Emily Greene Balch

Emily was a smart teacher. She taught at a college. She studied how money works. She also helped people who were poor.

Emily wanted the world to be peaceful. She worked with a group for peace. This group had branches in many lands.

She helped people in over 50 lands. She even helped with refugees.

Because of her work, she won a big prize. It was the Nobel Peace Prize. She gave her prize money away.

Emily worked hard to help all people. She was a true leader for peace.

Emily Greene Balch was an American teacher and leader. She was born in Massachusetts in 1867. Emily studied economics, which is the study of money. She also studied sociology, which is the study of people.

Emily taught at Wellesley College. She studied how poverty and immigration affect people. She also helped women who worked in labor unions. Later, she joined the peace movement. She worked with Jane Addams to help make the world peaceful.

Emily helped lead a group called the WILPF. This group was based in Switzerland. She helped the group grow in over 50 countries. She also worked with the League of Nations. She helped with things like refugee rights.

In 1946, Emily won the Nobel Peace Prize. This is a very big prize for peace. She shared the win with John Mott. Emily gave her prize money to the WILPF. She died in 1961. She lived to be 94 years old.

Emily Greene Balch was a person who worked hard for peace and fairness. She was an American economist and a sociologist. This means she studied how money works and how people live together. She also believed in pacifism. Pacifism is the idea that people should try to solve problems without using war. Throughout her life, she helped many different groups of people. She cared about those living in poverty and those moving to new countries. Her work helped make the world a more understanding place.

Emily spent many years teaching and studying social issues. She started by doing settlement work in Boston to help poor immigrants. Later, she became a professor at Wellesley College in 1896. She taught many subjects like economics and political science. She looked closely at how women used money and how they worked. She also served on state commissions to help set minimum wages for women. Emily wanted to make sure that workers were treated well and fairly.

Her journey into the peace movement began during World War I in 1914. She worked closely with another famous leader named Jane Addams. Together, they joined the Woman's Peace Party to seek calm between nations. Emily was also a member of the Women's Trade Union League. She even helped edit a magazine called The Nation. In 1921, she became a Quaker. This changed how she shared her spiritual thoughts with others.

Emily became a very important leader for a group called the WILPF. This stands for the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. The group was based in Geneva, Switzerland. As the first Secretary-Treasurer, Emily helped the group grow very large. She helped start branches in more than 50 different countries. She also worked with the League of Nations on many hard jobs. These jobs included helping refugees and talking about disarmament.

In 1946, Emily received a very special honor. She won the Nobel Peace Prize for her lifelong work. She shared this prize with a man named John Mott. Many groups helped nominate her, including the NAACP. Emily did not keep the prize money for herself. Instead, she gave it all to the WILPF to help their work. She lived to be 94 years old and died in 1961.

Emily Greene Balch was a prominent American economist, sociologist, and pacifist. A pacifist is someone who believes that people should seek peace instead of using war to solve problems. Her life was defined by a deep interest in how society functions and how to make it more equitable. She focused on major social issues like poverty, child labor, and the challenges faced by immigrants. Balch combined her academic research with practical work to help improve the lives of many people. Her career spanned several decades and moved from local social work to international leadership.

Balch’s academic journey began with a focus on economics and the classics. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1889. After her graduation, she traveled to Paris to conduct graduate work. During this time, she published a research paper titled "Public Assistance of the Poor in France" in 1893. Before becoming a full-time professor, she engaged in settlement housework in Boston. This type of work involved living in poor neighborhoods to assist residents. This experience provided a practical foundation for her future studies in sociology and economics.

In 1896, Balch began her long teaching career at Wellesley College. She rose through the academic ranks to become a Professor of Political Economy and of Political and Social Science in 1913. Her research interests were very specific and important to her era. She studied immigration, consumption patterns, and the economic roles of women. She also published a major sociological study in 1910 called "Our Slavic Fellow Citizens." Beyond the classroom, she served on state commissions, including one focused on minimum wages for women. She also supported labor rights through her leadership in the Women's Trade Union League.

World War I in 1914 marked a major turning point in Balch’s life. She transitioned from social science research into active political activism. She began collaborating with Jane Addams, a famous social reformer, in the Woman's Peace Party. Balch was a vocal opponent of conscription, which is the mandatory enlistment of people into military service. She also fought for the civil liberties of conscientious objectors. These are individuals who refuse to fight in wars due to their moral or religious beliefs. Because of her strong political stances, Wellesley College terminated her contract in 1919.

Following the war, Balch became a central leader in the international peace movement. In 1919, she played a key role in the International Congress of Women. This group eventually became the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, or WILPF. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the organization hired Balch as its first international Secretary-Treasurer. She was responsible for administering the group's many activities. Under her leadership, the WILPF grew significantly. She helped establish new branches in over 50 different countries and created summer schools for peace education. She also collaborated with the League of Nations on topics like drug control, aviation, and refugees.

In 1946, Balch received one of the world's highest honors: the Nobel Peace Prize. She shared this award with John Mott for her dedicated work with the WILPF. The nomination process was supported by five major American organizations. These included the NAACP, the Women's Trade Union League of America, and the National Council of Women of the US. Balch showed her commitment to the cause by donating her entire share of the prize money back to the WILPF. In her 1948 Nobel Lecture, titled "Toward Human Unity or Beyond Nationalism," she spoke about the need for international cooperation.

Balch's personal beliefs also shaped her approach to social justice. In 1921, she converted from Unitarianism to Quakerism. She found that Quaker worship offered a unique way to share spiritual thoughts with others. Throughout her life, she remained focused on the connection between economics and human rights. She believed that the American economy should align with higher principles of harmony. She lived a long and influential life, passing away in 1961 at the age of 94. Her legacy remains a significant part of the history of both economics and the global peace movement.