process of incorporating sociological data relating to child labor, juvenile delinquency, dependency and statistics into the lawmaking process; she spent much of her time as a political lobbyist for social issues in Washington, D.C. She was associated with the Social Security Administration from 1934 until her death in 1939; during that time period, Abbott helped draft the Social Security Act and chaired several government committees on child welfare and social issues. She was the first woman to be nominated for a Presidential cabinet position, but was not confirmed. Her mother was a Quaker turned Unitarian and her father, Othman A. Abbott, was the first Lt. Gov. of the state of Nebraska. Grace never married. She was a professor of public welfare at the University of Chicago from 1934 until 1939. During a 1938 health checkup, doctors discovered that she was suffering from multiple myeloma. The disease caused her death one year later. Cancer was considered such a dreaded disease at the time that she and her sister hid her diagnosis and her obituary in The New York Times listed her cause of death as "anemia". Abbott is a member of the Nebraska Hall of Fame. The School of Social Work at the University of Nebraska at Omaha is named in her honor. References Further reading External links Abbott, Grace (1917) The Immigrant and the Community on Google Books Edith and Grace Abbott, Papers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln at Nebraska State Historical Society Grace Abbott Reader edited by John Sorensen with Judith Sealander (University of Nebraska Press, 2008) The Abbott Sisters Living Legacy Project at the Grace Abbott School of Social Work Edith and Grace Abbott Papers at the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center 1878 births 1939 deaths American social workers Child labor in the United States Deaths from multiple myeloma People from Grand Island, Nebraska Progressive Era in the United States Women's Trade Union League people Deaths from cancer in Illinois