Turner joined the Philadelphia Union of Associationists in 1847 and the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in the 1850s. She helped found the Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association in 1869, and she was its first corresponding secretary. At the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876, Turner was a leader of the Women's Congress and distributed the newspaper "New Century for Women" that she wrote and edited at the Women's Pavilion. The New Century Club women's club was founded in Philadelphia in 1877 following a stirring paper that Turner delivered at the Women's Congress. Turner was the president from 1879 to 1881 and the first corresponding secretary of the literary, social and community organization. Evening classes were held for working girls and women and the success of the endeavor led to the founding of the New Century Guild of Working Women in 1882. It held vocational classes, philosophy and history study groups, and activities. It had a clubhouse with a dining room and library. The women's club continued after Drexel Institute assumed responsibility for the classes in 1892.