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 first woman in that role.

Life and career

Thomas was born on October 24, 1899, in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, 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 Columbia ...

in 1922. She earned a PhD from the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

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 The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

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 and ...

, the Federal Reserve Bank in New York and the Institute of Social Science at the

University of Stockholm Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, soci ...

. Together with William I. Thomas, she wrote the 1928 book ''The Child in America''. In it they formulated the

Thomas theorem The Thomas theorem is a theory of sociology which was formulated in 1928 by William Isaac Thomas and Dorothy Swaine Thomas: In other words, the interpretation of a situation causes the action. This interpretation is not objective. Actions are a ...

, a sociological theory. She married William I. Thomas in 1935. From 1948, she worked at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

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 P ...

, 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 A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

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 fu ...

. After her retirement in 1970, she received an honorary doctorate from the

. 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 in ...

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