Some of the most notable social scientists from the turn of the twentieth century were female researchers and activists who worked to advance social reform in Chicago. Women such as Jane Addams and Edith Abbott may not have been adequately respected compared to their male peers in their own time, but have since been greatly studied and applauded for their work. Another woman who worked very closely with both Addams and Abbott, who was very influential in advancing the social sciences, yet who has not received nearly as much recognition, is Sophonisba Breckinridge (1866-1948). Breckinridge was a social scientist and activist who worked at Hull House while simultaneously pursuing degrees, researching, and teaching at the University of Chicago. Breckinridge’s most notable accomplishments include forming the nation’s first graduate school of social work and conducting research and publishing studies which engendered change in a variety of areas, including but not limited to social reform for immigrants, African-Americans, children, and working women.
Breckinridge’s involvement at both the University of Chicago and Hull House positioned her at the intersection of academia and activism, meaning she was involved in research, teaching, and reform. She developed a unique approach to social reform: “using social science research as the basis for social welfare legislation” [1]. Sophonisba Breckinridge did not limit herself to one area of social reform, but rather became involved in a myriad of movements. She described her goals to the Woman’s Journal in 1912 as “to help and protect ‘all those who are desolate and oppressed’”.[2] An acquaintance noted that her many involvements “all served one purpose, the improvement of the welfare program so that the disadvantaged in our community might have richer lives”.[3]
Before diving into Breckinridge’s extensive work and many accomplishments, it is important to first examine her upbringing. Sophonisba Breckinridge was born in Lexington, Kentucky to a well-off, socially prominent family. Although her parents were not very progressive (neither supported women’s suffrage), Breckinridge’s father, a lawyer, still encouraged her to pursue an education and focus on her studies. In 1880, her father convinced the Kentucky Agricultural and Mechanical College (now the University of Kentucky) to allow women in its teacher-training program. Thus, fourteen-year-old Sophonisba took college-level classes for four years, but was prohibited from earning a degree due to her gender. Furthermore, many students and professors remained strongly opposed to allowing girls on campus. The discrimination Sophonisba faced on campus spurred her desire to prove women’s intellectual capabilities. [4]
At eighteen, Breckinridge enrolled at the all-women Wellesley College. She studied there for four years, graduating with a degree in 1888.[5] During these years in New England, Breckinridge was forced to reexamine many of her views. She grew up in a racially segregated area and her family had African-American servants, but at Wellesley some of her peers and classmates were Black women. In Breckinridge’s personal correspondence, she at first indicated discomfort with this, but over the course of her four years at Wellesley she came to reject the white supremacy she had learned as a child in Kentucky.[6]
After graduation, Sophonisba Breckinridge hoped to become a lawyer and practice law in her father’s office, but her father was focused on preparing his eldest son, Desha, to be his successor, leaving him with little time to train his daughter. [7] This left Breckinridge unsure of her career prospects and struggling to pursue her goal of becoming a lawyer. She later reflected in an unpublished autobiography, “At that time there were not many law schools open to women. My mother’s health was frail, and the family expenses were high. The only law school open to women in Washington had classes in the evening and that was when I could be of service at home”. As a result, she decided to become a teacher instead.
When her father was elected to Congress, the family moved to Washington DC, and Breckinridge taught high school there for two years.[8] She then traveled in Europe for two years where she received private tutoring in French and Roman law.[9] In 1892, when her mother suddenly passed away, Breckinridge had to return to Lexington where she took over domestic duties.[10] She did finally have the opportunity to work in her father’s law office and in 1895 became the first woman to be admitted to the Kentucky bar.[11] Unfortunately, soon thereafter details emerged of her father’s scandalous affair with a much younger woman, ruining his career and bankrupting him.[12] This led Sophonisba to change her future plans; after encouragement from a friend, she enrolled at the University of Chicago at the age of 29.[13]
After one year of studying political science in Chicago, Breckinridge ran out of money and had to return to Lexington. She was able to remotely continue her studies, researching the early judicial system of Kentucky for her thesis, thus receiving her master’s degree in political science in 1897.[14] She then returned to Chicago and began working on her PhD, which she completed magna cum laude in 1901. She worked as an administrative assistant for Marion Talbot, the Dean of Women, in order to pay for her studies. After completing her PhD, Breckinridge hoped to earn a faculty position at the university, but once again faced gender discrimination. She wrote, “although I was given the PhD degree magna cum laude no position in political science or economics was offered me,” while “the men in the two departments…went off to positions in College and University faculties”. As a result, Breckinridge decided to enroll in the University of Chicago Law School instead, and in 1904 became the first woman to graduate from there.[15] During this time, her close relationship with Talbot landed her the offer of Assistant Dean of Women at the university in 1902. Working together with Talbot over the next twenty years, Breckinridge helped make the University of Chicago more hospitable to women and promoted women’s educational equality. [16]
