Jessica Blanche Peixotto (9 October 1864 inNew York City – 19 October 1941) was an American educator and writer.

Jessica Blanche Peixotto was born in New York City,New York, the daughter ofRaphael Levy Maduro Peixotto, a prosperousOhioan involved in trade with theSouth, and Myrtillie Jessica Davis, originally ofVirginia. She had four brothers:Edgar Davis attorney;Ernest Clifford artist and author; Capt. Eustace Maduro director of public school athletics; and Sidney Salzado social worker (director of the Columbia Park Boy's Club inSan Francisco and director and organizer of the "All American Boys' Band", a band that toured the world in 1913–1914).^[1][2]

In 1870, the family moved to San Francisco for business reasons of their father: he was president ofCongregation Emanu-El, San Francisco and engaged in a mercantile career. In 1891, Peixotto enrolled at theUniversity of California, Berkeley (B.A., 1894). She studied in France for two years.^[3] She continued on to graduate study in political science and economics with a Ph.D. in 1900, the second given to a woman at theUniversity of California, after the first was awarded toMilicent Shinn. She was the fourteenth person to receive a Ph.D. at the University.^[4] Her thesis wasFrench Revolution and Modern French Socialism (1901).^[2]

In 1904, Peixotto joined the faculty at UCB with a lectureship in contemporary socialism, for a salary ofUS$500.^[5] In 1918, she was the first woman to become a full professor (Social Economics) and the first woman to head a department at UCB. She retired in 1935, and received an honorary doctorate in law fromMills College in 1935, and from theUniversity of California in 1936.^[6][1][2]

She served as vice president of theAmerican Economic Association, and also served from 1912 to 1923 on the California State Board of Charities and Correction.^[1][2]

DuringWorld War I she was the executive chairperson of the child welfare department of the Women’s Committee of the Council of National Defense, and she also served as chief of the council’s child conservation section.^[7]

She was also a member of the Consumers’ Advisory Board of the National Recovery Administration in 1933.^[2]

She was a member of the San Francisco Woman's City Club and the Berkeley Women's Faculty Club.^[1]

She lived atCloyne Court, Berkeley, California.^[1]

She died in October 1941; Cremation followed her funeral services, which were conducted by Robert F. Leavens of the Unitarian Society and by Monroe E. Deutsch, vice-president and provost of the University of California.

She publishedGetting and Spending at the Professional Standard of Living (1927) andCost of Living Studies. II. How Workers Spend a Living Wage: A Study of the Incomes and Expenditures of Eighty-Two Typographers’ Families in San Francisco (1929). A collection of papers and commentsEssays in Social Economics in Honor of Jessica Blanche Peixotto (1935) provides full details of her life and published writings.^[8][1][2]

• Warren, Donald; Patrick, John (17 April 2006).Civic and Moral Learning in America. Palgrave Macmillan.ISBN 978-1-4039-8472-2.

• 1864 births
• 1941 deaths
• Educators from New York City
• American women educators
• Jewish American social scientists
• University of California, Berkeley alumni
• University of California, Berkeley faculty
• 20th-century American writers
• 20th-century American women writers

• Source attribution