Sophonisba
Preston Breckinridge, the daughter of a lawyer,
William Breckinridge, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on 1st April,
1866. Her mother, Issa Desha Breckinridge came from a political family
and her grandfather had been governor of Kentucky in the early nineteenth
century.
After graduating from Wellesley College in 1888 she worked as a school
teacher in Washington before studying law. Although the first woman
to be admitted to the Kentucky bar, Breckinridge decided to continue
her studies at the University of Chicago. In 1901 Breckinridge she
received a Ph.D. in political science and three years later, became
the first woman to graduate from its law school. After completing
her doctoral and law degrees from the University of Chicago, Breckinridge
obtained an appointment as a part-time professor in the Department
of Household Administration.
In 1907 Breckinridge became a resident of Hull
House and joined other women interested in social reform such
as Jane Addams, Ellen
Gates Starr, Mary McDowell, Edith
Abbott, Mary Kenney, Grace
Abbott, Alzina Stevens, Florence
Kelley, Julia Lathrop and Alice
Hamilton.
While living at Hull House (1907-1920)
Breckinridge played a leading role in the development of the Immigrants'
Protective League, National Consumer's
League, the Women's Trade Union League
and the Children's Bureau. A strong
supporter of women's suffrage she was
a member of the American Woman Suffrage Association.
An advocate of African American civil
rights, Breckinridge helped to establish the National
Association for the Advancement of Coloured People in 1909.
Breckinridge was active in the Progressive
Party and ran for the post of alderman in Chicago
in 1912. A committed pacifist, Breckinridge
opposed USA involvement in the First World War
and was a member of the Woman's Peace Party
(WPP) and the Women's International League
for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).
Breckinridge also worked with Edith Abbott
at the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy. In 1920 it was moved
to the University of Chicago and Breckinridge helped establish it
as the country's first university-based school of social work. The
two women also established the Social Service
Review in 1927.
Breckinridge was the author of several books including The
Delinquent Child and the Home (1912), Truancy
and Non-Attendance in the Chicago Public Schools (1917)
Public Welfare Administration in the United
States (1927), Marriage and the
Civic Rights of Women (1931) Women
in the Twentieth Century (1933), Social
Work and the Courts (1934), The
Family in the State (1934) and The
Tenements of Chicago (1936). Sophonisba Breckinridge
died in Chicago on 30th July, 1948.
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
