Relationship and Leadership: Sophonisba Breckinridge and Women in Social Work

This article explores the career of Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge (1866-1948), a pioneering social work educator and a key figure in the professionalization of social work, to suggest how contemporary female social workers may reclaim their historic leadership role in the profession. In particular, it contends that women's relationships were the key to female leadership in the formative decades of the social work profession. It thus suggests that contemporary women social workers may recapture a leadership role by reinvigorating a reform minded and social justice-oriented tradition and reviving a legacy of female mentorship and feminist collaboration.