Mary Dewson - Career

Career

After graduating, Dewson began working as a secretary of the Domestic Reform Committee of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, a social and reform club in Boston. There she conducted statistical studies of homelife that led to several articles. She also reorganized the club's employment office for domestic workers, formed social clubs for them, and taught at a school for housekeeping. In 1899, she published The Twentieth Century Expense Book, about how to manage a household on a budget. In 1900, she left the union to set up the parole department of the Massachusetts State Industrial School for Girls. She was also the department's first superintendent. While there, she tracked the girls to understand the motives behind their delinquency and crimes, and to aid in their rehabilitation. These activities led to further articles and a presentation at the 1911 National Conference of Charities and Correction, entitled "The Delinquent Girl on Parole." Even before leaving the Industrial School (1912), she became involved in the minimum wage movement (1911). She was named executive secretary of the Minimum Wage Investigative Committee, which produced a report that led to Massachusetts' (and the nation's) first minimum wage law. This report brought her national recognition.