Mary Shaw (actress)

Mary Shaw (1854–May 18,1929) was an American suffragette, early feminist, playwright and actress.

Shaw was involved in the women's movement since the early 1890s, and in 1892 she became a member of the Professional Women's League. She played many controversial roles in her career as an actress, and was involved in some of the most controversial plays of her time such as Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts and Hedda Gabler, George Bernard Shaw's (no relation) Mrs. Warren's Profession and many female suffrage plays.

Shaw, along with actress Jessie Bonstelle, designed the Woman's National Theatre in the early twentieth century.

Shaw married Henry Leach in 1879 and he died two and a half years later. She was the mother of Broadway actor Arthur Shaw (1881-1946).

One of the major factors of Mary Shaw’s success as a speaker and suffragist was due to her association with clubs that were used to gain wider cultural and social acceptance of different professions. Actresses formed clubs to develop organizational and speaking skills, which later helped Mary Shaw in her work for the women’s suffrage movement. The most important actresses’ club was the Professional Women’s League, which was founded by actresses and wives of theatrical managers. The charter designated women to join that “engaged in dramatic, musical, and literary pursuits with the purpose of rendering them helpful to each other.” Although Mary Shaw was a member of the club and a suffragist herself, the League was not only for women’s suffrage because there were also others who were against the movement. Mary Shaw strongly believed that suffrage was the only logical opinion to have. She said “the woman who will not think for herself… does harm to her own nature”.

Mary Shaw decided, after the disapproval of the suffragist movement, to run for president of the League in 1913. She lost by three votes, and many women vowed to never set foot in the club again. In less than a month the Professional Women’s League had split in half. Mary Shaw and many of her supporters left to form the Gamut Club, which had a more relaxed atmosphere and welcomed women of all different kinds of professions. 

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