During the 20th century, social workers often advocated for universal protections for U.S. citizens against unforeseeable health and employmentrelated losses. The Sheppard-Towner Act of 1921 was supported by social workers who wished to
create a strong role for federal government in extending primary care to the nation's pregnant women and young children. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies of the 1930s were crafted with the help of high-level advisers, two of
whom were social workers.