She became active in the suffrage movement in 1913. She initially joined the Maine Woman Suffrage Association (MWSA) which was affiliated with the
National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). In 1915 she helped launch the Maine branch of the
National Woman's Party (NWP), and was asked to serve as its chairman, a role she played for at least the next 13 years. She also served for a time on the NWP's national Advisory Committee. In the service of the NWP she picketed President Woodrow Wilson, and organized Wyoming voters to vote against Wilson in his 1916 re-election campaign. She was the NWP's most active and vocal supporter in Maine, and her allegiance earned her the enmity of her former colleagues in MWSA, who considered it too radical. MWSA eventually forced Maine suffragists to choose between their organization and the NWP; Florence chose the latter. In 1918-19, she led the effort in Maine to put pressure on
United States Senator Frederick Hale to vote in favor of the federal amendment that would enfranchise women. Eventually the federal amendment was approved by the US House, and there were only a handful of votes needed to get it through the Senate. Hale was on the short list of Senators who might be persuaded to support the amendment, and Florence organized letter-writing campaigns, delegations, speeches and a variety of other efforts to get him to change his mind. Ultimately, the missing vote was found elsewhere; Hale voted against it but, when it was safely passed, changed his vote to "yay" so he would be on record as having supported it. Once suffrage was won Florence continued to work with Alice Paul and the NWP on the
Equal Rights Amendment. She also dedicated herself to working for world peace; she joined the National Council on Prevention of War, chaired the Government and International Cooperation Committee of the Maine
League of Women Voters, served as the state Chairman of Government and international cooperation for the Maine Federation of Churches, and represented the State Peace Commission on the World Unity Council. She also had a weekly radio program on peace on
WGAN. ==Works==