# Emily Greene Balch

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Emily_Greene_Balch
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Emily_Greene_Balch.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Greene_Balch
> Source revision: 1348481159
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

American economist, academic, and Nobel Laureate

Emily Greene Balch Born (1867-01-08)January 8, 1867 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. Died January 9, 1961(1961-01-09) (aged 94) Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. Occupations Writer, economist, professor Known for Nobel Peace Prize in 1946 (shared with John Mott)[1]

**Emily Greene Balch** (January 8, 1867 – January 9, 1961) was an American [economist](/source/Economics), [sociologist](/source/Sociologist) and [pacifist](/source/Pacifism). Balch combined an academic career at [Wellesley College](/source/Wellesley_College) with a long-standing interest in social issues such as [poverty](/source/Poverty), [child labor](/source/Child_labour), and [immigration](/source/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](/source/Jane_Addams) of Chicago. She became a central leader of the [Women's International League for Peace and Freedom](/source/Women's_International_League_for_Peace_and_Freedom) (WILPF) based in Switzerland,[2] for which she won the [Nobel Peace Prize](/source/Nobel_Peace_Prize) in 1946,[3] sharing the win with [John Mott](/source/John_Mott).[1]

## Early life and education

Balch was born to a prominent Yankee family in [Jamaica Plain](/source/Jamaica_Plain%2C_Massachusetts), Massachusetts (later a neighborhood of Boston),[3] 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](/source/Charles_Sumner).[4] She graduated from [Bryn Mawr College](/source/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.[5]

She then studied at [Harvard University](/source/Harvard_University), the [University of Chicago](/source/University_of_Chicago), and the [University of Berlin](/source/University_of_Berlin).

## Career

Balch began teaching at [Wellesley College](/source/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](/source/Katharine_Coman), who had founded the department.[6] That same year, Balch was promoted from Associate Professor to Professor of Political Economy and of Political and Social Science.[7]

Balch served on numerous state commissions, such as the first commission on [minimum wages](/source/Minimum_wage) for women. She was a leader of the [Women's Trade Union League](/source/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.[8]

She was a longtime [pacifist](/source/Pacifism), and was a participant in Henry Ford's International Committee on Mediation, the follow-up organization to the [Neutral Conference for Continuous Mediation](/source/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](/source/Jane_Addams) in the [Woman's Peace Party](/source/Woman's_Peace_Party) and numerous other groups.[9]

In a letter to the president of Wellesley, she wrote we should follow "the ways of Jesus." Her spiritual thoughts were that [American economy](/source/Economy_of_the_United_States) was "far from being in harmony with the principles of Jesus which we profess."[10] Wellesley College terminated her contract in 1919. Balch served as an editor of *[The Nation](/source/The_Nation)*, a well-known magazine of political commentary.[8]

Balch converted from [Unitarianism](/source/Unitarianism) to [Quakerism](/source/Quakers) 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."[11]

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](/source/International_Congress_of_Women). It changed its name to the [Women's International League for Peace and Freedom](/source/Women's_International_League_for_Peace_and_Freedom) and was based in [Geneva](/source/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](/source/League_of_Nations) regarding drug control, aviation, refugees, and disarmament. In World War II, she supported the [Allied powers](/source/Allies_of_World_War_II) and did not criticize the war effort, but she did support the rights of [conscientious objectors](/source/Conscientious_objector).[12]

## Nobel Prize

[John Randall](/source/John_Herman_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](/source/Women's_Trade_Union_League_of_America), the [National Council of Women of the US](/source/National_Council_of_Women_of_the_United_States), and the [NAACP](/source/NAACP).[13]

Balch won the 1946 [Nobel Peace Prize](/source/Nobel_Peace_Prize) for her work with the [Women's International League for Peace and Freedom](/source/Women's_International_League_for_Peace_and_Freedom) (WILPF). She shared the win with [John Mott](/source/John_Mott).[1] She donated her share of the prize money to the WILPF. Her acceptance speech highlighted the issues of nationalism and efforts for international peace.[8][13]

