Emma Ray was such a regular visitor to Seattle’s jail, the jailer eventually gave her a hammock of her own so she could stay overnight with inmates suffering from morphine withdrawal.
When she wasn’t sleeping in a cell, Emma could be found under Seattle’s wharfs and deep inside its abandoned buildings, seeking out and caring for people struggling through poverty, addiction, and hunger in turn-of-the-century Seattle. Some would come to live in Emma’s own home.
Emma and Lloyd Ray in 1900, as published in their 1926 autobiography, “Twice Sold, Twice Ransomed” (HistoryLink.org)
These changemakers took it upon themselves to make sure their neighbors were cared for when our government could or would not, calling out injustices as they saw them, and insisting on recognizing the value of every human life.
For as long as it’s been a city, Seattle has been home to poverty, hunger, addiction, and mental illness. And for just as long, Seattle – as a city government – has regularly fallen short of meeting the needs of its most vulnerable residents. Instead, that critical work has long fallen to women like Emma Ray to keep the people of Seattle healthy, housed, and fed.
In March, we recognize both Women’s History Month and National Social Work Month, making it a fitting time to reflect on women’s roles in creating our bedrock civic institutions – and the persistent inequity that comes with that legacy. More than a century after Emma Ray tended to the needs of Seattle’s most vulnerable, the vast majority of human service positions in King County – nearly 80% – continue to be filled by women, including a disproportionate number of women of color.
But because this critical work has long been considered “women’s work” – and because women’s labor has been traditionally undervalued in our stubbornly misogynistic society – human services in Seattle and King County continue to be undervalued today.
In King County, human services workers of all genders in King County earn 30% less* than their peers in comparable non-care jobs. Solid Ground and our partners in the King County Human Services Coalition are working to address this disparity by encouraging government funders and others who make our work possible to recognize the true value of human services work – and the risks we face if we continue to underfund it.
We’ve made some headway, but there remains much work to be done before the invaluable contributions of women in social work – today and throughout history – are adequately recognized in society.
These changemakers took it upon themselves to make sure their neighbors were cared for when our government could or would not, calling out injustices as they saw them, and insisting on recognizing the value of every human life. At a time when the country still denied them many of their most fundamental rights, these women improved the lives of countless individuals, founding orphanages, homeless shelters, hospitals, kitchens, schools, and more.
Just a few of the Seattle women we celebrate this month
Emma J. Ray – Born into slavery shortly before the Civil War, Emma Ray would later earn a reputation as a dogged activist, evangelist, and suffragist determined to help those struggling the most in pioneer Seattle’s rough early days. She was co-founder and president of Seattle’s Frances Ellen Harper chapter of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, but later did this outreach work on her own when her pastor insisted she focus on generating revenue for the church instead.
Read more about Emma in her autobiography, Twice Sold, Twice Ransomed.
Esther Levy – In 1892, Esther Levy gathered 37 women together for the Ladies Hebrew Benevolent Society to provide support for the many people then arriving in Seattle with little money or even belongings. The organization still performs critical community work today as the Jewish Family Service of Seattle.
Read more in Jewish Family Service History.
Mary B. Leary – The wife of Seattle founding father John Leary, Mary was the first president of Seattle’s first charity, The Ladies Relief Society. Founded in 1884, the organization also opened one of the city’s first orphanages. Today, it’s part of Navos, which offers “a healing home for children, young people and adults who might be underserved, overlooked, or otherwise at risk of falling through the cracks.”
Read more on HistoryLink: Women organize Seattle’s first charity, The Ladies Relief Society, on April 4, 1884.
Olive Ryther – Known to most as “Mother Ryther,” Olive was famous in Seattle for raising literally thousands of children over the course of a half century. A friend of Emma Ray, she was known to house imprisoned women in her own home because Seattle had no women’s prison, then opened a home for unwed mothers and their children there as well. She later created the Ryther House for orphaned and abandoned children. It still exists as Ryther, a licensed behavioral health provider for children and young adults in North Seattle.
Read more on HistoryLink: Ryther, Mother Olive (1849-1934).
Rees Daniels – In 1894, Rees brought 27 friends together to form the Seattle branch of the Young Women’s Christian Association, known as the YWCA, to help women in need build stability and self-sufficiency in their lives. It started with a lounge and cafeteria selling 10-cent lunches to working women and later launched a variety of job-training programs, from dressmaking to nursing. The organization continues to do this work and much more as YWCA Seattle | King | Snohomish.
Read more about the YWCA’s Formation.
- *New UW study says human services workers are underpaid by 37% by Josh Cohen, March 6, 2023, Cascade PBS
- Image at top: The Colored Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of Seattle in an image published in Emma Ray’s 1926 autobiography, “Twice Sold, Twice Ransomed.” Emma is fourth from the left in the center row.
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