Julia Lathrop
Encyclopedia
Julia Clifford Lathrop was an American
social reformer in the area of education, social policy, and children's welfare. As director of the United States Children's Bureau
) from 1912 to 1922, she was the first woman ever to head a United States federal bureau.
, Julia Clifford Lathrop was born in Rockford, Illinois
. Julia's father, a lawyer and personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, had helped establish the Republican Party
and served in the state legislature (1856–57) and Congress (1877–79). Her mother was a suffragist active in women's rights activities in Rockford.
Lathrop attended Rockford Female Seminary where she met Jane Addams
and Ellen Gates Starr
. After two years, she transferred to Vassar College
, developing her own multidisciplinary studies in statistics, institutional history, sociology, and community organization and graduated in 1880. Afterwards, she worked in her father's law office first as a secretary and then studying the law for herself.
where she joined Jane Addams, Ellen Gates Starr, Alzina Stevens
, Edith Abbott
, Grace Abbott
, Florence Kelley
, Mary McDowell, Alice Hamilton
, Sophonisba Breckinridge
and other social reformers at Hull House
. Lathrop ran a discussion group called the Plato Club in the early days of the House. The women at Hull House actively campaigned to persuade Congress to pass legislation to protect children. During the depression years of the early '90s served as a volunteer investigator of relief applicants, visiting homes to document the needs of the families.
In 1893 Lathrop was appointed as the first ever woman member of the Illinois State Board of Charities, beginning her lifelong work in civil service reform: advocating for the training of professional social workers and standardizing employment procedures. This would lead to opening the labor market for educated women as well as improving social services in Progressive Era cities and towns. Over the next few years she helped introduce reforms such as the appointment of female doctors in state hospitals and the removal of the insane from the state workhouses.
, in 1912 President William Taft appointed Lathrop as the first bureau chief. Over the next nine years Lathrop directed research into child labor, infant mortality, maternal mortality, juvenile delinquency, mothers' pensions and illegitimacy.
The Children's Bureau under Lathrop (1912-21) and her successors became an administrative unit that not only created child welfare policy but also led its implementation. For many conservative women, the Bureau's focus on maternal and child welfare gave them a role in politics for the first time -- something that the suffrage
or women's rights
movements had not offered them. The Bureau expanded its budget and personnel to focus on a scientific approach to motherhood in order to reduce infant and maternal mortality, improve child health and advocate for trained care for children with disabilities. Lathrop modeled the Children's Bureau investigations from the work she did while at Hull-House. The Bureau also lobbied to abolish child labor. Scientific language became critical to the reform efforts such as the baby-saving campaigns in towns with large working class and immigrant populations where the middle class maternalists
battled contemporary beliefs in the inevitability of high infant mortality rates. "Mother-work in the community" meant that women educated in the latest scientific theories about children's health and safety would lead the movement for child welfare reform.
In her first annual report for the agency, Lathrop described the plans for expansion: promotion of birth registration, infant mortality field studies, production of instructional pamphlets and reports, expand the study of child labor laws, explore issues regarding mothers' pensions, and study the status of "dependent, defective, and delinquent children." Lathrop wrote in 1914: "Work for infant welfare is coming to be regarded as more than a philanthropy or an expression of good will. It is a profoundly important public concern which tests the public spirit and the democracy of a community."
Unlike the National Congress of Mothers
, Lathrop's leadership of the Children's Bureau relied on her belief in the New Woman's right to freedom for individual development and opportunities, including a college degree of equal merit to men's and a decent job. However, Lathrop was careful to insist that motherhood was "the most important calling in the world" and to deny that women should have career ambitions. This way Lathrop could avoid controversy even while she built public support for the new agency.
In 1917 the American Association for Labor Legislation proposed a national health insurance act that included a provision for weekly cash allocations for pregnant women. Lathrop went against the private insurance industry and the American Medical Association
to support this proposal, believing that the maternity benefit systems already in place in Germany, England and France left too many women and their babies uninsured. Lathrop argued in an address before the American Public Health Association
's 1918 meeting in Chicago that U.S. leaders needed to address the reasons for poverty in order to address children's health needs -- that high infant mortality among the poor and working class in American cities was not just due to ignorance or laziness. Lathrop asked: "Which is the more safe and sane conclusion! That 88 per cent of all these fathers were incorrigibly indolent or below normal mentally, or that sound public economy demands an irreducible minimum living standard to be sustained by a minimum wage and other such expedients as may be developed in a determined effort to give every child a fair chance?"
