She taught in a Sunday school and became involved in missionary work, which is how in 1893 she met the social activist Leonhard Ragaz,[2] whom she married in 1901.

[3] In 1902, she was one of the founders of the Swiss Federation of Abstinent Women (German: Schweiz Bundes abstinenter Frauen),[1] an arm of the international temperance movement in Switzerland.

[7] In 1915, Ragaz co-founded the Committee for a Lasting Peace (German: Komitee für einen dauernden Frieden)[8] and would serve as its president until 1946.

In 1919 she played a key role in bringing the Congress of Zurich to the city, which led to the foundation of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

[1] Ragaz translated the work Religious Foundations of the Social Gospel by Walter Rauschenbusch, one of his most influential books, into German in 1922.

[1] Ragaz, Baer, and Balch, who was later replaced by Kathleen Innes steered the WILPF during the difficult war years, when defending borders and simultaneously advocating an anti-war stance often were at odds.