[1] At least three of her four brothers played a large role in her later life: After attending for two years, Penny graduated in 1845 from the Steubenville Female Seminary, run by the Presbyterians in Ohio.

She used in-person interviews as well as mail-in survey questionnaires, ending up with 533 listings in the first version of her book: How women can make money married or single, in all branches of the arts and sciences, professions, trades, agricultural and mechanical pursuits (Philadelphia, 1862).

The book's intended audience, women seeking employment, was encouraged to explore ways by which to be job-ready and to not give up when first turned away because of gender discrimination.

She is no orator, politician, or manager, but a delving, drudging worker ... Miss Penny's style is not especially brilliant or attractive, but is interesting; and better than all, her essays are sober, wise, and important.

She participated in union activities, including the Workingwoman's Association in New York and led protests for women's wages and living conditions.

This was a compilation of her speeches and articles, giving a more in-depth economic analysis of the status of women laborers and here she laid out her solutions that place her firmly in the school of feminist economists and social theorists who follow in her footsteps many decades later.

"[4] Her brothers' fight over their inheritance led to an inquest in 1874, during which—for unknown reasons—the judge committed her against her will to Anchorage Asylum, a psychiatric hospital near Louisville.

Meanwhile, her brother William, a doctor and professor in Galveston, Texas, had moved to New York and opened the Penny Dispensary on Long Island.