Georgia Emery
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Georgia Emery (1867-1931) was an American businesswoman, known as the "Dean of American Business Women".


Biography

Emery was born in 1867. She grew up in Galien, Michigan, where she would earn her first job, as a Latin teacher. She would later find employ in
Benton Harbor, Michigan Benton Harbor is a city in Berrien County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is 46 miles southwest of Kalamazoo and 71 miles southwest of Grand Rapids. According to the 2020 census, its population was 9,103. It is the smaller, by population, o ...
, working for the Benton Harbor Area Schools and would become the principal of a school in that district. Her first business venture was into selling postcards, largely penny post cards to children. In 1902, she ventured into the life insurance industry, selling life insurance to women. Two years later, she was the Women's Department Massachusetts Life Insurance Company's first director. In 1919, she worked on a survey of working women run by the
YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams (philanthropist), Georg ...
, and proposed by the
United States Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...
. The survey led to National Federation of Business and Professional Women being established. Emery was heavily involved with the group, spearheading the effort to buy a headquarters. She died in 1932.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Emery, Georgia 1867 births 1931 deaths American women in business