After all these years advancing her education, Sophonisba Breckinridge’s views towards the legal field began to shift. There were not many opportunities for female lawyers, and her father’s death in 1904 meant she no longer had strong ties to the legal field. Furthermore, she had learned about how unjust many laws were, leading to her interest in “using the law to advance social justice rather than upholding laws that enforced social inequality”.[17]
Instead of becoming a lawyer, Breckinridge stayed with the university, starting a new part-time position as an assistant professor in the new Department of Household Administration, which applied economic theory to domestic life. One class she taught, called “The Legal and Economic Position of Women,” analyzed “the position of women in the family group as well as in industry and the professions,” and was arguably the first women’s studies class in the country. A notable student enrolled in this class was Edith Abbott, who would later become Breckinridge’s closest collaborator. [18]
Breckinridge was invited to join Hull House, a settlement house in the predominantly immigrant neighborhood of the West Side, in 1907, and was a resident there until 1921. Hull House provided services such as classes, social events, daycare, and more. The residents also conducted research and participated in social activism. Although she lived on the University of Chicago campus, Breckinridge would spend much of her vacation quarters and free time at Hull House.[19] Another resident of Hull House, Russell Ballard, recalled, “The scholarly and talented Sophonisba Breckinridge joined the company in 1907 to become one of Miss Addams’ closest friends and most helpful associates”. [20] Breckinridge was able to put to use her legal background at Hull House. Ballard expressed that Breckinridge “was sometimes asked by her Hull House associates to draft a welfare law or give leadership in sponsoring social legislation”. [21]
Although Breckinridge was very influential in both spheres of her work, the University of Chicago and Hull House, she sometimes found herself torn between academia and activism. She expressed her conflicting feelings in a 1907 letter to Edith Abbott: “Some times I think I must go about and see more and then sometimes I think keeping steadily at the job here is the thing for me to do”.[22] The solution was a job offer at the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, where Breckinridge could pursue both academic research and activism.
At the Chicago School, Breckinridge “found her niche as an activist academic”.[23] She worked there from 1908 to 1920, and became the dean in 1914. Under Breckinridge’s leadership, the Chicago School shifted its focus toward scholarly research and scientific inquiry.[24] As soon as Breckinridge became Dean, she began advocating for the Chicago School to be merged with the University of Chicago, as the university affiliation would help legitimize the new field of social work education. This finally happened in 1920, with the creation of the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Social Service Administration (SSA), the nation’s first graduate school of social work affiliated with a major research university.[25] The SSA offered opportunities for women to pursue social science, while the University’s Sociology department marginalized female students and did not hire female faculty.[26]
Breckinridge’s first study conducted under the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy was the 1909 collaboration with Edith Abbott, “The housing problem in Chicago”.[27] Breckinridge hoped that scientific studies could pave the way for social reform and change regulations and policies, and this study is one such example of that. The study investigated the city’s practice of dumping garbage in immigrant and Black neighborhoods, revealing “shockingly unsanitary conditions in Chicago’s working-class neighborhoods”. After the study’s publication, the city changed its waste-disposal practices.[28]
Another significant Breckinridge – Abbott study investigated women’s working conditions in the Chicago stockyards and meatpacking industry. They spent four months inspecting the facilities and interviewing over 2,000 young female employees. Breckinridge and Abbott found abysmal working conditions, low wages, and periodic layoffs. [29] In 1911, they reported their findings in the Journal of Political Economy article, “Women in Industry: The Chicago Stockyards”. [30] Furthermore, Breckinridge and Abbott presented their research to the U.S. Labor Department, leading to the establishment of the U.S. Children’s Bureau and the U.S. Women’s Bureau, which advocated for an end to child labor and better working conditions for women. [31]
This experience led to Breckinridge’s advocacy for “protective legislation,” meaning state laws regulating working women’s hours, wages, and working conditions.[32] Through her work on labor legislation, Breckinridge also developed the idea of a “national minimum,” that being “a minimum of decency, safety, and healthfulness below which its wage-earners may not be asked to go”. This idea that the government should guarantee a basic standard of living for all citizens later informed Breckinridge’s contributions to the American welfare state after the Great Depression. [33]
Breckinridge and Abbott’s most well-known work was the 1912 study Delinquent Child and the Home, featuring research on the Chicago Juvenile Court, the first ever special court for youth.[34] In examining the causes of juvenile delinquency and determining a correlation between poverty, single-parent households, and child offenders, Breckinridge was able to advocate for reforms such as financial support for single mothers.[35] A follow-up study on compulsory education and child-labor, the 1917 Truancy and Non-Attendance in the Chicago Schools, advocated for higher wage standards so that children would not have to work and could attend school.[36]
After twenty years as a part-time professor at the University of Chicago, Breckinridge’s longtime goal of becoming a full-time faculty member was finally achieved in 1925 when she was offered a full position as professor of social economy.[37] She became a professor emeritus in 1933, but continued to teach a full schedule of classes until 1942.[38] Breckinridge and Abbott continued to collaborate throughout these years, co-founding the first professional social work journal, Social Service Review, in 1927. They published some of their own work in the journal, as well as performed most of the editorial work.[39]
