Katherine Philips Edson
Katherine Philips Edson (January 12, 1870 – November 5, 1933) was an American reformer and social activist who had a key role in changing the labor conditions in California and across the nation.
[3] Katherine and her husband eventually decided to move to Los Angeles, California where she joined the Friday Morning Club in the year 1900.
While a member of the club, Katherine worked on municipal reforms and she was a key component in the women suffrage amendment that was added to the state constitution in 1911.
Edson strongly believed that women had important interests outside of their household work and it was their task to stand up against unhealthy conditions.
Even after her death, Edson's work continued to influence activists around the United States to stand up against social injustice.
[5] Her household was filled with politically minded individuals who influenced her early participation in different social activist groups.
Katherine considered her father to be the reason why she began advocating for women worker rights at an early age.
The survey was meant to inform other women's groups of the dire working conditions and the need for legislature to resolve these issues.
Edson argued that “our potential motherhood” must be paid living wages.”[11] The supporters of Bill 1251 included Women’s Clubs, churches, and early prohibitionists.
Many of the unions were concentrated within the San Francisco area and were heavily influenced by the Catholics who at the time supported patriarchy.
Hiram Johnson, the leading American progressive during the time, vowed to “kick the Southern Pacific Railroad out of the Republican Party” and to return state control to the voters to enact legislation for the greater good of society.
[13] To achieve these progressive goals, commissions were set up in order to investigate working conditions amongst other industrial accidents.
By 1913 the legislature created the first Industrial Welfare Commission (IWC), whose task was to investigate the working conditions and wages of both women and children.
Katherine Edson was the first woman to be appointed to the IWC as an executive committee officer, serving for nearly eighteen years (1916–1931).
One method enforced by the IWC was the canning audit, which allowed businesses some freedom while protecting their worker's interests and keeping regulatory costs to a bare minimum.
During these interviews, women were asked to assess their weekly salaries compared to the prices of clothing, food, and other necessities.
Leaders of the California State Federation of Labor criticized Edson's fifteen-dollar minimum for women workers, when she earned eighty-four dollars a week.
The California State Federation filed a lawsuit to recover the money she had earned while in the six years she held an executive position.
Mrs. Kinney, lowered the wage standards that Edson had fought hard to maintain, causing the IWC to go inactive.
Edson advised Kinney and continued to lobby for the League of Women Voter's in order to press for a larger IWC budget.
