March is National Social Work Month and Women’s History Month! In celebration, we present an all-star lineup of some of the amazing University of Chicago women who have impacted social work education and paved the road for women in service leadership.
1. Helen Harris Perlman (1906-2004), social work educator and author, served on the faculty of the School of Social Service Administration from 1945 to 1971. Her integration of psychoanalytic theories and clinical experience contributed to the development of the “Chicago School” of social service practice.
2. Bernece K. Simon (1914-2014), social worker, social work educator and administrator, served on the faculty of the School of Social Service Administration from 1944 to 1979. Simon was a pioneer in studying social work generalist practice theory and its connection with social work practice in casework.
3. Mary Gyarfas (1920-2004), social work educator and author, served on the faculty of the School of Social Service Administration from the mid-1950s to the late-1970s. She was involved in the Casework Sequence Committee, the Curriculum Policy Committee, and a number of various subcommittees convened to discuss important topics in the field of social services at the time.
4. Sophonisba P. Breckinridge (1866-1948) was a social scientist and social work educator. Breckinridge received a Ph.M. degree from the University of Chicago in 1897 and a Ph.D. in political science and economics in 1901. In 1904 she became the first woman to receive the J.D. degree from the University. While teaching at the University, Breckinridge spent her summers at Hull-House and became involved with many of the activities there. She also worked at the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, serving as its dean, and was instrumental in the merger of the school with the University to form the School of Social Service Administration in 1920. Her teaching, research, and publications helped to define social work as a profession and mold it into an academic discipline. She was made a full professor in 1925, and was named Samuel Deutsch Professor of Public Welfare Administration in 1929, remaining active until a few months before her death in 1948.
5. Charlotte Towle (1896-1966), psychiatric social worker and theoretician in the fields of social work, education, and casework, and professor in the School of Social Service Administration for over thirty years. Her writing and her work on the curriculum committees of the American Association of Schools of Social Work and the American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers helped define a generic casework curriculum for most schools. Her book Common Human Needs sketched for public assistance workers the link between understanding human behavior and administering social welfare programs. The book was enthusiastically received and was eventually translated into eight languages.
6. Helen Wright (1891-1969), Samuel Deutsch Professor and Dean in the School of Social Service Administration from 1942 to 1956. Wright earned her PhD in economics from the University of Chicago in 1922. She was the first president of the Council on Social Work Education. Wright steered the School through WWII and advocated for social reform supported by research and not solely casework.
7. Grace and Edith Abbott. Edith Abbott (1876-1957) received her PhD from the University of Chicago in 1905 and was a resident of Hull House until 1920. She served as Associate Director of the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy at the University of Chicago and was the first Dean of the School of Social Service Administration,. Grace Abbott (1878-1939) received her PhM from the University of Chicago in 1909 and studied law at the University of Chicago Law School. In 1915 she became the first director of the newly organized Immigrant’s Protective League, and in 1917 was appointed to the Child Labor Division of the United States Children’s Bureau. The sisters both served as professors of Public Welfare at the University of Chicago and as editors of Social Service Review.
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