## Personal life

Balch never married. She died the day after her 94th birthday.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*]

## See also

- [List of female Nobel laureates](/source/List_of_female_Nobel_laureates)

- [List of peace activists](/source/List_of_peace_activists)

- [Boston Women's Heritage Trail](/source/Boston_Women's_Heritage_Trail)

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-auto_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-auto_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-auto_1-2) ["John R. Mott – Facts - NobelPrize.org"](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1946/mott/facts/).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Confortini, Catia C. (2021), Rietzler, Katharina; Owens, Patricia (eds.), ["Race, Gender, Empire, and War in the International Thought of Emily Greene Balch"](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), *Women's International Thought: A New History*, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 244–265, [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-108-49469-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-108-49469-4), retrieved March 6, 2021{{[citation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Citation)}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN ([link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CS1_maint:_work_parameter_with_ISBN))

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Clark1987_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Clark1987_3-1) Judith Freeman Clark (1987). [*Almanac of American Women in the 20th Century*](https://books.google.com/books?id=ryMqAAAAYAAJ). Prentice Hall. p. 88. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-13-022658-7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-13-022658-7).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** 1870 United States Federal Census

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Abbott, Margery Post (June 1, 2001). ["Emily Greene Balch, Pioneering Peacemaker"](https://www.friendsjournal.org/2001047/). *Friends Journal*. Retrieved May 24, 2022.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** ["Farewell dinner to Miss Coman"](https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1913/05/04/issue.html?action=click&contentCollection=Archives&module=ArticleEndCTA&region=ArchiveBody&pgtype=article). *The New York Times*. May 4, 1913. Retrieved September 2, 2018.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** ["New Wellesley dean"](https://www.nytimes.com/1913/03/30/archives/new-wellesley-dean-miss-alice-vinton-walte-chosen-by-the-board-of.html). *The New York Times*. March 30, 1913. Retrieved September 2, 2018.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Nobel_8-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Nobel_8-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Nobel_8-2) [Emily Greene Balch](https://www.nobelprize.org/laureate/506) on Nobelprize.org , accessed 29 April 2020 including the Nobel Lecture, April 7, 1948 *Toward Human Unity or Beyond Nationalism*

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Addams, Jane; Balch, Emily G.; Hamilton, Alice. ["UI Press | Jane Addams, Emily G. Balch, and Alice Hamilton | Women at The Hague: The International Congress of Women and Its Results"](https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/58fyh3nm9780252028885.html). *www.press.uillinois.edu*. Retrieved September 27, 2019.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Mercedes Moritz Randall, *Improper Bostonian: Emily Greene Balch, Nobel Peace Laureate, 1946* (1964) pp. 364, 378.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** Randall, *Improper Bostonian*, p. 60

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** Suzanne Niemeyer, editor, *Research Guide to American Historical Biography: vol. IV* (1990) pp. 1806–14

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Nobel_651_13-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Nobel_651_13-1) ["Nomination Archive"](https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=651). *NobelPrize.org*. April 1, 2020. Retrieved April 15, 2024.

## Bibliography

- [Emily Greene Balch, *Public Assistance of the Poor in France*](https://books.google.com/books?id=nyncAAAAMAAJ&dq=emily+greene+balch+biography&pg=PA182), Vol. 8, Nos. 4 & 5, *Publications of the American Economic Association.*

- [Emily Greene Balch, "A Study of Conditions of City Life: with Special Reference to Boston, A Bibliography"](https://books.google.com/books?id=F4bpAAAAMAAJ), 1903, 13 pages

- [*Our Slavic Fellow Citizens*](https://archive.org/details/ourslavicfellow00balcgoog) By Emily Greene Balch, 1910, 536 pages.

