Helena Dudley
| Helena Stuart Dudley | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 31, 1858 Florence, Nebraska, U.S. |
| Died | September 29, 1932 (aged 74) Geneva, Switzerland |
| Alma mater | Bryn Mawr College |
| Known for | social worker, labor organizer |
Helena Dudley (1858-1932) was an American social worker, labor organizer, and pacifist. As director of Denison House in Boston from 1893 to 1912, she was an influential leader in the early settlement movement, and aided thousands of poor and working-class immigrants at a time when government relief programs were lacking. Appalled by the working conditions in local sweatshops, which she learned of through her settlement house neighbors, she became increasingly active in the labor movement. She helped organize the Women's Trade Union League in 1903, and supported the Bread and Roses strike in 1912. After World War I she worked to promote the League of Nations, and for many years she was a leading member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
Dudley was born in Florence, Nebraska, the only child of Judson H. and Caroline Bates Dudley. Her father was one of the original settlers of Denver, Colorado, and made a fortune in silver mining and real estate. During Helena's childhood her father's financial situation fluctuated dramatically and the family moved from place to place around the Western United States. At the age of 26 she entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she studied for a year before transferring to Bryn Mawr College. As a biology major, she helped pay her way through school by working as a laboratory assistant, graduating in 1889 with the first Bryn Mawr class.
After graduating, she taught biology at the Pratt Institute and the Packer Institute, both in Brooklyn. In May 1890 she joined the College Settlements' Association (CSA), a group of college-educated women who operated settlement houses in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. In 1892 she gave up her teaching career to become the first "head worker" at the CSA settlement house in Philadelphia. When Emily Greene Balch resigned as head of Denison House in 1893, Dudley moved to Boston to replace her.
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