Edith Abbott facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Edith Abbott
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| Born | September 26, 1876 |
| Died | July 28, 1957 (aged 80) Grand Island, Nebraska
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| Occupation | Economist, Social Worker, Educator, Author. |
| Parent(s) | Othman A. Abbott and Elizabeth M. (Griffin) |
Edith Abbott (born September 26, 1876 – died July 28, 1957) was an important American economist, statistician, social worker, teacher, and writer. She was born in Grand Island, Nebraska.
Edith Abbott was a leader in creating the field of social work. She believed that helping people should be a big part of education. She also helped make social work a subject you could study in college for advanced degrees. Even though some people at the University of Chicago didn't agree with her ideas at first, she succeeded. In 1924, she became the first woman dean of a university in the United States.
Abbott was mainly a teacher. She saw her work as a mix of legal studies and helping others, which showed in her ideas for social security laws. She is known for pushing to make social work a graduate-level study. Her younger sister was Grace Abbott, who also did important work in social reform.
Social work will never become a profession—except through the professional schools
The Edith Abbott Memorial Library in Grand Island, Nebraska, is named after her.
Contents
Early Life
Edith Abbott was born on September 25, 1876, in Grand Island, Nebraska. Her father, Othman A. Abbott, was a lawyer and Nebraska's first Lieutenant Governor. Her mother, Elizabeth Griffin, worked to end slavery and supported women's right to vote.
Both of Edith's parents taught her and her sister, Grace Abbott, about women's rights, equality, and making society better. These ideas inspired their future work. Grace Abbott also achieved a lot. She worked as a social worker and helped create laws to protect children from difficult labor. She was also the chief of the United States Children's Bureau for many years. The sisters often worked together on projects.
Education
In 1893, Edith graduated from Brownell Hall, a boarding school for girls in Omaha, Nebraska. However, her family couldn't afford to send her to college right away. This was because a drought in Nebraska caused money problems for many families.
Instead of going to college, Edith started teaching high school in Grand Island. She was determined to get a college education. So, she took classes by mail and at night until she could afford to enroll full-time. Edith went to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and earned her degree in 1901.
She taught for two more years. Then, she received a special scholarship to the University of Chicago. While studying there for her advanced degree, she met Professor Sophonisba Breckinridge. Edith earned her Ph.D. in economics in 1905. Later, Abbott and Breckinridge would work together on many studies.
In 1906, Abbott received another special scholarship called a Carnegie Fellowship. This allowed her to continue her studies in London at University College London and the London School of Economics. There, she learned from important social reformers named Sidney Webb and Beatrice Webb. They had new ideas about how to help people living in poverty.
The Webbs greatly influenced Edith's career path. They believed that old "poor laws" were unfair and supported creating programs to help people escape poverty. While in London, Edith also lived for a time in a community of social reformers in a poor area. This gave her real-life experience in social work.
Early Career
Edith Abbott returned to the United States in 1907 and began teaching economics at Wellesley College. This was a respected job for a woman with a Ph.D. at the time. But she wanted to go back to Chicago.
Her chance came in 1908. Sophonisba Breckinridge, who was leading social research at the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, offered her a job. Edith would teach statistics there.
When she moved back to Chicago, Edith Abbott and her sister Grace moved into Jane Addams's Hull House. Hull House was famous as a place where educated women and revolutionary thinkers lived and worked together. Grace and Edith Abbott became important members of this community. They helped a lot with their dedication to social reform and their research using statistics.
Edith Abbott and Sophonisba Breckinridge began their long-lasting working relationship at the School of Civics and Philanthropy. They both wanted to study social problems in detail using statistics. They believed this research could help bring about important changes. For example, after a rise in crime in Chicago in 1914, Abbott was asked to study crime statistics. This led to an important report called "Statistics Relating to Crime in Chicago" in 1915.
Over 12 years, Abbott and Breckinridge worked together on many projects. They wrote ten articles about housing problems in Chicago, based on their study of living conditions. They also published "The Delinquent Child and the Home" (1912), which looked at Chicago's court for young people. Another study, "Truancy and Non-Attendance in the Chicago Schools" (1917), led them to support laws for children to attend school and against child labor. In 1927, they started an important academic journal called Social Service Review. This journal focuses on the scientific and professional parts of social work.
Thanks to the efforts of Abbott and Breckinridge, the University of Chicago's leaders voted in 1920 to rename their school. It became the University of Chicago Graduate School of Social Service Administration. This was the first graduate school for social work in the country connected to a major research university. Abbott became an associate professor of social economy. In 1924, she was named dean, making her the first woman dean of an American graduate school.
Abbott and Breckinridge changed the field of social work. They stressed how important formal education was for social workers. They also believed that real-world experience should be part of the training. They created a curriculum that focused on social statistics. This helped students understand the historical, legal, economic, and political reasons behind social problems. They also fought for social work to be recognized as a true profession. In 1931, Abbott gathered many of her writings and speeches about social service education into a book called Social Welfare and Professional Education.
Abbott focused on teaching her students important principles. She believed these principles should come from carefully looking at how things are done. They should also explore why some efforts fail and why others succeed. She created a study plan for students who wanted a career in social work.
Later Career
Edith Abbott was a well-known expert on immigration. She worked to change laws to stop immigrants from being taken advantage of. She led a committee that looked into crime and foreign-born people for a national commission (1929–31).
Through her work, Abbott wrote many articles, book reviews, and government reports. She discussed important topics like the rights of women and children, crime, immigration, and public help. She also emphasized the need for a good public welfare system. She believed it should be more humane and that the government had a duty to solve social problems.
Many of Abbott's contributions focused on improving welfare and making it more caring. In 1926, she helped create the Cook County Bureau of Public Welfare. Abbott and Breckinridge started the Social Service Review journal in 1927. This journal still looks at social welfare policies and their effects. During the Great Depression, Edith Abbott worked with her sister to fight many social problems. These included unfair treatment of immigrants and the misuse of child labor. In 1935, Abbott helped write the Social Security Act, a very important law.
Edith Abbott also played a big role in public life. She was a trusted advisor to Harry Hopkins, who advised President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1950, Abbott was asked to serve on a single case for the California Supreme Court. This made her the first woman to sit on that state's highest court, even if just for one case.
After her sister Grace died in 1939, Edith became sad and lonely. She slowly started to step back from public life. In 1941, she published her last book, Public Assistance. In 1942, she officially retired as the Dean of the School of Social Service Administration.
Edith Abbott spent her last years living with her family in Grand Island, Nebraska. She died from pneumonia in 1957. She left most of her money to the Grand Island Public Library. She also set up a fund for a collection of non-fiction books in memory of her mother, Elizabeth Abbott. After Edith Abbott's death, Wayne McMillen of Social Service Review wrote that she would be remembered as one of the leaders who made lasting contributions to education. He said that social work is now an established profession, and she, more than anyone else, guided the education needed for it.
The Abbott sisters are buried together in Grand Island Cemetery.
See also
In Spanish: Edith Abbott para niños