- [*Women at the Hague: the International Congress of Women and its Results*](https://books.google.com/books?id=aBpBAAAAYAAJ), By Jane Addams, Emily Greene Balch, and [Alice Hamilton](/source/Alice_Hamilton). 171 pages, New York: MacMillan, 1915.

- [*Approaches to the Great Settlement*](https://books.google.com/books?id=di4MAAAAYAAJ) By Emily Greene Balch & Pauline Knickerbocker Angell (1918), 351 pages

## Further reading

English [Wikisource](/source/Wikisource) has original works by or about:

**[Emily Greene Balch](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/en:Author:Emily_Greene_Balch)**

- Alonso, Harriet Hyman (1993). *Peace As a Women's Issue: A History of the U.S. Movement for World Peace and Women's Rights*. Syracuse University Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0815602693](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0815602693). [OCLC](/source/OCLC_(identifier)) [25508750](https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/25508750).

- Foster, Catherine (1989). [*Women for All Seasons: The Story of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom*](https://archive.org/details/womenforallseaso00fost). University of Georgia Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0820310921](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0820310921). [OCLC](/source/OCLC_(identifier)) [18051898](https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/18051898).

- Gwinn, Kristen E. (2010). *Emily Greene Balch: The Long Road to Internationalism*. University of Illinois Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780252090158](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780252090158). [OCLC](/source/OCLC_(identifier)) [702844599](https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/702844599).

- McDonald, Lynn (1998). *Women Theorists on Society and Politics*. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-88920-290-7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-88920-290-7).

- Nichols, Christopher McKnight (2011). *Promise and Peril: America at the Dawn of a Global Age*. Harvard University Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780674061187](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780674061187). [OCLC](/source/OCLC_(identifier)) [754841336](https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/754841336).

- Randall, Mercedes M. (1964). *Improper Bostonian: Emily Greene Balch*. Twayne Publishers. [OCLC](/source/OCLC_(identifier)) [779059266](https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/779059266).

- Randall, Mercedes M., ed. (1972). *Beyond Nationalism: The Social Thought of Emily Greene Balch*. New York: Twayne.

- 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

- [*Who's Who in New England*](https://books.google.com/books?id=RmUTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA66), Marquis, 1916

## External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to [Emily Greene Balch](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Emily_Greene_Balch).

Wikiquote has quotations related to ***[Emily Greene Balch](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Special:Search/Emily_Greene_Balch)***.

- [Emily Greene Balch](https://www.nobelprize.org/laureate/506) on Nobelprize.org including the Nobel Lecture, April 7, 1948 *Toward Human Unity or Beyond Nationalism*

- [Tribute to Emily Greene Balch](https://books.google.com/books?id=buMTjLID68kC&dq=emily+greene+balch+biography&pg=PA149) 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.

