author
Emma Guy Cromwell
1865–1952
A trailblazing Kentucky reformer and politician, she helped open doors for women in public life long before it was common. Her career stretched from the suffrage era into statewide office, and she later told that story in her memoir, A Woman in Politics.
1 Audiobook
Citizenship: A Manual for Voters
by Emma Guy Cromwell
About the author
Born in 1865, Emma Guy Cromwell became one of Kentucky's best-known early women in politics. She was active in the suffrage movement and built a long public career in state government during a period when women were only beginning to gain a place in political life.
She first rose to prominence when she became Kentucky's state librarian in 1896. In 1923 she was elected secretary of state, making her the first woman elected to statewide office in Kentucky, and she later also served as state treasurer. Historical accounts of her work in Kentucky describe a career that included several important public posts over many years.
Cromwell died in 1952. She is remembered as a practical pioneer who combined activism with public service, and her 1939 autobiography, A Woman in Politics, offers a firsthand look at what it meant to be a woman in government in the early twentieth century.