Jessie Ashley

Jessie Ashley (1861–1919) was an American lawyer, socialist, and feminist. Born into a wealthy family, she entered law school at age 39 and became a radical lawyer with a foot in two worlds.

A founder of the National Birth Control League, Ashley served on the editorial board for Margaret Sanger's Birth Control Review during the 1910s. As an attorney, she worked on behalf of radical labor activists and was a regular activist for the Industrial Workers of the World, involved in the 1911 textile workers' strike in Lowell, Massachusetts and the 1913 Paterson silk strike. At the same time, she served as the treasurer of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Her Socialist politics were an uneasy fit for the very mainstream NAWSA, and eventually she stepped down.

Legal career Ashley graduated from NYU Law School in 1902. Her brother Clarence Ashley was the dean, and under his tenure the school moved to admit women.