In addition to her work for the freedpeople of Washington, D.C., Griffing was also a women's rights activist. In the 1850s, Griffing became involved with women's rights organizations, making contact with women like Susan B. Anthony who would inspire her to fight for the rights of women as well as African Americans. Throughout the 1850s, Griffing joined various feminist organizations, such as the Ohio Women's Rights Association, which she became the president of in 1853. Shortly after President Abraham Lincoln gave the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, Griffing joined the Women's Loyal National League as a lecturing agent, where she helped collect thousands of signatures for a women's antislavery petition that was eventually presented to the United States Congress by Charles Sumner. Griffing was also active in the temperance movement that was popular amongst many feminist activists during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.