BLOG 7: AN EXPERT ON YOUR FIELD

Social work is a career that has a feminine origin, its main pioneers were women. One of them was Mary Richmond. He was born on August 5, 1861 in Belleville, Illinois (USA). Her parents died when she was very young, so she had to move to Baltimore to live with two aunts and her grandmother, who was an activist who fought for women's suffrage and who was also known as a radical and spiritualist feminist.

Growing up in this environment where there were frequent discussions about politics, religion, suffrage, spiritualism and other issues, a character was formed with his own opinions and a critical attitude towards deficiencies in terms of attention to the poor, needy and disabled.

Her grandmother educated her at home until she was eleven years old, because she did not believe in the traditional education system; therefore, Maria read everything she could and was self-taught. In 1878, when she was sixteen, she graduated from Easter Female High School in Baltimore and went to live in New York with one of her aunts. However, after her death, they left her alone and without means to live, so she had to return to Baltimore, where she worked as an accountant to survive.

In 1889 she began working as a treasury assistant of the Charity Organization Society, also known as COS, being the first woman to occupy this position, traditionally occupied by men.

She identified the needs of COS, and thanks to that, little by little, she developed her theory of social work in cases. 

this consists that every social worker must have the following concepts as philosophy:

1) Human beings are interdependent.

2) Humans are different.

3) They are not dependent and domestic animals.

Mary firmly believed that cooperation between social workers, educators and the health system was crucial to successfully helping people in need.

He also said that social welfare was a civic responsibility and many of his theories were adopted in Asia, South America and Europe.

He fought to obtain legislation that would protect abandoned women. He founded the Child Labor Committee, public charities, the Juvenile Court and the Housing Association.

Mary never married or had children. He died at sixty-seven years of age in New York, on September 12, 1928.

This woman has left a giant footprint in social work, I admire her a lot because without her work it is possible that social work would not make us what she is now, she was a great woman and a great social worker. I do not expect to be like her but to follow her path.