Eveline Mabel Richardson Burns (March 16, 1900 – September 2, 1985) was a British-American economist, writer and instructor. Born Eveline Mabel Richardson in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, she was the only child of Eveline Maud Falkner and Frederick Haig Richardson. Her mother died following her birth, so her father remarried and had three more children. Eveline attended Seatham Secondary School, then entered the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

at age 16 and graduated in 1920, earning a B.S. with first class honors. In 1922 she married the economist Arthur Robert Burns and the couple emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. After the award of her Ph.D. in 1926, she gained a Laura Spelman Rockefeller Fellowship. She and her husband traveled the country for two years while writing ''The Economic World''. She became professor of Social Work at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1928. In 1933, during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, she returned to England in 1933 to study unemployment programs. In 1934, as a member of President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

's Committee on Economic Security, she helped design the US

Social Security Act of 1935 The Social Security Act of 1935 is a law enacted by the 74th United States Congress and signed into law by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The law created the Social Security program as well as insurance against unemployment. The law was pa ...

. During the following years she served with the American Association for Social Security, the Social Welfare Committee of the YWCA and the Executive Board of the Women's Club of New York. From 1939–1943 she was head of the economic security and health section of the

National Resources Planning Board National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

. In the 1940s, she was the Anna Shaw Lecturer at

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...

and a professor at Columbia. From 1953–1954 she was vice-president and president of the

American Economic Association The American Economic Association (AEA) is a learned society in the field of economics. It publishes several peer-reviewed journals acknowledged in business and academia. There are some 23,000 members. History and Constitution The AEA was esta ...

. In 1954 she was awarded the Adam Smith Medal for outstanding economic research. The same year she received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

. Between 1950–1958, she held various posts in the National Conference on Social Welfare. In 1968 she was given the Blanche Ittelson Award. During her career she published multiple works on social welfare. She died at St. Mary's Hospital in Newton,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. Arthur and Eveline did not have any children.

Bibliography

*''The American Social Security System'', 1949 * ''Private and social insurance and the problem of social security'', Canadian Welfare Association, 1953. * ''Social Security and Public Policy'', 1956. * ''Toward Social Security: An Explanation of the Social Security Act and a Survey of the Larger Issues'', 1936 * ''Wages and the state: a comparative study of the problems of state wage regulation'', P. S. King, 1926.

References

External links

*
Security, Work, and Relief Policies, 1942
* Finding aid for th
Eveline Burns papers
at th
Social Welfare History Archives
University of Minnesota Libraries.
Finding aid to the Eveline Mabel Richardson Burns papers at Columbia University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burns, Eveline Mabel 1900 births 1985 deaths Alumni of the London School of Economics Columbia University faculty American women economists 20th-century American economists 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American scientists British emigrants to the United States