[1] Following graduation, Melville worked as a tutor at the University of Edinburgh from 1896 to 1899, where she taught classes on logic, psychology, and metaphysics run by Professor Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattinson.

Rackstraw was hoping to compile data from all Scottish universities in support of women's potential for governmental service and sought Melville's help to provide information on Glasgow's female graduates.

In 1902 she presented a paper "University Education for Women in Scotland: Its Effects on Social and Intellectual Life" at the Conference of the National Union of Women Workers of Great Britain and Ireland in Edinburgh[9] and in 1911 contributed a paper titled "The Education of Woman" to a collection of essays The Position of Woman: Actual and Real.

[16] In 1906, Melville, together with Margaret Nairn, Chrystal Macmillan, Frances Simson, and Elsie Inglis took the universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh to the Court of Session, arguing that as members of the general council, they were entitled to vote.

They have attended and voted at the meetings of the General Council, and they have hitherto enjoyed and exercised all the privileges possessed by male graduates of the universities.

[11] In 1937, after the death of Ramsay MacDonald, Melville stood as an independent candidate in the Scottish Universities by-election,[1] which was won by Sir John Anderson.

[1] During her retirement, Melville lived in Dalry in Kirkcudbrightshire, before moving back to Edinburgh where she died on 7 March 1962 at her home on Merchiston Place.