Maryann Mahaffey

MSW ’51

Maryann Mahaffey empowered social change in Detroit, Michigan as a social worker, educator, civil rights activist and political leader. She was devoted to women’s issues, racial injustice and the underrepresented, and a professor at Wayne State University School of Social Work for 25 years.

In 1973, Mahaffey was elected to the Detroit City Council and served for 32 years, including 12 years as its president. She brought her social work sensibilities to the council, pushing the city to create a rape crisis unit, regulate homeless shelters and apartment rentals, and expand health care benefits to LGBTQ+ couples. Honored in the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame, she was involved in the precedent-setting lawsuit establishing a woman’s right to run for office using her birth name, opening the doors of the Detroit Athletic Club to women, and enacting an ordinance prohibiting sexual harassment of city employees.

Mahaffey was chair of the Michigan Social Work Council from 1965 to 1967, serving as its legislative lobbyist and creating a graduate internship program and a registration law for social workers. She served on the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, chaired the NASW National Public Relations Committee from 1972 to 1975, and represented the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) at the first U.N. Conference on the Status of Women in 1975.

She became the first woman elected president of NASW from 1975 to 1977. During her term, she expanded relations with the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) and IFSW, established the first task force on LGBTQ+ issues, instituted Political Action for Candidate Election (PACE), and held the first conference on social workers in politics in 1977.