From the humble beginning of Social Work there have been many people who have tirelessly worked, fought, and dedicated their life advocating for the people in our world who are disadvantaged. Furthermore, many of these people have been women who not only were strong enough to fight for the rights of others, but also had to fight the forces whom thought that women where in some way second hand citizens themselves. These women were brave and determined enough to break out of the box that society placed them in, and stand up for the social injustices that they seen taking place, and try to make a difference. Of the many women from the early days of Social Work none fought harder for social reform than Grace Abbott. Grace Abbott spent her life fighting to enact legislation for the betterment of society as a whole. This work would eventually earn her the nickname “the mother of America’s forty-three million children.” Grace Abbott was born November 17, 1878 in Grand Island, Nebraska. Grace was one of four children of Othman A. and Elizabeth Abbott. There’s was a home environment that stressed religious independence, education, and general equality. Grace grew up observing her father, a Civil War veteran in court arguing as a lawyer. Her father would later become the first Lt. Governor of Nebraska. Elizabeth, her mother, taught her of the social injustices brought on the Native Americans of the Great Plains. In addition, Grace was taught about the women’s suffrage movement, which her mother was an early leader of in Nebraska. During Grace’s childhood she was exposed to the likes of Pulitzer Prize author Willa Cather who lived down the street from the Abbott’s, and Susan B. Anthony the prominent civil rights leader whom introduced wom... ... middle of paper ... ...Grace_Abbott Booth, A. (1931, May). America's Twelve Greatest Woman Grace Abbott. Good Housekeeping. Retrieved from http://ssacentennial.uchicago.edu/features/features-graceabbott.shtml Grace Abbott, Ph.M. (Political Science) 1909 [SSA Centennial Celebration Profiles of Distinction Series]. (n.d.). In Chicago/SSA/Centenial. Retrieved March 6, 2011, from The University of Chicago website: http://ssacentennial.uchicago.edu/features/features-abbott-grace.shtml Lifson. (1997). Grace Abbott and the strugglefor social reform. Humanities, 18(1), 40. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=9705231699&site=ehost-live Sorensen, J., & Abbott, E. (2004). The Maternity and Infancy Revolution. Maternal & Child Health Jounal, 8(3), 107-110. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=14089739&site=ehost-live
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Show More...et al. Vol. 4: Primary Sources. Detroit: UXL, 2006. 146-161. U.S. History in Context. Print. 17 Nov. 2013.
Dye, Thomas R. , L. Tucker Gibson Jr., and Clay Robinson. Politics In America. Brief Texas Edition ed. New Jersey: Pearson, 2005.
... Conference.” Reader’s Companion to American History. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991. Online. Internet. Available at HTTP: http://www.historychannel.com/. 23 Sept 2001.
In her research, she spent over 600 hours in welfare offices, speaking to caseworkers, social workers, and welfare recipients and potential recipients themselves. She learned first hand how the Act affected the day to lives of poor women and their families, as well as how it affected the caseworkers who not only had to learn the large number of new rules and regulations required by the Act, but also had to deal on a day to day basis with the repercussions these changes had on the lives of their clients.
However, while embracing the often axiomatic freedoms of today, women everywhere should take time to acknowledge the struggles of previous generations. If one were to delve into the history of early American society, they would surely discover a male-dominated nation where women were expected to tend to their kitchen rather than share the responsibility of high government. During this time, a woman was considered the property of her husband, and was to remain compliant and silent. Nevertheless, two brilliant writers, Lydia Marie Child and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, resolved to confront and address the oppression afflicting America’s women. Although these two women have different styles of writing, they both advocate similar contentions.
Born on February 15, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts (SBA House), she was brought up into a large Quaker family with many activist traditions. Quakers believed highly in education and a strong work ethic from an early age. “They believed in peace, temperance and justice, and this was to affect her adult concerns about injustices toward women, as well as social problems that come from alcohol,” (Grace). As well as believing that men and women were equal partners before God, which later had an influence on her belief in women's rights. Her mother, Lucy, loved to sing and dance which led to much controversy between her father’s harsh Quaker faith, which later on to her convictions of women equality. “No toys or music were allowed in the Anthony home for fear that they would distract the children from God's word” (Linder). Anthony’s father, Daniel, ran a cotton mill with strong values to refuse slave-picked cotton. At the age of six, Anthony and her family moved to Battenville, New York because Daniel was asked to manage other mills (Grace). Her education began in quaint schools in the small of New York but at fifteen, bega...
Grace Abbott died of cancer in 1939. After her sister’s death, Edith Abbott recalled her telling her students about the uphill battle to success, saying that “the social worker…should accept this as a way of life” (Golus, 2008). Grace Abbott never married, which was a choice that many ambitious career women had to make at the time. She was often ridiculed for this, with one senator calling her and the women of the Children’s Bureau “female celibates…women too refined to have a husband,” in an argument against infant mortality legislation (Golus,
The Political, Feminist, and Religious view of Frances E.W. Harper, Phllis Wheatley, and Alice Dunbar-Nelson
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Politics in Progressive Era Politics." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 05 Apr. 2014. .
Perhaps the most crucial reformists of the time period were those battling to obtain their God-given rights. Many lower class workers, such as African Americans, women, and immigrants, sought after the opportunity to vote, work it certain facilities, and be accepted in society as a whole. An engraving by Patrick Reason depicts an African American female in chains; with the inscription ‘Am I not a Woman and a Sister?’(Doc C) The woman shown is crying out, begging to be heard and listened to. Many males of the time period did not take female reformists seriously, or listen to them at all. On August 2nd, 1848, through the Seneca Falls Declaration, Elizabeth Cady Stanton prote...
Welter, Barbara. “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860.” Nineteenth Century Literature March 1966: 102-106. Jstor. On-line. 10 Nov. 2002.
Dye, Thomas R., L. Tucker Gibson, Jr., and Clay Robison. Politics in America. Ninth ed. Vol. 2. New York, NY: Longman, 2011. 337. Print.
Jones, W. T. Masters of Political Thought. Ed. Edward, McChesner, and Sait. Vol. 2. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1947.
Plomin, R & Asbury, K. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, July 2005; vol. 600, 1:pp.86-98.
As I plan to eventually work with young mothers who have children who are in the foster care system or who are fighting to get their children back, I want to have a clear understand of what it will take to establish a healthy pregnancy. It will be important to implement the prenatal development to these future mothers. Making sure that these mothers have an understanding of what is important in the first stages of prenatal care of their children. For example, going to Doctor’s appointments, taking vitamins, eating healthy, and staying active. This will help provide a safe and healthy pregnancy for any children they may have. I also believe that gaining knowledge over the stages of development will be beneficial to know for the mothers who are fighting to have their children back. Some of these mothers I could be working with might not know what to expect of their one-year-old child. For example, how their brain is developing, what they should be doing cognitively or socially. As a future family life educator, it will be important that I have a clear understanding of these concerns of the child and the development process for the mothers who have the urge to get care of their children