{{short description|American economist, academic, and Nobel Laureate}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2014}} {{Infobox person | name = Emily Greene Balch | image = EmilyGreeneBalch.jpg | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1867|01|08}} | birth_place = [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]], Massachusetts, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1961|01|09|1867|01|08}} | death_place = [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]], Massachusetts, U.S. | occupation = Writer, economist, professor | known_for = [[Nobel Peace Prize]] in 1946 (shared with [[John Mott]])<ref name="auto"/> }}
'''Emily Greene Balch''' (January 8, 1867 – January 9, 1961) was an American [[economics|economist]], [[sociologist]] and [[Pacifism|pacifist]]. Balch combined an academic career at [[Wellesley College]] with a long-standing interest in social issues such as [[poverty]], [[Child labour|child labor]], and [[immigration]], as well as settlement work to uplift poor immigrants and reduce juvenile delinquency.
She moved into the peace movement at the start of World War I in 1914, and began collaborating with [[Jane Addams]] of Chicago. She became a central leader of the [[Women's International League for Peace and Freedom]] (WILPF) based in Switzerland,<ref>{{Citation|last=Confortini|first=Catia C.|title=Race, Gender, Empire, and War in the International Thought of Emily Greene Balch|date=2021|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/womens-international-thought-a-new-history/race-gender-empire-and-war-in-the-international-thought-of-emily-greene-balch/26A5AA586D587FE8383CB111BA357B28|work=Women's International Thought: A New History|pages=244–265|editor-last=Rietzler|editor-first=Katharina|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-49469-4|access-date=2021-03-06|editor2-last=Owens|editor2-first=Patricia}}</ref> for which she won the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] in 1946,<ref name="Clark1987">{{cite book|author=Judith Freeman Clark|title=Almanac of American Women in the 20th Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ryMqAAAAYAAJ|year=1987|publisher=Prentice Hall|isbn=978-0-13-022658-7|page=88}}</ref> sharing the win with [[John Mott]].<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1946/mott/facts/|title=John R. Mott – Facts - NobelPrize.org}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Balch was born to a prominent Yankee family in [[Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts|Jamaica Plain]], Massachusetts (later a neighborhood of Boston),<ref name="Clark1987"/> the daughter of Francis V. and Ellen (née Noyes) Balch. Her father was a successful lawyer and one time secretary to United States Senator [[Charles Sumner]].<ref>1870 United States Federal Census</ref> She graduated from [[Bryn Mawr College]] in 1889 after reading widely in the classics and languages and focusing on economics. She did graduate work in Paris and published her research as ''Public Assistance of the Poor in France'' (1893). She did settlement housework in Boston before deciding on an academic career.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.friendsjournal.org/2001047/|title=Emily Greene Balch, Pioneering Peacemaker|last=Abbott|first= Margery Post|date=1 June 2001|website=Friends Journal|language=en|access-date=2022-05-24}}</ref>
She then studied at [[Harvard University]], the [[University of Chicago]], and the [[University of Berlin]].
