Abbie ¨Gail¨ Hill Laughlin was born on May 7, 1868 in Robbinston, Maine. Her parents were Robert Laughlin and Elizabeth (Stuart) Laughlin. Her father was from Belfast, Ireland and her mother was from St. Stephen, New Brunswick. Gail was one of nine children in her family, but two of them died as infants. Her father died at the age of 56 in 1876, leaving only her mother to raise six children on her own. Gail’s family soon moved back to St. Stephen to get financial support from their extended family. In 1880, the family moved to Portland. Because of Gail’s brothers, they were able to financially support Gail enough that she was able to attend Portland High School. In 1886, she graduated Portland High school with honors. Laughlin received the …show more content…
She was offered and accepted a job by Colonel Albert Clark, this was the man that published her speech back in college. The job was to inspect the working conditions of domestic servants with the United States Industrial Commission. Laughlin had to inspect, observe, and report on the working conditions of those employed in domestic service to help improve the working conditions for employees. After research the work force, she had found out that women were getting paid less than men, but they were working equal hours and labor and faced many unreasonable demands. This made her to be inspired to devote some of her life to the Women’s suffrage movement. Gail spent the next four years (1902-1906) campaigning for the National American Woman Suffrage Association. She traveled across the United States promoting the vote and equal rights for women. Finally in 1906, Laughlin was in Denver, Colorado and opened a law office. She was on eleven city and state boards. Gail then opened her another law office in San Francisco, California in 1914. She served on the Republican state central committee, became a member of the National Woman's Party, a judge in the police courts, a founder of the National League for Women’s Services, and passed a law allowing women to be on juries in California. In 1927, Gail Laughlin was working to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. Laughlin was able to gather 200 women and travel to Rapid City, South Dakota to get massive media attention for this amendment. She wanted to make an impact on Maine. That chance was given to her when a petition with 1,000 signatures on it from the Women’s Literacy Union. They wanted her to run for Maine State Legislature. She was elected in 1929 and served for three years. During her term, she submitted many bills and passed a few laws all for the wellbeing of women. Laughlin was able to raise the legal marriage age from thirteen to sixteen. She was able to pass