Grace Abbott

Grace Abbott (November 17, 1878 - June 19, 1939) was an American social worker who specifically worked in advancing child welfare. Her older sister was social worker Edith Abbott.

Abbott was born in Grand Island, Nebraska. Abbott graduated from Grand Island College in 1898. Before embarking on her future career in social work, she worked as a high school teacher in her home town through 1906. In 1902, she started graduate studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

In 1907, she moved to Chicago, where she began her career in social work. She took up residency in the Hull House, 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.

Abbott served on several committees and organizations for advancing the societal cause of the child welfare, including the Immigrants' Protective League (1908-1917), 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.

Abbott was an author of several sociological texts, including The Immigrant and the Community (1917) and The Child and the State (1938, 2 volumes). 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 other 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 in the drafting of the Social Security Act and chaired several government committees on child welfare and social issues.

During a 1938 health checkup, doctors discovered that she was suffering from multiple myeloma. The disease caused her death one year later.

Abbott is a member of the Nebraska Hall of Fame.