After she became a lawyer, she focused on expanding the rights of working-class women and children, and she helped to found the Legal Aid Society of Los Angeles.
[1] Her father died when she was eleven, and she worked after school from a young age in order to help her mother support her siblings.
With help from PAWC associates, board members, and volunteers, she listened to workers’ grievances and investigated their cases.
[3] Holt was considered a radical member of the PAWC, as she adopted anarchist beliefs and questioned the ethics of religion and marriage.
[2] Eventually she resigned from her paid position as an agent of the PAWC (but continued volunteering with it)[2] and pursued a career in law.