The attitude of most of the staff in the Children's Bureau and other government agencies however, was that women -- especially with children -- should not work outside of the home even if impoverished. Any connections between children's health and such issues as expansion of workers' insurance, minimum wage or sanitation systems lost credence. The popular strategy remained focused on "Americanizing" immigrant workers and teaching white mothers how to take care of babies. It is important to note that the Bureau chose not to address the horrifyingly high mortality rates among babies in families of color. In the South, much of the public health campaigns were undertaken by African-American, Hispanic or White clubwomen working in their own segregated communities.
In 1921 the Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Act
became the first federally funded social welfare measure in the United States. The law provided federal matching grants to the states for prenatal and child health clinics, visiting nurses for expectant and new mothers, distribution of information on nutrition and hygiene as well as midwife training. Contrary to Lathrop's original ideas, the final version of the law did not provide any financial aid or medical care.
The first thirty years of the twentieth century marked a transition between traditional social medicine that included the use of relatives or local midwives and the rise of a modern medical management of childbirth and childrearing by experts outside the family and home. However, as the federal bureaucracy blossomed in the years after World War II
, the only agency focused solely on children lost its power and influence.
By 1904 Julia Lathrop helped organize and then became the president of the Juvenile Psychopathic Institute. The director was psychologist William A. Healy who led scientific studies of the physical and mental health of the children, shifting away from the belief that environment along was responsible for a child's delinquent behavior. Together with members of the National Congress of Mothers Lathrop worked to organize a juvenile court movement nationally with justice law reformers such as Judge Ben Lindsey (who later chaired the National Conference of Charities and Correction's juvenile court subcommittee).
to represent the U.S. at an international conference on child welfare. There Lathrop consulted on the formation of a childcare bureau in the newly formed country of Czechoslovakia. After her retirement from the Children's Bureau in 1922, Lathrop became president of the Illinois League of Women Voters
. She also helped form the National Committee of Mental Illness. In 1925 Lathrop represented the U.S. in Switzerland at the Child Welfare Committee established by the League of Nations
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
social reformer in the area of education, social policy, and children's welfare. As director of the United States Children's Bureau
United States Children's Bureau
The United States Children's Bureau is a federal agency organized under the United States Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families. Today, the bureau's operations involve improving child abuse prevention, foster care, and adoption...
) from 1912 to 1922, she was the first woman ever to head a United States federal bureau.
Early life
The daughter of Adeline Potter and William LathropWilliam Lathrop
William Lathrop was a U.S. Representative from Illinois.Born near Le Roy, New York, Lathrop attended the public schools and an academy at Brockport, New York.He studied law in Attica, New York....
, Julia Clifford Lathrop was born in Rockford, Illinois
Rockford, Illinois
Rockford is a mid-sized city located on both banks of the Rock River in far northern Illinois. Often referred to as "The Forest City", Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County, Illinois, USA. As reported in the 2010 U.S. census, the city was home to 152,871 people, the third most populated...
. Julia's father, a lawyer and personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, had helped establish the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
and served in the state legislature (1856–57) and Congress (1877–79). Her mother was a suffragist active in women's rights activities in Rockford.
Lathrop attended Rockford Female Seminary where she met Jane Addams
Jane Addams
Jane Addams was a pioneer settlement worker, founder of Hull House in Chicago, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in woman suffrage and world peace...
and Ellen Gates Starr
Ellen Gates Starr
Ellen Gates Starr was an American social reformer and activist.-Biography:...
. After two years, she transferred to Vassar College
Vassar College
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
, developing her own multidisciplinary studies in statistics, institutional history, sociology, and community organization and graduated in 1880. Afterwards, she worked in her father's law office first as a secretary and then studying the law for herself.
Work in Chicago
In 1890 Lathrop moved to ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
where she joined Jane Addams, Ellen Gates Starr, Alzina Stevens
Alzina Stevens
Alzina Stevens was an American labor leader and journalist, active in Hull House. Stevens was born in Parsonsfield, Maine to Enoch Parsons and Louise Page. Although her early marriage ended in divorce, she kept her husband's name.By thirteen, she worked in a local textile company where she lost...
, Edith Abbott
Edith Abbott
Edith Abbott was an American economist, social worker, educator, and author. Abbott was born in Grand Island, Nebraska. Her younger sister was Grace Abbott....
, Grace Abbott
Grace Abbott
Grace Abbott was an American social worker who specifically worked in advancing child welfare. Her elder sister was social worker Edith Abbott....
