Maud O'Farrell Swartz (1879-1937) was an Irish-American labor organizer who worked to improve the lives of women and children.

[1] The following year she began working as a proofreader for a foreign language printing company, and in 1903 she joined the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL).

She was a WTUL delegate to the American Federation of Labor convention in 1919 and the First International Congress of Working Women (ICWW) the same year.

[1] After a year-long hiatus in Europe, she returned to New York in 1922 and began working for the WTUL as an advisor for women seeking workers' compensation.

[1] In December 1931, Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her secretary of the New York State Department of Labor, a position she held until her death in 1937.

[4] The first woman[1] and the first labor representative to hold that office, she served under Commissioners Frances Perkins and Elmer F.

[1] She died of a heart attack on February 22, 1937, at the New York Hospital in Manhattan,[3] and was buried in St. John's Cemetery in Brooklyn.