Almena Dawley

Background

Almena Dawley was born in 1890 in Silver Creek, New York, the daughter of Frank Dawley, a civil servant, and Jennie Smith.

Education

In 1908 Dawley enrolled at Oberlin College, where she was exposed to the possibilities of a life of social service.

After graduating in 1912 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, Dawley attended the University of Chicago, from which she received a Master of Arts degree in commerce and administration in 1915. Her dissertation, "A Study of the Social Effects of the Municipal Court of Chicago, " is generally regarded as a cornerstone of research in the field of social work. In it, Dawley suggested a humane but paternalistic approach toward those whom she regarded as the victims of society.

Career

Appointed supervisor of the department of social investigation for the Pennsylvania School for Social Service in 1920, Dawley took charge of reform investigations of the women's penal institutions, Bedford and Auburn, in New York State. Together with Mabel Ruth Fernald and Mary Holmes Stevens Hayes, she issued an influential report, A Study of Women Delinquents in New York State (1920). Dawley's commitment was to the modernization and humanization of public institutions and to the training of health professionals to service them. Ever insistent on maintaining a balance between theoretical and practical training for the professional social worker, she spoke forcefully on the value of clinical training.

Dawley taught, first at Bryn Mawr from 1928 to 1936, and then at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1925 she and Frederick H. Allen founded the innovative Child Guidance Clinic in Philadelphia, which specialized in working with entire families as well as with children in clinical situations. Dawley was a consultant to the surgeon general of the army and to the United States Public Health Service; she helped to establish the classification of psychiatric social workers in the army and air force. Almena Dawley died on December 12, 1956, in Flourtown, Pennsylvania, shortly after retiring as associate director of the Child Guidance Clinic.

Achievements

• Almena Dawley is remembered as a sociologist and educator, who was one of the first researchers to raise child guidance and social work to the professional level. Her life demonstrated the effectiveness of coupling academic and practical commitments.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Study of Women Delinquents in New York State

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

Views

In her dissertation, Almena Dawley suggested a humane but paternalistic approach toward those whom she regarded as the victims of society. Dawley also saw possibilities for altruism and education in social institutions.

Quotations: "Very often, it is not a fine, not imprisonment, nor even probation that an offender needs, but treatment in a hospital for his diseased or backward mind. "

"The court should make the most of its opportunity of having before it human material which may be molded into better stuff. "

Connections

Almena Dawley never married.

Father:

Frank Dawley

Mother:

Jennie Smith