She was born in Berlin on 30 June 1912, the daughter of Eli Lazarus, who was Jewish, and Lilly Leszczynska.

After spending two years from 1941 at the Bureau of Applied Social Research of Columbia University, she returned to the United Kingdom in 1943.

[1] Glass's work reflected her belief "that the purpose of sociological research was to influence government policy and bring about social change".

Her reputation in this field was established from the late 1930s by studies of housing developments and planning at the Watling Estate in London and in Middlesbrough, and later by pioneer work on black immigration.

Between 1935 and 1941 she was married to Henry William Durant, the statistician and pioneer in the field of public opinion polling.