v t e Laureates of the Nobel Peace Prize 1901–1925 1901: Henry Dunant / Frédéric Passy 1902: Élie Ducommun / Charles Gobat 1903: Randal Cremer 1904: Institute of International Law 1905: Bertha von Suttner 1906: Theodore Roosevelt 1907: Ernesto Moneta / Louis Renault 1908: Klas Arnoldson / Fredrik Bajer 1909: A. M. F. Beernaert / Paul Estournelles de Constant 1910: International Peace Bureau 1911: Tobias Asser / Alfred Fried 1912: Elihu Root 1913: Henri La Fontaine 1914 1915 1916 1917: International Committee of the Red Cross 1918 1919: Woodrow Wilson 1920: Léon Bourgeois 1921: Hjalmar Branting / Christian Lange 1922: Fridtjof Nansen 1923 1924 1925: Austen Chamberlain / Charles Dawes 1926–1950 1926: Aristide Briand / Gustav Stresemann 1927: Ferdinand Buisson / Ludwig Quidde 1928 1929: Frank B. Kellogg 1930: Nathan Söderblom 1931: Jane Addams / Nicholas Butler 1932 1933: Norman Angell 1934: Arthur Henderson 1935: Carl von Ossietzky 1936: Carlos Saavedra Lamas 1937: Robert Cecil 1938: Nansen International Office for Refugees 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944: International Committee of the Red Cross 1945: Cordell Hull 1946: Emily Balch / John Mott 1947: Friends Service Council / American Friends Service Committee 1948 1949: John Boyd Orr 1950: Ralph Bunche 1951–1975 1951: Léon Jouhaux 1952: Albert Schweitzer 1953: George C. Marshall 1954: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 1955 1956 1957: Lester B. Pearson 1958: Georges Pire 1959: Philip Noel-Baker 1960: Albert Luthuli 1961: Dag Hammarskjöld 1962: Linus Pauling 1963: International Committee of the Red Cross / League of Red Cross Societies 1964: Martin Luther King Jr. 1965: UNICEF 1966 1967 1968: René Cassin 1969: International Labour Organization 1970: Norman Borlaug 1971: Willy Brandt 1972 1973: Lê Đức Thọ (declined award) / Henry Kissinger 1974: Seán MacBride / Eisaku Satō 1975: Andrei Sakharov 1976–2000 1976: Betty Williams / Mairead Corrigan 1977: Amnesty International 1978: Anwar Sadat / Menachem Begin 1979: Mother Teresa 1980: Adolfo Pérez Esquivel 1981: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 1982: Alva Myrdal / Alfonso García Robles 1983: Lech Wałęsa 1984: Desmond Tutu 1985: International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War 1986: Elie Wiesel 1987: Óscar Arias 1988: UN Peacekeeping Forces 1989: Tenzin Gyatso (14th Dalai Lama) 1990: Mikhail Gorbachev 1991: Aung San Suu Kyi 1992: Rigoberta Menchú 1993: Nelson Mandela / F. W. de Klerk 1994: Shimon Peres / Yitzhak Rabin / Yasser Arafat 1995: Pugwash Conferences / Joseph Rotblat 1996: Carlos Belo / José Ramos-Horta 1997: International Campaign to Ban Landmines / Jody Williams 1998: John Hume / David Trimble 1999: Médecins Sans Frontières 2000: Kim Dae-jung 2001–present 2001: United Nations / Kofi Annan 2002: Jimmy Carter 2003: Shirin Ebadi 2004: Wangarĩ Maathai 2005: International Atomic Energy Agency / Mohamed ElBaradei 2006: Grameen Bank / Muhammad Yunus 2007: Al Gore / Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2008: Martti Ahtisaari 2009: Barack Obama 2010: Liu Xiaobo 2011: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf / Leymah Gbowee / Tawakkol Karman 2012: European Union 2013: Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons 2014: Kailash Satyarthi / Malala Yousafzai 2015: Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet 2016: Juan Manuel Santos 2017: International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons 2018: Denis Mukwege / Nadia Murad 2019: Abiy Ahmed 2020: World Food Programme 2021: Maria Ressa / Dmitry Muratov 2022: Ales Bialiatski / Memorial / Center for Civil Liberties 2023: Narges Mohammadi 2024: Nihon Hidankyo 2025: María Corina Machado

v t e 1946 Nobel Prize laureates Chemistry James B. Sumner (United States) John Howard Northrop (United States) Wendell Meredith Stanley (United States) Literature (1946) Hermann Hesse (Switzerland) Peace Emily Greene Balch (United States) John Mott (United States) Physics Percy Williams Bridgman (United States) Physiology or Medicine Hermann Joseph Muller (United States) Nobel Prize recipients 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951

Authority control databases International ISNI VIAF GND FAST WorldCat National United States France BnF data Czech Republic Netherlands Norway Sweden Israel Belgium Croatia Academics CiNii People Trove Deutsche Biographie DDB Other IdRef Open Library Historical Dictionary of Switzerland SNAC Yale LUX

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Emily Greene Balch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Greene_Balch) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Greene_Balch?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.