Oberlin's Women: A Legacy of Leadership & Activism

Elizabeth Magee

Elizabeth Stewart Magee (1889-1972, OC 1911) was an educator and advocate for the welfare of industrial laborers. She graduated from Oberlin College in 1911 with a B.A. in literature. After working as a teacher in Pennsylvania, Magee began working for the Y.M.C.A. in secretarial positions. While employed as an industrial secretary for the Y.M.C.A. in Detroit, Michigan, she helped supervise educational and recreational programs for female industrial workers. This position sparked her interest in the labor movement. From 1922 to 1924 she worked as the industrial secretary for the National Board of the Y.M.C.A. before enrolling at Columbia University to study economics, where she completed an M.A. in 1925. After graduating, Magee became the director of the Summer School for Workers at the University of Wisconsin, which was the first summer school for female workers in industry. She continued to fight for the rights of industrial workers and became the executive secretary of the Ohio Consumers League from 1925 until her retirement in 1965. During that time, she also served as the director of the Governor’s Commission on Unemployment Insurance in Ohio, the general secretary for the National Consumers League, and was appointed by the Secretary of Labor to serve on the Women’s Advisory Committee for Defense Mobilization in 1951. President Truman appointed Magee to the Commission on the Health Needs of the Nation in 1952 to investigate working conditions for migrant workers, and she served as a member of the Consumers Advisory Committee for the President’s Council of Economic Advisors. Her work helped improve the workings conditions of men, women, and children for which she received numerous awards, including the New Frontiers Award from the Americans for Democratic Action and several awards from the U.S. Department of Labor.

Sources:
Student File (Elizabeth Stewart Magee), Alumni & Development Records, O.C.A.

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