Related Resources • Women's Trade Union League • WTUL Women • Women: Work and Labor • Jane Addams, Social Work and Hull House • Biographies of Notable Women

Elsewhere on the Web • Sophonisba Breckinridge • Breckinridge, Sophonisba Preston - Britannica.com • Jane Addams Library

From a well-connected Southern family and born in Kentucky, Sophonisba Breckenridge was educated at Wellesley and briefly taught school before studying for the law.

She failed to make a success at her law practice. She left Kentucky and went to the University of Chicago, first as a secretary and then as a student. She became the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in political science. After graduating from the University of Chicago Law School with a law degree, she became a university professor in the department of household administration.

She published articles on the legal issues of women's employment, was drawn into the Women's Trade Union League and Hull House, and began to teach in the newly-developing field of social work, emphasizing investigative research.

She continued to teach and publish in the field of social work and social service, helped to found and was editor of Social Service Review, and in 1934 was elected president of the American Association of Schools of Social Work. She taught until her retirement in 1942, continuing to speak and write until she died in 1948.

She was also involved in the juvenile court movement, served as a city health inspector, worked for child labor laws and immigrant protection, and was active in the early years of the NAACP. She supported women's union organizing efforts, woman suffrage and the more political activities of the woman's club movement.

About Sophonisba Preston Breckenridge

• Categories: social worker, reformer
• Organizational Affiliations: University of Chicago, Women's Trade Union League, Hull House, NAACP, Woman's Peace Party, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)
• Places: Kentucky, Chicago, Illinois, United States
• Period: 20th century
• Sometimes erroneously spelled Breckinridge

Bibliography

• Breckenridge, Sophonisba. New Homes for Old.
• Barr, Nancy Ellen. A profession for women: education, social service administration, and feminism in the life of Sophonisba Preston Breckenridge, 1886-1948. Thesis (PhD), Emory University, 1993.

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Text copyright 1999-2006 © Jone Johnson Lewis.