1860 - 1935
Overview:
Jane Addams was not a woman to sit back and watch the world float by her unnoticed. She achieved a college education unlike other woman at the time and strove for excellence in the field of social reform. She worked against the problems of poverty in a practical manner and pushed the cause of peace throughout the first world war and beyond.
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Jane Addams
Jane's efforts in fighting to prevent poverty as well as her efforts for peace have been inspirational.
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Country:
United States of America
Type
of hero: Economic and Social Rights
Attributes:
Social Reform
Pacifist
Biography:
Jane was born in Illinois and raised by her father who had become widowed when Jane was 2 years old. As well as showing fortitude in raising a large family, Jane's father taught her tolerance, philanthropy, and strong work ethic.
After her father's death in 1881, she attended the Women's Medical College in Philadelphia. She had plans to work as a doctor with the poor. However, she withdrew due to a spinal illness.
In 1883 while touring Europe with her stepmother, she demonstrated a horror of the effects of Urban poverty. She also visited Toynbee Hall, which had been established in England as a community centre to address problems of poverty.
On her return to the US, in 1889, together with Ellen Starr, she opened Hull House on Halsted Street in the middle of Chicago's worst immigrant slum. She lived at Hull House and attempted to better understand some of the problems relating to Urban Poverty. Hull House offered a warm meeting place, a hot lunch, childcare services and put pressure on the government for improvement of the physical surroundings of the area. Jane not only provided the centre itself - but also worked there looking after children, nursing the sick and listening to those who needed support. She spent time convincing young women from other "well to do" families to pitch in and help also.
Similar organisations began to spring up across the U.S. and Hull House itself became a centre for discussion on how to deal with the growing problems of urban poverty. She had recognised that it would not be possible to continue to apply bandaid treatments to poverty and at some stage, needed to address the causes of the issue.
She pressured the state of Illinois to look at the laws in relation to child labour, the factory inspection system and the juvenile justice system. Along with others, she pushed for laws to protect immigrants from exploitation, limit the working hours of women, have compulsory education for children, recognise labour unions and provide for industrial safety.
Having been educated in schools designed to enhance the femininity in girls, Jane nevertheless was one who believed that where possible, women should be able to have access to opportunities beyond that of marriage and having children.
In 1914, she became an active participant in Pacifist movements. In 1915 she helped establish the Women's Peace Party.
She continued to push the peace message after the United States entered the war in 1917. