[1] She was the daughter of Charles Ferguson Henry, an accountant and his wife Margaret (née Walker), a garment worker.

She attended several schools in Melbourne, eventually matriculating with credit from Richard Hale Budd's Educational Institute for Ladies in 1874.

[1] After completing high school, Henry taught briefly and eventually became a featured reporter for The Melbourne Argus and the Australian.

[5] Henry moved to the United States from Australia in 1906 and became office secretary of the Women's Trade Union League in Chicago.

[1] She served a variety of jobs within the union including field organiser and director of the education department.

In Henry's 1915 essay "A Separate Piece" published in The Trade Union Woman she discussed some of the problems associated with organising.

[8] Henry's background with Fabian socialism, as well as her knowledge of Australian labour legislation and woman suffrage attracted the attention of Margaret Dreier Robins, a prominent reformer of the time.

Henry was invited by Robins to work for the National Women's Trade Union League of America in Chicago as a lecturer and field-worker.

Henry played an active role in mobilising both the middle class as well as trade union support for the League's legislative, educational and organizational goals.

[11] On 19 May 1911 a suffrage meeting was held at The Pfister Hotel club room, there Henry urged that the best ways to obtain result was to carry out a campaign along intensive lines.