American social worker
Grace Abbott
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Grace Abbott in 1929
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Born
| (
1878-11-17
)
November 17, 1878
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Died
| June 19, 1939
(1939-06-19)
(aged 60)
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Occupation
| Social worker
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Parent(s)
| Othman A. Abbott
and Elizabeth M. Griffin
|
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Grace Abbott
(November 17, 1878
[1]
? June 19, 1939) was an American
social worker
who specifically worked in improving the rights of immigrants and advancing
child welfare
, especially the regulation of child labor.
[2]
Her elder sister,
Edith Abbott
, who was a social worker, educator, and researcher, had professional interests that often complemented Grace's.
Biography
[
edit
]
Born in
Grand Island
,
Nebraska
, the daughter of O. A. Abbott and Elizabeth M. Griffin,
[3]
Grace graduated from Grand Island College in 1898. Before embarking on her career in social work, she was employed as a high school teacher in her hometown through 1906. In 1903, she started graduate studies at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
.
In 1907, she moved to
Chicago
, where she entered the career of social work. She took up residency in the
Hull House
,
[2]
an urban center for women engaged in early proto-
feminism
and social reform, as well as a safe haven for the poor. In 1909, Abbott received a
Ph.M.
in political science from the
University of Chicago
. She wrote a series of weekly articles in the
Chicago Evening Post
, titled
Within the City's Gates
from 1909 to 1910, which brought to light the exploitation of immigrants.
[2]
Abbott served on several committees and organizations for advancing the societal cause of child welfare, including the Immigrants' Protective League (1908-1917),
[2]
Child Labor Division of the
U.S. Children's Bureau
(1921 to 1934), and was also a member of the
Women's Trade Union League
. In 1911, she co-founded the Joint Committee for Vocational Training with
Sophonisba Breckenridge
, PhD, JD, and Edith Abbott, PhD, JD.
From 1917 to 1919, she was the director of the child labor division of the U.S. Children's Bureau. It was in this capacity that she was responsible for administering the
Keating-Owen Act
(1916). This law was reversed by the
U.S. Supreme Court
in 1918. She was responsible for portions of this law continuing by inserting clauses into the war-goods contracts between the federal government and private industries.
[2]
In 1924, she worked tirelessly to pass a constitutional amendment against child labor, an amendment that never gained statewide ratification.
[2]
Abbott was an author of several sociological texts, including
The Immigrant and the Community
(1917)
[2]
and
The Child and the State
(1938, 2 volumes).
[2]
She was also responsible for incorporating
social statistics
and research into legislative policy-making, as well as investigating child labor violations in shipbuilding plants and in factories across the United States.
Abbott pioneered the process of incorporating sociological data relating to child labor,
juvenile delinquency
, dependency, and statistics into the lawmaking process; she spent much of her time as a political lobbyist for social issues in
Washington, D.C.
She was associated with the
Social Security Administration
from 1934 until her death in 1939; during that time period, Abbott helped draft the
Social Security Act
and chaired several government committees on child welfare and social issues.
[4]
She was the first woman to be nominated for a Presidential cabinet position, but was not confirmed. Her mother was a
Quaker
turned
Unitarian
and her father,
Othman A. Abbott
, was the first Lt. Gov. of the state of
Nebraska
. Grace never married. She was a professor of public welfare at the University of Chicago from 1934 until 1939.
[2]
During a 1938 health checkup, doctors discovered that she was suffering from
multiple myeloma
. The disease caused her death one year later. Cancer was considered such a dreaded disease at the time that she and her sister hid her diagnosis and her obituary in
The New York Times
listed her cause of death as "
anemia
".
[5]
Abbott is a member of the
Nebraska Hall of Fame
,
[6]
inducted in 1976.
The School of Social Work at the University of Nebraska at Omaha is named in her honor.
[7]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Abbott, Grace".
Who Was Who Among North American Authors, 1921-1939
. Detroit: Gale Research Co. 1976. pp.
2?3
.
ISBN
0810310414
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
"Abbott, Grace"
.
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol. I: A-Ak - Bayes (15th ed.). Chicago, Illinois: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 2010. pp.
13
.
ISBN
978-1-59339-837-8
.
- ^
Leonard, John William, ed. (1914),
Woman's Who's Who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915
, New York: American Commonwealth Company, p. 34.
- ^
"No Small Courage - A History of Women in the United States",
Nancy F. Cott
- ^
Costin, Lela B. (2003).
Two Sisters for Social Justice: A Biography of Grace and Edith Abbott
. University of Illinois Press. pp. 233?235.
ISBN
9780252071553
.
- ^
"Nebraska Hall of Fame"
.
History Nebraska
. Archived from
the original
on October 5, 2019
. Retrieved
November 14,
2019
.
- ^
"Grace Abbott School of Social Work"
.
University of Nebraska Omaha
. Retrieved
November 14,
2019
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
External links
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