bar Harbor, Maine.

Achievements

• Mary Dreier is best remembered as president of the New York Women's Trade Union League, which position she held from 1906 to 1914. During her presidency the New York group was particularly active among garment workers, supporting their organization into the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and assisting them in strike activities.  

Works

More photos

• book

  • Margaret Dreier Robins, her life, letters and work.

Views

Mary Elisabeth Dreier represents the involved philanthropist of the early twentieth century.  From a financially secure family, she constantly contributed time, funds, and organizing talents to a variety of feminist causes, most notably women workers and the suffrage movement.  Her social prominence and social commitments led to her service on local and regional boards and commissions, particularly those dealing with labor and with penal reform.

Connections

Dreier was never married, but shared a home with fellow reformer Frances Kellor from 1905 until the latter's death in 1952.

Father:

Theodor Dreier

Mother:

Dorothea (Adelheid) Dreier

Sister:

Dorothea Adelheid Dreier

Sister:

Margaret Dreier Robins

Sister:

Katherine Sophie Dreier

References

• Workers and Allies: Female Participation in the American Trade Union Movement, 1
• Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary: Notable American Women: The Modern Period: A Biographical Dictionary (Notable American Women) (Volume 4)