Grace Abbott

Grace Abbott

Someone once said "that childhood is a fairly recent invention." I feel this is true because of the numerous amount of things that have changed when it comes to child labor laws. In the early nineteen hundreds kids could not go to school because they had to go work in factories, mines, or on their family's farm. Now, children have rights and there are people who work hard to maintain those rights for them. Most children now have the opportunity to go to school and get an education. How did we get to where we are today? We have to give all the credit to social reformers, like Grace Abbott, who helped to changed all of that.

Grace Abbott was an American social worker who was most concerned with the welfare of children and infants and fought for children's rights. Grace Abbott was not only a social worker, but she was an author. She wrote books about issues pertaining to things like immigration and child labor laws. Her books were called The Immigrant and the Community and The Child and the State.

Grace Abbott

Grace Abbott was the director of the Industrial Division of the Children's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor. Being placed in this position made her responsible for evolving enforcement plans for the first federal child labor law passed by Congress in 1916. Abbott administered grants to provide healthcare for mothers and children. She served on several committees and organizations, where she worked with others to expose the need to look out for the welfare of children, infants, and mothers.

"Abbott innovated the process of incorporating cultural data relating to child labor, juvenile delinquency, 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 for five years, from 1934 to 1939. During that time, she helped in the drafting of the Social Security Act and chaired Several government committees on child welfare and other social issues."

After thirty years of fighting against child labor and juvenile delinquency, Grace Abbott died. She was around sixty-one when she passed away. Abbott died of cancer. It was stated that she had multiple myeloma. She is still recognized today as a great reformer during the early nineteen hundreds. The wonderful things that she did to help others make her very admirable to me. Grace Abbott had a real passion for helping people, especially mothers and children. She really was a heroic woman.