Abbie "Gail" Hill Laughlin was an American lawyer, suffragist, an expert for the United States Industrial commission, and a member of the Maine State Senate.
31 Facts About Gail Laughlin
2.
Gail Laughlin was the first woman from Maine to practice law.
3.
Gail Laughlin was the National Vice Chair of the women's suffrage movement and the President of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs.
4.
Gail Laughlin was posthumously inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 1991.
5.
Gail Laughlin was born in Robbinston, Maine to Robert Laughlin and Elizabeth Laughlin.
6.
Gail Laughlin's mother was from St Stephen, New Brunswick and her father was from Belfast, Ireland.
7.
Gail Laughlin's father died aged 56 in 1876, leaving her mother and six siblings behind, as two died in infancy.
8.
Gail Laughlin received the Brown Medal award for earning the highest grades of all the girls in her graduating class.
9.
Gail Laughlin was awarded a partial scholarship to Colby College, but could not afford to attend.
10.
Gail Laughlin entered the workforce and began saving for Wellesley College, her dream school.
11.
Gail Laughlin received fifty dollars for the publication that would go towards furthering her education.
12.
In 1894, Gail Laughlin received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wellesley.
13.
Gail Laughlin passed the New York bar exam in 1899 and opened her first law office in 1900.
14.
Gail Laughlin was the first woman from Maine to practice law.
15.
Gail Laughlin was offered and accepted a job by Colonel Albert Clark, the man responsible for publishing her speech in the American Economist, to inspect the working conditions of domestic servants with the United States Industrial Commission.
16.
Gail Laughlin learned that women were being paid less than men for equal work and faced many unreasonable demands.
17.
Gail Laughlin spent the next four years of her life campaigning for the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
18.
Gail Laughlin traveled the west promoting the vote and equal rights for women.
19.
Gail Laughlin opened her second law office in Denver in 1906.
20.
Gail Laughlin spent her time in Denver serving on eleven city and state boards.
21.
Gail Laughlin opened her third law office in 1914 in San Francisco, California.
22.
In 1919, Gail Laughlin traveled to St Louis, Missouri to attend the first convention of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs of which she was a co-founder.
23.
Gail Laughlin was a unifying symbol for the suffrage movement.
24.
Gail Laughlin was elected as the president of National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs at the end of the convention.
25.
In 1927, Gail Laughlin was working to pass the Equal Rights Amendment.
26.
Gail Laughlin wanted to have more of an impact on Maine and the impact landed on her desk.
27.
Gail Laughlin worked successfully to raise the minimum marriage age of girls from thirteen to sixteen and passed an act preventing the wrongful commitment of women into mental institutions.
28.
Gail Laughlin continued to work on increasing wages for women, decreasing the demanding hours women worked, allowing to women to work at night and after marriage, and for women to be included on juries.
29.
Gail Laughlin moved up to the state senate in 1935 and served until 1941.
30.
Gail Laughlin continued to work as a lawyer until 1948, when she suffered a minor stroke at 78.
31.
Gail Laughlin was posthumously inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 1991.