Grace Abbott

Social worker and activist, born in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA. She studied at the universities of Nebraska and Chicago, and in 1908 went to live at Chicago's Hull House to head the Immigrants' Protective League. A writer of forceful articles exposing the exploitation of immigrants, she also campaigned for child labour laws, and as director of the federal Children's Bureau (from 1919) she administered grants to provide healthcare for mothers and children. She was president of the National Conference of Social Workers (1923–4), an adviser to the League of Nations (1922–34), and professor of public welfare at the University of Chicago (1934–9).

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.

In 1907, she moved to Chicago, where she began her career in social work.

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; 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.

Abbott is a member of the Nebraska Hall of Fame.