Frances Kellor (1873-1952) was an activist who believed that the government could most effectively bring about social reform.

A social scientist who believed that government was the most effective vehicle for bringing about social reform, Frances Kellor played an important role in Theodore Roosevelt's 1912 presidential campaign. Her career in the 1910s illustrates the new political influence that educated women could exert through the application of their expertise on a range of social issues.

Early Achievements

Born in Columbus, Ohio on 20 October 1873, Francis Alice Kellor was raised by her mother, Mary Sprau Kellor, in a single-parent household. When Frances Alice Kellor was two, her mother took her two daughters to live in the small town of Coldwater, Michigan, where she supported her two children by working as a housekeeper and washerwoman. Kellor later listed her pastor at the First Presbyterian Church as one of the people who motivated her...