Dr. Heman Lincoln Chase and his wife Margaret. Hartley Dennett and Margaret Chase eventually developed an extremely close relationship, culminating in Hartley Dennett moving out of his and Mary's house in 1909. Concerned about the effect that Hartley was having on their children, Mary filed for divorce in 1912, at the time an unusual and scandalous action. The Dennetts' divorce proceedings were a popular topic in the local newspapers, to Mary Dennett's great discomfort. Career as women's rights advocate Motivated by both a desire to escape the unpleasant realities of her life as well as Hartley Dennett's refusal to financially support his children, Mary Dennett returned to working outside the home, but not in her previous career as an artist and interior designer. In 1908 she accepted the position of field secretary of the Massachusetts Women’s Suffrage Association, beginning a long career in public advocacy for women's rights. Dennett worked for the cause of women's suffrage from 1910 to 1914, a period that marked the revival of the women's suffrage movement, which had stagnated during the previous decade. After several years of work for the National American Women's Suffrage Association, she became disillusioned with the organization and resigned from her position. Dennett co-founded the Twilight Sleep Association (1913), which advocated the use of scopolamine and morphine to ease the pain of childbirth. Statistics showed that twilight sleep reduced infant mortality and the risk of injury and infection, due to reduced use of forceps. She served as acting president until 1914, then as vice president. When the European war broke out in 1914, Dennett joined the Women's Peace Party, an anti-war movement. In 1916, she served as field secretary for the American Union against Militarism, organizing meetings in several large cities. Dennett's work to re-elect Woodrow Wilson (under the belief that he would not declare war) led to a respected job as executive secretary for the League for Progressive Democracy. She resigned after Wilson did enter the United States into the war in 1917. She next co-founded and was employed by the People's Council of America, a socialist peace movement inspired by the Bolsheviks. In 1915, Dennett's name was again in the newspapers, against her wishes. Her ex-husband Hartley Dennett, his partner Margaret Chase, and her husband Dr. Chase extended a public invitation to Mary Dennett to, as one newspaper put it, "adopt the creed of harmonious love and form a