Grace Abbott

Grace Abbott was born on November 17, 1878 in Grand Island, Nebraska, into a family of activists. Her father was a leader in state politics, the first Lt. Governor of the State of Nebraska and her mother took part in the Underground Railroad and the woman's suffrage movement.  It is not surprising that Grace became an activist and social reformer herself. 

She earned a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy fin 1898 and her master’s degree  in Political Science in 1909.  She lived in Chicago from 1908 to 1917 at Hull House and began her career as a social worker.  She became immersed in immigrant rights, especially those from eastern Europe, and advancing child welfare, particularly  the regulation of child labor.  In 1917 she was invited to join the staff or the Federal Children’s Bureau where she served as the head of the Child Labor Division.  When the Supreme Court declared the child labor law unconstitutional, Grace resigned from her position but spent the rest of er life lobbying for a Constitutional amendment prohibiting child labor.

The next four years  were spent working with the Illinois State Immigrants’ Commission and the Immigrants’ Protective League.  She then returned to Washington D.C. where she began administering the Sheppard-Towner Act of 1921 which assisted states in combating infant and maternal disease and mortality.  She directed the opening of more than 1,000 prenatal and pediatric care centers. It was the merging of state and federal governments in the creation of these centers that ultimately laid the foundation for todays welfare programs. 

She was the first woman to be nominated for a Presidential cabinet position, but was not confirmed. Grace never married. In her later years she became a professor of public welfare at the University of Chicago.