== Career == Balch began teaching at [[Wellesley College]] in 1896. She focused on immigration, consumption, and the economic roles of women. In 1913, she was appointed to serve as Professor of Economics at Wellesley, following the resignation of political economist [[Katharine Coman]], who had founded the department.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1913/05/04/issue.html?action=click&contentCollection=Archives&module=ArticleEndCTA®ion=ArchiveBody&pgtype=article|title=Farewell dinner to Miss Coman|date=4 May 1913|work=The New York Times|access-date=2 September 2018}}</ref> That same year, Balch was promoted from Associate Professor to Professor of Political Economy and of Political and Social Science.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1913/03/30/archives/new-wellesley-dean-miss-alice-vinton-walte-chosen-by-the-board-of.html|title=New Wellesley dean|work=The New York Times |date=30 March 1913|access-date=2 September 2018}}</ref>
Balch served on numerous state commissions, such as the first commission on [[minimum wage]]s for women. She was a leader of the [[Women's Trade Union League]], which supported women who belonged to labor unions. She published a major sociological study of ''Our Slavic Fellow Citizens'' in 1910.<ref name="Nobel">{{Nobelprize|accessdate=2020-04-29}} including the Nobel Lecture, April 7, 1948 ''Toward Human Unity or Beyond Nationalism'' </ref>
She was a longtime [[Pacifism|pacifist]], and was a participant in Henry Ford's International Committee on Mediation, the follow-up organization to the [[Neutral Conference for Continuous Mediation]]. When the United States entered the war, she became a political activist opposing conscription in espionage legislation, and supporting the civil liberties of conscientious objectors. She collaborated with [[Jane Addams]] in the [[Woman's Peace Party|Woman's Peace Party]] and numerous other groups.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/58fyh3nm9780252028885.html|title=UI Press {{!}} Jane Addams, Emily G. Balch, and Alice Hamilton {{!}} Women at The Hague: The International Congress of Women and Its Results|last3=Hamilton|first=Jane |last=Addams | first2=Emily G. | last2=Balch| first3= Alice|website=www.press.uillinois.edu|language=en|access-date=2019-09-27}}</ref>
In a letter to the president of Wellesley, she wrote we should follow "the ways of Jesus." Her spiritual thoughts were that [[Economy of the United States|American economy]] was "far from being in harmony with the principles of Jesus which we profess."<ref>Mercedes Moritz Randall, ''Improper Bostonian: Emily Greene Balch, Nobel Peace Laureate, 1946'' (1964) pp. 364, 378.</ref> Wellesley College terminated her contract in 1919. Balch served as an editor of ''[[The Nation]]'', a well-known magazine of political commentary.<ref name="Nobel" />
Balch converted from [[Unitarianism]] to [[Quakers|Quakerism]] in 1921. She stated, "Religion seems to me one of the most interesting things in life, one of the most puzzling, richest and thrilling fields of human thought and speculation... religious experience and thought need also a light a day and sunshine and a companionable sharing with others of which it seems to me there is generally too little... The Quaker worship at its best seems to me give opportunities for this sort of sharing without profanation."<ref>Randall, ''Improper Bostonian'', p. 60</ref>
Her major achievements were just beginning, as she became an American leader of the international peace movement. In 1919, Balch played a central role in the [[International Congress of Women]]. It changed its name to the [[Women's International League for Peace and Freedom]] and was based in [[Geneva]].
She was hired by the League as its first international Secretary-Treasurer, administering the organization's activities. She helped set up summer schools on peace education and created new branches in over 50 countries. She cooperated with the newly established [[League of Nations]] regarding drug control, aviation, refugees, and disarmament. In World War II, she supported the [[Allies of World War II|Allied powers]] and did not criticize the war effort, but she did support the rights of [[conscientious objector]]s.<ref>Suzanne Niemeyer, editor, ''Research Guide to American Historical Biography: vol. IV'' (1990) pp. 1806–14</ref>
==Nobel Prize== [[John Herman Randall|John Randall]], professor of philosophy at Columbia University, and his wife, Mercedes Randall, one of the leaders of the US section of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, initiated a campaign to nominate Balch for the peace prize. The campaign was supported by five US organizations that established a committee called the "Committee to sponsor Emily Greene Balch for the Nobel Peace Prize". The organizations were the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the National Federation of Settlements, the [[Women's Trade Union League of America]], the [[National Council of Women of the United States|National Council of Women of the US]], and the [[NAACP]].<ref name="Nobel 651" />