, Florence Kelley
Florence Kelley
Florence Kelley was an American social and political reformer. Her work against sweatshops and for the minimum wage, eight-hour workdays, and children's rights is widely regarded today.-Family:...
, Mary McDowell, Alice Hamilton
Alice Hamilton
Alice Hamilton was the first woman appointed to the faculty of Harvard University and was a leading expert in the field of occupational health...
, Sophonisba Breckinridge
Sophonisba Breckinridge
Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge was an American activist, Progressive Era social reformer, social scientist and innovator in higher education.- Background :...
and other social reformers at Hull House
Hull House
Hull House is a settlement house in the United States that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located in the Near West Side of , Hull House opened its doors to the recently arrived European immigrants. By 1911, Hull House had grown to 13 buildings. In 1912 the Hull...
. Lathrop ran a discussion group called the Plato Club in the early days of the House. The women at Hull House actively campaigned to persuade Congress to pass legislation to protect children. During the depression years of the early '90s served as a volunteer investigator of relief applicants, visiting homes to document the needs of the families.
In 1893 Lathrop was appointed as the first ever woman member of the Illinois State Board of Charities, beginning her lifelong work in civil service reform: advocating for the training of professional social workers and standardizing employment procedures. This would lead to opening the labor market for educated women as well as improving social services in Progressive Era cities and towns. Over the next few years she helped introduce reforms such as the appointment of female doctors in state hospitals and the removal of the insane from the state workhouses.
Director of US Children's Bureau
Reacting to pressure from Progressive women reformers for the appointment of a woman for the newly created Children's BureauUnited States Children's Bureau
The United States Children's Bureau is a federal agency organized under the United States Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families. Today, the bureau's operations involve improving child abuse prevention, foster care, and adoption...
, in 1912 President William Taft appointed Lathrop as the first bureau chief. Over the next nine years Lathrop directed research into child labor, infant mortality, maternal mortality, juvenile delinquency, mothers' pensions and illegitimacy.
The Children's Bureau under Lathrop (1912-21) and her successors became an administrative unit that not only created child welfare policy but also led its implementation. For many conservative women, the Bureau's focus on maternal and child welfare gave them a role in politics for the first time -- something that the suffrage
Suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...
or women's rights
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
movements had not offered them. The Bureau expanded its budget and personnel to focus on a scientific approach to motherhood in order to reduce infant and maternal mortality, improve child health and advocate for trained care for children with disabilities. Lathrop modeled the Children's Bureau investigations from the work she did while at Hull-House. The Bureau also lobbied to abolish child labor. Scientific language became critical to the reform efforts such as the baby-saving campaigns in towns with large working class and immigrant populations where the middle class maternalists
Maternalist reform
Maternalist Reforms in the United States were experiments in public policy that took the form of laws providing for state assistance for mothers with young children that did not have the financial support of a male member of the household. This assistance took the form of financial reimbursements,...
battled contemporary beliefs in the inevitability of high infant mortality rates. "Mother-work in the community" meant that women educated in the latest scientific theories about children's health and safety would lead the movement for child welfare reform.
In her first annual report for the agency, Lathrop described the plans for expansion: promotion of birth registration, infant mortality field studies, production of instructional pamphlets and reports, expand the study of child labor laws, explore issues regarding mothers' pensions, and study the status of "dependent, defective, and delinquent children." Lathrop wrote in 1914: "Work for infant welfare is coming to be regarded as more than a philanthropy or an expression of good will. It is a profoundly important public concern which tests the public spirit and the democracy of a community."
Unlike the National Congress of Mothers
Parent-Teacher Association
In the U.S. a parent-teacher association or Parent-Teacher-Student Association is a formal organization composed of parents, teachers and staff that is intended to facilitate parental participation in a public or private school. Most public and private K-8 schools in the U.S. have a PTA, a...
, Lathrop's leadership of the Children's Bureau relied on her belief in the New Woman's right to freedom for individual development and opportunities, including a college degree of equal merit to men's and a decent job. However, Lathrop was careful to insist that motherhood was "the most important calling in the world" and to deny that women should have career ambitions. This way Lathrop could avoid controversy even while she built public support for the new agency.
