Editing Edith Abbott (section)

== Early career ==

Abbott returned to the United States in 1907 after her years studying in London, and took a job teaching economics at [[Wellesley College]]. Though her job at Wellesley was highly regarded for a woman with a Ph.D. at the time, she desired to return to [[Chicago]]. She got her chance in 1908 when [[Sophonisba Breckinridge]], then Director of Social Research at the independent Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, offered her a job teaching statistics in the Department of Social Investigation.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/elgarwe/edith_abbott/0|title=Edith Abbott {{!}} A Biographical Dictionary of Women Economists - Credo Reference|website=search.credoreference.com|language=en|access-date=April 18, 2017}}</ref>

Abbott moved into [[Jane Addams]]'s [[Hull House]] with her sister, [[Grace Abbott|Grace]], when she moved back to Chicago.<ref name="Sicherman, Barbara, and Carol Hurd Green 1980 1" /> At that time, Hull House was renowned as a mecca for educated women, for its vibrant community of residing revolutionary thinkers. Grace and Edith Abbott became great additions to the reform-minded community as they contributed significantly through their commitment to social reform advocacy and scholarship of statistical research.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

The long-lasting professional partnership between Abbott and Breckinridge first started during their years together at the School of Civics and Philanthropy. They shared a common interest in detailed statistical investigations of contemporary social problems which they believed they could use to spark reform advocacy. As a result of her experience in statistical research, following a crime wave in Chicago in 1914 Abbott was commissioned to investigate statistics on crime and criminals in the city. This led to a ground-breaking report titled "Statistics Relating to Crime in Chicago", published in 1915.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sharonlohr.com/blog/2019/8/16/how-did-edith-abbott-come-to-write-about-crime-statistics-in-1915|title=How Did Edith Abbott Come to Write about Crime Statistics in 1915? Part 1|author=Lohr, Sharon|publisher=Sharon Lohr|date=August 21, 2019|access-date=October 29, 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/reportofcitycoun00chic/page/16|title=Statistics Relating to Crime in Chicago in Report of the City Council Committee on Crime of the City of Chicago|author=Abbott, Edith|publisher=City of Chicago|date=March 22, 1915|access-date=October 29, 2019 }}</ref>

During the first 12 years of their collaboration at the Department of Social Investigation, Abbott and Breckinridge jointly produced 'The Housing Problem in Chicago', which consisted of ten articles in the [[American Journal of Sociology]] (1910–15) reporting the results of their major survey of tenement conditions in Chicago. (A follow-up study, The Tenements of Chicago, 1908–1935, was published in 1936); The Delinquent Child and the Home (1912), a study of Chicago's juvenile court; and Truancy and Non-Attendance in the Chicago Schools (1917), an investigation which led them to support compulsory school attendance and child labour legislation. In 1927, in dedication to the "scientific and professional interests of social work", Abbott and Breckinridge jointly established the distinguished academic journal, ''[[Social Service Review]]'', published by the [[University of Chicago Press]].<ref name=":0" />

With the joint efforts of Abbott and Breckinridge, in 1920, the [[University of Chicago]]'s Board of Trustees voted to rename the School the University of Chicago Graduate School of Social Service Administration. It was the first graduate school of social work in the country affiliated with a major research university.<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of American Urban History|date=2007|publisher=SAGE Publications, Inc.|location=Thousand Oaks, CA|pages=1–3|chapter=Abbott, Edith|last1=Gerard|first1=Gene C.|editor1-last=Goldfield|editor1-first=David R.}}</ref> Abbott was hired as an associate professor of social economy, and was named dean in 1924. She became the first US woman to become the dean of an American graduate school. Abbott, along with Breckinridge, transformed the field of social work by emphasizing the importance of formal education in social work and the need to include field experience as part of the training. They designed a curriculum that heavily emphasized social statistics as the historical, legal, economic and political root causes of social problems and public welfare efforts. In addition, they fought for the professional status of social work. In 1931, Abbott collected many of her papers, addresses and speeches on social service education and created a single volume entitled Social Welfare and Professional Education (1931, revised and enlarged in 1942).<ref name=":0" />

Abbott focused her attention on her students to portray the basic principles that can be transmitted to students. She states these principles must derive from "a critical examination of the methods used to produce certain results and a searching equally for the causes of apparent failure and apparent success."<ref name="Wisner 1958 1–10">{{Cite journal|last=Wisner|first=Elizabeth|date=1958|title=Edith Abbott's Contributions to Social Work Education|jstor=30016157|journal=Social Service Review|volume=32|issue=1|pages=1–10|doi=10.1086/640389|s2cid=143284410}}</ref> Abbott derived a curriculum for students that desired a career in social work.<ref name="Wisner 1958 1–10"/>