Grace Abbott

Grace Abbott was born in Grand Island, Nebraska on November 17, 1878. Her parents were activists who were involved with the Underground Railroad and active in the women’s suffrage movement. After attending the University of Nebraska and teaching in her hometown, Abbott moved to Chicago, and lived and worked at Hull House, a settlement house founded in 1889 by social reformer Jane Addams. Living among poor immigrant residents of the community, Abbott became an influential advocate for immigrant rights, and served as director of the Immigrants’ Protective League from 1908 to 1917, where she defended asylum seekers from deportation, and lobbied against restrictive immigration policies that excluded non-English speaking immigrants. She was also the official U.S. representative on the League of Nations’ advisory committee on the trafficking of women. 

As chief of the U.S. Children’s Bureau in the Department of Labor from 1921 to 1934, Abbot was the highest ranked woman in the U.S. government. She was also the first woman in U.S. history to be nominated to a presidential cabinet post, as the Secretary of Labor in the Hoover administration. Abbott led the fight to end child labor, and introduced groundbreaking programs for maternal and infant care, including the first federally funded social welfare program, the Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Act of 1921.

Abbott wrote and spoke extensively about women and children’s rights, including on her weekly radio series on NBC, which made her one of the first female broadcasters to a national audience. In 1930, Good Housekeeping magazine called Abbott one of the “most influential women in the U.S.” After retiring from the Children’s Bureau, Abbott worked on drafts of the Social Security Act. The policies Abbott helped to create have continued to benefit millions of Americans, and paved the way for federal relief efforts that protect and defend women and children. Grace Abbott died on June 19, 1939.