Elinor Byrns was born in Lafayette, Indiana in 1876, attended the Girls' Classical School in Indianapolis,[1] and graduated from the University of Chicago in 1900.

[4] She drew from the experience for her 1916 essay in The New Republic, titled "The Woman Lawyer," declaring, "I do not want to practise law if it means playing a game.

"[5][6] Byrns was active in New York City's feminist circles in the 1910s, as a member of Heterodoxy,[7] and helping to plan the first suffrage parade on Fifth Avenue.

[13][14] In 1923, she and Caroline Lexow Babcock drafted a constitutional amendment to remove the power of the US Congress to declare or fund war.

It will understand that its citizens can never reach the highest point of development unless they abandon such ugly practices as killing, and the violation of the personality of others, and concentrate rather on creative, constructive activities.