The History of Social Work

Social work, as a profession, originated in the 19th century. The movement

began in the United States and England. Social work has its roots in the struggle of
society to deal with poverty. Therefore, social work is linked with the idea of
charity work.
Charity goes back to ancient times and has roots in all major world religions.
During the Middle Ages the Christian church had vast influence on European
society and charity was considered to be a responsibility of every person (that is
giving money, food or other material goods to people in need). But it was enough,
the poverty was seen as a direct threat to the social order and so the state formed
and organized system to care for the poor.
In England, the Poor Law (закон о бедных) served this purpose. This
system of laws sorted the poor into different categories: the able bodied poor (sick
and disabled), aged poor and the idle poor (workless). The era of Industrial
Revolution caused a great migration and this led to homelessness, poverty, child
abuse, unemployment. Thus there was a need in an official service to solve human
and social problems.
The history knows many great women who influenced the social work
profession from the start: Jane Addams, Mary Ellen Richmond, Jane Addams,
Florence Nightingale, Mother Teresa.
 Jane Addams (1860 – 1935)

Jane Addams was one of the best- known and most admired women in the world.
Some people even called her “Saint Jane.” All her life she fought for social justice,
peace and human rights. She worked in Chicago in a place called the Hull House.
Addams became familiar with the problems of Chicago’s poor and built the
House’s services, adding a library, and a gymnasium. Up to two thousand people
came to the Hull House every day, where they were offered opportunities they
couldn't get elsewhere. Later the Hull House became the model for other similar
projects throughout the USA.
In 1931 Jane Addams received the Nobel Peace Prize for the renowned Hull
House in Chicago.
Jane Addams improved the system of education and fought against political
corruption. She founded the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy and
became the first female president of the National Conference of Charities and
Corrections. She later became the president of the Women’s Peace Party and the
Women’s International Peace Congress at The Hague.
 Mary Ellen Richmond (1861 – 1928)

Mary Ellen Richmond was a woman who influenced the social work profession
from the start. Mary Ellen Richmond was born on August 5, 1861 in Illinois. At
the age of 3, her mother died and Mary was sent to live with her grandmother and
two aunts in Baltimore, where Mary Ellen Richmond attended Baltimore Eastern
Female High School. After graduation from it she began working for the
Baltimore charity Organization Society. Mary Ellen Richmond was the first who
began to stress the need for a formal social work education.
In 1889 Mary Ellen Richmond became theDirector of the Charity Organizational
Department and started doing charitable work.
She was the author of a number of books on social work in which she
pointed out various aspects of charitable work. Mary Ellen Richmond outlined
different types of social work, such as social work in hospitals, at home, at work
and the court aspects of social work. Her book Social Diagnosis was one of the
first social work books to incorporate scientific principles from law, medicine,
psychology, psychiatry and history.
 Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale was born in 1820 and died in 1910. She lived a
fascinating life, dedicated to helping the ill and the injured. She was the founder of
modern nursing.
When Florence Nightingale told her family that she wanted to be a nurse,
they were extremely shocked. They thought that nursing was not a job for a
respectful woman, and strongly objected to her taking up the profession. However,
despite their opposition, Florence still went to work in a small London hospital.
Fortunately she was good at her job. She was so good that she was asked to
go to the Crimean war and help wounded British soldiers. She arrived in 1854 with
38 nurses and within a month they had 1000 men to look after. It was a desperate
task, but Florence Nightingale worked 20 hours a day. Every night she visited
wards, and the soldiers called her “the lady with the lamp”.
Back in England her story was published in the daily newspapers. Florence
became a national heroine overnight. During her lifetime she encouraged many
other women to become nurses, and in 1860 created a training school for them at
Saint Thomas’s Hospital. In 1907 she became the first woman ever to be awarded
the Order of Merit.
 Mother Teresa

On August 27, 1910 a girl called Agnes was born in Skopje, Macedonia, in the
Albanian Catholic family.By the time she was 12 years old, the young Agnes knew
that Godhad a plan for her life. She knew that she would become a missionary nun.
At the age of 18 Agnes joined an order of nuns in Ireland. Soon she was sent to
India where she got the religious name Sister Teresa. In Calcutta she was a teacher
in a Catholic girls' school, but in a few years she began to feel that god was calling
her to do another job: to work in the slums “to serve the poorest of the poor”.She
learnt the local language Bengali and went out into Calcutta streets to work among
the poor. Sister Teresa took the course in first aid to be able to care for the sick.
In 1950 Pope Pius XII allowed her to found a religious group The Missionaries of
Charity. The missionaries started simply – running a small school and distributing
food and medicines among the people in need.As there were a lot of them they
opened homes for the poorest and homeless people and abandoned children of
Calcutta. They also opened clinics and shelters for lepers. The missionaries helped
the poor of all religions.
Mother Teresa was awarded many prizes for her work, including the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1979. She accepted these prizes not for herself, but for the people she had
served. She said: “Let us always meet each other with a smile, for a smile is the
beginning of love”.
 Dasha Sevastopolskaya

Among the founders of social work we can’t but mention the name of Darya
Mikhailova. She was born not so far from K azan in the family of a sailor.
During the defense of Sevastopol Darya was a nurse. She helped the wounded
soldiers dragged the out from the battlefield and took part in the fight herself. She
was even sent out on reconnaissance. As people didn’t know her surname they
called her Dasha Sevastopolskaya.

In April 1855 Florence Nightingale came to the Crimea after Russian nurses
together with Dasha Sevastopolskaya had been working there for about 4 month.
Dasha’s heroic deed made other women of Sevastopol follow her example. For
special merit Dasha Sevastopolskaya was awarded the golden medal “For Zeal”
though only noble people could get it in that time.

Nowadays there is a monument to Dasha Sevastopolskaya near the Third

City Hospital in Sevastopol that bears her name and there is her bust near the
Panorama of “The Defense of Sevastopol”. In 1975 the minor planet with a
permanent number 3321 received the name of Dasha – Darya Lavrentyevna
Mikhailova, know as Dasha Sevastopolskaya.