In 1917 the American Association for Labor Legislation proposed a national health insurance act that included a provision for weekly cash allocations for pregnant women. Lathrop went against the private insurance industry and the American Medical Association
American Medical Association
The American Medical Association , founded in 1847 and incorporated in 1897, is the largest association of medical doctors and medical students in the United States.-Scope and operations:...
to support this proposal, believing that the maternity benefit systems already in place in Germany, England and France left too many women and their babies uninsured. Lathrop argued in an address before the American Public Health Association
American Public Health Association
The American Public Health Association is Washington, D.C.-based professional organization for public health professionals in the United States. Founded in 1872 by Dr. Stephen Smith, APHA has more than 30,000 members worldwide...
's 1918 meeting in Chicago that U.S. leaders needed to address the reasons for poverty in order to address children's health needs -- that high infant mortality among the poor and working class in American cities was not just due to ignorance or laziness. Lathrop asked: "Which is the more safe and sane conclusion! That 88 per cent of all these fathers were incorrigibly indolent or below normal mentally, or that sound public economy demands an irreducible minimum living standard to be sustained by a minimum wage and other such expedients as may be developed in a determined effort to give every child a fair chance?"
The attitude of most of the staff in the Children's Bureau and other government agencies however, was that women -- especially with children -- should not work outside of the home even if impoverished. Any connections between children's health and such issues as expansion of workers' insurance, minimum wage or sanitation systems lost credence. The popular strategy remained focused on "Americanizing" immigrant workers and teaching white mothers how to take care of babies. It is important to note that the Bureau chose not to address the horrifyingly high mortality rates among babies in families of color. In the South, much of the public health campaigns were undertaken by African-American, Hispanic or White clubwomen working in their own segregated communities.
In 1921 the Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Act
Sheppard–Towner Act
The Sheppard–Towner Maternity and Infancy Protection Act of 1921 was a U.S. Act of Congress providing federal funding for maternity and child care. It was sponsored by Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas and Representative Horace Mann Towner of Iowa, and signed by President Warren G...
became the first federally funded social welfare measure in the United States. The law provided federal matching grants to the states for prenatal and child health clinics, visiting nurses for expectant and new mothers, distribution of information on nutrition and hygiene as well as midwife training. Contrary to Lathrop's original ideas, the final version of the law did not provide any financial aid or medical care.
The first thirty years of the twentieth century marked a transition between traditional social medicine that included the use of relatives or local midwives and the rise of a modern medical management of childbirth and childrearing by experts outside the family and home. However, as the federal bureaucracy blossomed in the years after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the only agency focused solely on children lost its power and influence.
Juvenile Justice
As early as 1898 at the third Annual Illinois Conference on Charities, organized by the philanthropist Lucy Flower and Julia Lathrop, reformers called for a separate system of courts for children. Lathrop's experience at the Hull House and as a Charities Board member had given her firsthand knowledge of the conditions for children in county poorhouses and jails. Prior to the reform era, children over the age of seven were imprisoned with adults. Lathrop helped found the country's first juvenile court in 1899, and the Chicago Woman's Club established the Juvenile Court Committee (electing Lathrop as its first president in 1903) to pay the salaries of fifteen probation officers and run a detention home located at 625 West Adams Street.By 1904 Julia Lathrop helped organize and then became the president of the Juvenile Psychopathic Institute. The director was psychologist William A. Healy who led scientific studies of the physical and mental health of the children, shifting away from the belief that environment along was responsible for a child's delinquent behavior. Together with members of the National Congress of Mothers Lathrop worked to organize a juvenile court movement nationally with justice law reformers such as Judge Ben Lindsey (who later chaired the National Conference of Charities and Correction's juvenile court subcommittee).
Later life
In 1918 President Woodrow Wilson sent Lathrop and Grace AbbottGrace Abbott
Grace Abbott was an American social worker who specifically worked in advancing child welfare. Her elder sister was social worker Edith Abbott....
to represent the U.S. at an international conference on child welfare. There Lathrop consulted on the formation of a childcare bureau in the newly formed country of Czechoslovakia. After her retirement from the Children's Bureau in 1922, Lathrop became president of the Illinois League of Women Voters
League of Women Voters
The League of Women Voters is an American political organization founded in 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt during the last meeting of the National American Woman Suffrage Association approximately six months before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote...
. She also helped form the National Committee of Mental Illness. In 1925 Lathrop represented the U.S. in Switzerland at the Child Welfare Committee established by the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
.
Honors
There is a residence hall at Rockford College and an elementary school in Rockford named after her.http://www.education.com/schoolfinder/us/illinois/rockford/julia-lathrop-elem-school/ A residence hall at Vassar College bears her name.Other Resources
- "Juvenile Justice: A Century of Change," Juvenile Justice Bulletin, 1999 National Report Series (December 1999).