A renowned poet and activist, Field was a committed Christian and socialist. While performing missionary work in India and Burma, she witnessed the suffering caused by colonialism and exacerbated by income inequality. Returning to the U.S., Field applied her faith by opening a kindergarten and soup kitchen. Field’s exposure to the working poor led her to adopt radical ideas and support Eugene Debs’ socialist campaign for president. Opposed by wealthy Christians, Field and her family fled to Portland in 1910 from their increasingly hostile Cincinnati parish.

Once in Oregon, Field involved herself with the woman suffrage campaign led by Abigail Scott Duniway. She joined the Oregon College Equal Suffrage League and toured the state giving speeches on voting rights. Following the 1912 victory in Oregon, she campaigned for suffrage in Nevada and the United States at large. In 1915, suffrage leader Alice Paul chose Field to take a petition of 500,000 signatures advocating woman suffrage by car to President Wilson at the White House. She spoke at the 1916 National Woman’s Party convention and in support of Anna Henrietta Martin’s (I; Nev) bid for the U.S. Senate, purportedly suggesting the campaign slogan “No votes, no babies!”