This Margaret Kelly person sounds pretty impressive. Check this out:

Miss Margaret Kelly, the young woman in question, occupies the enviable position of being the highest salaried female official in the employ of the United States Government. But this fact does not so much entitle her to distinction as this: that, in her present position, she holds a place of responsibility that is second only to those of the Cabinet officers, a place that is so far above any other official position held by a woman that it may be said it is first — and there is no second.

When she got the position, one House member noted that “Miss Kelly’s appointment marks an epoch in the history of the advancement and development of woman in the business world.”

Here’s some of what she had to say about gender and business:

“There is one thing I most cordially detest… That is the distinction one constantly hears made between the work of the sexes. The expression ‘a man’s work’ or ‘a woman’s work’ is particularly obnoxious to me, as are their complements, ‘a man’s wages’ and ‘a woman’s wages.’ Now I cannot see any necessary distinction between work as a man does it and as it is done by a woman. The only distinctions or classes I recognize in work are ‘good work’ and ‘bad work.’”

She sounds like a great role model for women trying to break the glass ceiling. And yet, I can find almost no other mention of her online. No Wikipedia entry. Nothing. History is very strange sometimes.

A TALK WITH MISS MARGARET KELLY, DIRECTOR OF THE U. S. MINT: Work Done by the Highest Salaried Female Official in the United States. (PDF)

From August 6, 1911