Julia Clifford Lathrop was an American social reformer in the area of education, social policy, and children's welfare.
12 Facts About Julia Lathrop
2.
Julia Lathrop's mother was a suffragist active in women's rights activities in Rockford and a graduate of the first class of Rockford Female Seminary.
3.
In 1890, Julia Lathrop moved to Chicago 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.
4.
Julia Lathrop ran a discussion group called the Plato Club in the early days of the House.
5.
In 1893, Julia 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.
6.
Julia Lathrop modeled the Children's Bureau investigations from the work she did while at Hull-House.
7.
However, Julia Lathrop was careful to insist that motherhood was "the most important calling in the world" and to deny that women should have career ambitions.
8.
Julia 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.
9.
Julia Lathrop helped found the country's first juvenile court in 1899, and the Chicago Woman's Club established the Juvenile Court Committee to pay the salaries of fifteen probation officers and run a detention home located at 625 West Adams Street.
10.
Together with members of the National Congress of Mothers Julia Lathrop worked to organize a juvenile court movement nationally with justice law reformers such as Judge Ben Lindsey.
11.
Julia Lathrop helped form the National Committee of Mental Illness.
12.
In 1925 Julia Lathrop represented the US in Switzerland at the Child Welfare Committee established by the League of Nations.