Frances Feldman

Frances Lomas Feldman (1912–2008) was an American social worker and professor at the University of Southern California. She is perhaps best known for conducting a milestone, multi-year three-volume study in the 1970s for the American Cancer Society which provided the first systematic evidence that cancer patients faced discrimination in the workplace. Her areas of teaching had to do with social welfare, including its history, welfare policy, and administration. Her research and writings examine the psychological, social, and economic meanings of money and work in American families.

Biography

Early years Frances Lomas Feldman had five older siblings and was born on December 3, 1912, in Philadelphia to Jewish parents who had immigrated to the US from Ukraine. At eight years old, she and her family moved to Los Angeles, Ca.

She became a student in 1931 at the Los Angeles University of Southern California. There's some evidence she provided laundry services to pay for her tuition, and graduated in 1935 with a bachelor's degree. She went back to USC and in 1940 she graduated with a master's degree for Social Work.

Feldman was the author of 10 books and published many research papers and journal articles dedicated to the social or psychological meaning of life and work. She won the 2004 Wheat Award from the Southern California Historical Society for one of her works entitled "Human Services in the City of Angels: 1850-2000," which she completed under the auspices of the Los Angeles City Historical Society.

In 2005, she was inducted into the California Social Work Archives Hall of Distinction.