Balch won the 1946 [[Nobel Peace Prize]] for her work with the [[Women's International League for Peace and Freedom]] (WILPF). She shared the win with [[John Mott]].<ref name="auto"/> She donated her share of the prize money to the WILPF. Her acceptance speech highlighted the issues of nationalism and efforts for international peace.<ref name="Nobel"/><ref name="Nobel 651">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=651|title=Nomination Archive|date=April 1, 2020|website=NobelPrize.org|access-date=April 15, 2024}}</ref>
==Personal life== Balch never married. She died the day after her 94th birthday.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}
==See also== * [[List of female Nobel laureates]] * [[List of peace activists]] * [[Boston Women's Heritage Trail]]
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Bibliography== * [https://books.google.com/books?id=nyncAAAAMAAJ&dq=emily+greene+balch+biography&pg=PA182 Emily Greene Balch, ''Public Assistance of the Poor in France''], Vol. 8, Nos. 4 & 5, ''Publications of the American Economic Association.'' * [https://books.google.com/books?id=F4bpAAAAMAAJ Emily Greene Balch, "A Study of Conditions of City Life: with Special Reference to Boston, A Bibliography"], 1903, 13 pages * [https://archive.org/details/ourslavicfellow00balcgoog <!-- quote=emily greene balch biography. --> ''Our Slavic Fellow Citizens''] By Emily Greene Balch, 1910, 536 pages. * [https://books.google.com/books?id=aBpBAAAAYAAJ ''Women at the Hague: the International Congress of Women and its Results''], By Jane Addams, Emily Greene Balch, and [[Alice Hamilton]]. 171 pages, New York: MacMillan, 1915. * [https://books.google.com/books?id=di4MAAAAYAAJ ''Approaches to the Great Settlement''] By Emily Greene Balch & Pauline Knickerbocker Angell (1918), 351 pages
==Further reading== {{wikisource|works=or}} *{{Cite book|last=Alonso |first=Harriet Hyman |title=Peace As a Women's Issue: A History of the U.S. Movement for World Peace and Women's Rights |publisher =Syracuse University Press |date=1993|isbn = 0815602693|oclc=25508750}} *{{Cite book |last=Foster |first=Catherine |title=Women for All Seasons: The Story of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom |publisher=University of Georgia Press |date=1989 |isbn=0820310921 |oclc=18051898 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/womenforallseaso00fost }} *{{Cite book|last=Gwinn |first=Kristen E.|title=Emily Greene Balch: The Long Road to Internationalism |publisher =University of Illinois Press |date=2010|isbn =9780252090158 |oclc=702844599}} *{{cite book|last1=McDonald|first1=Lynn|title=Women Theorists on Society and Politics|date=1998|publisher=Wilfrid Laurier University Press|location=Waterloo, Ontario, Canada|isbn=0-88920-290-7}} *{{Cite book|last=Nichols |first=Christopher McKnight |title=Promise and Peril: America at the Dawn of a Global Age |publisher =Harvard University Press |date=2011|isbn = 9780674061187|oclc=754841336}} *{{Cite book|last=Randall |first=Mercedes M. |title=Improper Bostonian: Emily Greene Balch|publisher =Twayne Publishers |date=1964|oclc=779059266}} *{{cite book|editor-last1=Randall|editor-first1=Mercedes M.|title=Beyond Nationalism: The Social Thought of Emily Greene Balch|date=1972|publisher=Twayne|location=New York}} * Solomon, Barbara Miller. "Balch, Emily Greene," in Barbara Sicherman and Carol Hurd Green, eds. ''Notable American Women: The Modern Period, A Biographical Dictionary'' (1980) pp 41–45 * {{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RmUTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA66 |title=Who's Who in New England |year= 1916 |publisher=Marquis }}
==External links== {{Commons category}} {{Wikiquote}} * {{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, April 7, 1948 ''Toward Human Unity or Beyond Nationalism'' * [https://books.google.com/books?id=buMTjLID68kC&dq=emily+greene+balch+biography&pg=PA149 Tribute to Emily Greene Balch] by John Dewey, pages 149–150 in ''Later Works of John Dewey'' volume 17. First published in Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, 1946 page 2.
{{Nobel Peace Prize Laureates 1926-1950}} {{1946 Nobel Prize winners}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Balch, Emily Greene}} [[Category:1867 births]] [[Category:1961 deaths]] [[Category:American Christian pacifists]] [[Category:American magazine editors]] [[Category:American Nobel laureates]] [[Category:American Quakers]] [[Category:Bryn Mawr College alumni]] [[Category:Converts to Quakerism]] [[Category:American women economists]] [[Category:Economists from Massachusetts]] [[Category:Nobel Peace Prize laureates]] [[Category:Writers from Boston]] [[Category:Wellesley College faculty]] [[Category:Women Nobel laureates]] [[Category:American women sociologists]] [[Category:American sociologists]] [[Category:American anti–World War I activists]] [[Category:Women's International League for Peace and Freedom people]] [[Category:Women's Trade Union League people]] [[Category:American women magazine editors]] [[Category:People from Jamaica Plain]] [[Category:American women's rights activists]] [[Category:Quaker feminists]] [[Category:The Nation editors]] [[Category:American women human rights activists]]