Katherine Alexander Duer Mackay (1878 – 1930) was an American suffragist, socialite and writer from New York city. She was the founder of the Equal Franchise Society. Her involvement with the women's suffrage movement "encouraged other wealthy women to follow her lead and become involved." She was also the first female member of the Roslyn Union Free School District's school board in Roslyn, New York.
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Biography
Katherine Duer was born in New York City in 1878. She was a direct descendant of Lady Kitty Duer, daughter of Lord Stirling. She married Clarence H. Mackay in 1898. Mackay was well known in connection with Harbor Hill where she was involved with philanthropy and education. She lived in Roslyn from 1898 to 1910. In 1899, Mackay refurbished Roslyn's public library, the William Cullen Bryant Library. She installed new carpet, replaced books and hired two librarians. Mackay would invite people, and children, to the house for various functions. Once, the Trinity Episcopal Sunday School members were invited to Harbor Hill for a picnic where the children inducted her as an "honorary knight". Mackay served on the Roslyn School board from 1905 to 1910, and was the first woman on the board. During her term on the board, she was able to successfully remove corporal punishment from the public schools in Roslyn. She also enrolled her own children in the public schools in Roslyn because she felt that "it is necessary for the rich as well as the poor to patronize them."
Mackay became a suffragist after reading books used for a suffrage debate at the Colony Club. She was also related to another suffragist, Alice Duer Miller. Mackay argued for suffrage from the standpoint of maternalism: she said that giving mothers the vote would let them protect their families, and mothers would make politics more moral, because they would vote selflessly for their children. Mackay, unlike many other wealthy suffragists, did not emphasize suffrage as a means of giving women political independence or equality. Her maternalist arguments had more in common with the earlier views of Josephine Lowell.