Breckinridge also worked for the advancement of African-American rights, recognizing shared experiences of discrimination between women and black people, who she noted were both “always regarded as members of a group, never as an individual”. She joined the NAACP, challenged racial segregation in Chicago schools, and was one of the founders of the Chicago Urban League, an African-American civil rights organization.[40]
Additionally, Breckinridge was a key member of the women’s suffrage movement. She co-founded the Equal Suffrage Association at the University of Chicago and the Committee for the Extension of Municipal Suffrage for Chicago Women in 1907. She also briefly served as vice-president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1911. Together with Jane Addams, Breckinridge co-founded the Women’s Peace Party in 1915, which supported a federal suffrage amendment and opposed the war in Europe. Later, Breckinridge became chair of the Committee on the Legal Status of Women from 1928 to 1930.[41] During this time, Breckinridge successfully promoted a revised Cable Act in 1930, helping change legislation regarding citizenship rights of women who married immigrant men.[42]
Breckinridge’s biographer, Anya Jabour, notes, “Nationally and internationally renowned in her own time, Breckinridge has, since her death in 1948, been largely forgotten”.[43] The lack of attention to Breckinridge’s work can partially be attributed to her often behind-the-scenes role and mostly collaborative projects. Furthermore, the fact that she was involved in virtually every aspect of social reform and that her work spanned several decades makes it difficult to categorize her, leading to her omission in studies of specific eras.[44] Despite this, or even because of this, Sophonisba Breckinridge should be remembered. Her advocacy for the advancement of the rights and welfare of all people, her research and publications supporting these movements, and her advancement of women’s educational opportunities and social work education all quite literally changed the world.
About the Author:
Annabel Mendoza is a first-year student at the University of Chicago planning on majoring in Economics. On campus, she is involved with Women in Business. Originally from New Jersey, she enjoys going on hikes, watching movies, and playing the piano in her free time.
References:
Featured Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sophonisba_P._Breckenridge.jpg
[1] Jabour, Anya. Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America. University of Illinois Press, 2019, p. 97.
[2] “A Woman Who Helps: The Story of a Southern Woman Who Is a Power in Chicago—Her Many-Sided Work—A Champion of the Championless,” Woman’s Journal (May 18, 1912): p. 160
[3] Helen R. Wright, “Three against Time: Edith and Grace Abbott and Sophonisba P. Breckinridge,” SSR 28, no. 1 (March 1954): p. 47
[4] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 18
[5] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 31
[6] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 52
[7] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 60
[8] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 61
[9] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 65
[10] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 67
[11] Fitzpatrick, Ellen F. Academics and Activists: Women Social Scientists and the Impulse for Reform, 1892–1920. Ph.D. dissertation, Brandeis University, 1981.
[12] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 69
[13] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 72
[14] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 74
[15] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 79
[16] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 86
[17] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 80
[18] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 88
[19] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 96
[20] Russell Ballard, “The Years at Hull House,” SSR 22, no. 4 (December 1948): p. 432.
[21] Ballard, “The Years at Hull House,” p. 342
[22] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 97
[23] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 98
[24] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 99
[25] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 117
[26] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 118
[27] Breckinridge, S. Preston., Abbott, E., Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy. Dept. of Social Investigation. (19101915). The Housing problem in Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
[28] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 102
[29] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 92
[30] Abbott, E., & Breckinridge, S. (1911). Women in Industry: The Chicago Stockyards. Journal of Political Economy, 19(8), 632-654.
[31] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 92
[32] Breckinridge, Sophonisba Preston. “Legislative Control of Women’s Work,” JPE 14, no 2 (February 1906): p. 107
[33] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 83
[34] Breckinridge, Sophonisba P., and Edith Abbott. Delinquent Child and the Home. New York, Charities Publication Committee.
[35] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 105
[36] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 107
[37] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 121
[38] Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2021, March 28). Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sophonisba-Preston-Breckinridge
[39] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 124
[40] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 105
[41] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 144-148
[42] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 154
[43] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 1
[44] Jabour, Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women’s Activism in Modern America, p. 3