Mary Emma Woolley (July 13, 1863 – September 5, 1947) was an American educator, peace activist and women's suffrage supporter.

During Woolley's presidency, she built a strong faculty, attracting scholars from the most prestigious graduate schools by offering increased salaries, fellowships, and sabbaticals.

Woolley also attempted to improve the quality of students admitted to Mount Holyoke, after raising admission standards, introducing honors programs and general examinations for seniors.

Though the women never publicly acknowledged a lesbian relationship, there were some undercurrents of resentment at the college for Woolley's alleged "favoritism" towards Marks.

[3] Woolley also managed to devote her time to a number of organizations during her presidency, advocating for social reform of all kinds, including suffrage, pacifism and church matters.

She served as the vice president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and also worked on U.S. entry into the League of Nations.

She gained international recognition after President Hoover appointed her as a delegate to the Conference on Reduction and Limitation of Armaments, which met in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1932.

She was a senator of the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa and honorary vice president of the National Consumers' League.

[4] In 1900, Woolley was one of 60 signers of the "Call for the Lincoln Emancipation Conference to Discuss Means for Securing Political and Civil Equality for the Negro", a document that created the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Many of the Board members who supported this approach believed that Mount Holyoke College had become "overfeminized" with most of the departments headed by women and male faculty in a small minority.

Some looked to Mount Holyoke as a place where graduates of Yale University might find jobs and felt that hiring a male president would make that more likely.

The vote at the June 6, 1936 Board meeting just achieved the required majority despite eloquent pleas from trustee Frances Perkins (a Mount Holyoke alumna and Secretary of Labor), Woolley and members of the faculty.

Woolley was the subject of a play, Bull in a China Shop, written by Mount Holyoke alumna Bryna Turner.