Josephine K. Henry

Josephine Kirby Henry (née Williamson) (February 22, 1846 – 1928) was an American Progressive Era women's rights leader, suffragist, social reformer, and writer from Versailles, Kentucky in the United States. Henry was a strong advocate for women and was a leading proponent of legislation that would grant married women property rights. Henry lobbied hard for the adoption of the Kentucky 1894 Married Woman's Property Act, and is credited for being instrumental in its passage. Henry was the first woman to campaign publicly for a statewide office in Kentucky.

Josephine was born into the wealthy Williamson family in Newport in northern Kentucky. In March 1868 Josephine was married to Captain William Henry of Versailles, Kentucky. After their marriage they resided in Versailles and both were heavily involved in local and state community affairs. Together they had one son who died in a railroad accident near Chicago in 1891 while working as a writer for Chicago Inter Ocean.

Whatever their social station, at the time of Henry's birth, women in Kentucky had many responsibilities but few rights. The situation was worse for married women who after marriage legally were considered as conjoined with the husband into one person and had few legal protections from their husbands' actions. Married women had few rights in critical economic statuses such as the ownership of property or in making a will. Women had no right to their own wages, no legal protections for the physical safety of their own bodies in domestic altercations, and often had no right to interfere in their husbands' decisions about their children.

Henry dedicated many years of her life to working to gain equal rights for women. Her writing, speechesc, and organizational skills are noted in the records and reports of the national and local organization, news accounts of events, and official Kentucky state records. As an example, Eugenia B. Farmer's report of Kentucky suffrage activities to the 1893 National American Woman Suffrage Association Convention stated that Henry had lectured throughout the state, delivered fifteen lectures, kept up a department in the Southern Journal, wrote fifty-six articles for other papers.

...
Wikipedia