Dorothy Swaine Thomas (October 24, 1899 – May 1, 1977) was an American
sociologist and economist. She was the 42nd President of the
American Sociological Association
The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fif ...
, the first woman in that role.
Life and career
Thomas was born on October 24, 1899, in
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
, Maryland to John Knight and Sarah Swaine Thomas.
Thomas earned a B.A. from
Barnard College
Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbi ...
in 1922. She earned a PhD from the
London School of Economics in 1924. For her work there she received the Hutchinson Research Medal.
Between 1924 and 1948, Thomas held research and teaching positions at various institutions in the United States and Europe, including at the
University of California, Berkeley,
Columbia Teachers College
Teachers College, Columbia University (TC), is the graduate school of education, health, and psychology of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Founded in 1887, it has served as one of the official faculties an ...
, the
Federal Reserve Bank in New York and the Institute of Social Science at the
University of Stockholm.
Together with
William I. Thomas, she wrote the 1928 book ''The Child in America''. In it they formulated the
Thomas theorem, a sociological theory. She married William I. Thomas in 1935.
From 1948, she worked at the
University of Pennsylvania,
Wharton School
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in ...
, first as the first professor of the Institute in sociological research, later as a co-director or director of various institutions, in particular the Population Studies Center. Her students there included
Ann R. Miller, also associated for many years with the Population Studies Center.
Thomas' main field of research was population growth, in particular the statistical side thereof. She wrote a multi-volume work with
Simon Kuznets on the development of population and economy of the United States.
In 1942, she was elected as a
Fellow of the
American Statistical Association
The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts on November 27, 1839, and is the second oldest continuousl ...
.
In 1948, she was elected as a member to the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
.
In 1958–59, she was president of the
Population Association of America
The Population Association of America (PAA) is a non-profit scientific professional association dedicated to the study of issues related to population and demography. The PAA was established by Henry Pratt Fairchild and Frederick Osborn, with ...
.
After her retirement in 1970, she received an honorary doctorate from the
University of Pennsylvania.
Thomas died on May 1, 1977, in
Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which i ...
.
Works
*William I. Thomas, Dorothy S. Thomas, ''The Child in America'', Knopf, New York 1928
*Dorothy S. Thomas, Simon Kuznets,
Hope T. Eldridge, Everett S. Lee, ''Population Redistribution and Economic Growth: United States, 1870–1950'', 3 vols, Philadelphia 1957–1964
*Dorothy Swaine Thomas, ''Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement: The Salvage'', with Charles Kikuchi & James Sakoda (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1952), .
References
Sources
* & (eds.), ''Frauen in der Soziologie: Neun Portraits'', Beck’sche Reihe, No. 1198 (Munich: Beck, 1998). .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Dorothy Swaine
1899 births
1977 deaths
Columbia University faculty
Alumni of the London School of Economics
American sociologists
Barnard College alumni
Fellows of the American Statistical Association
American women sociologists
Women statisticians
American statisticians
Demographers by nationality
20th-century American women
20th-century American people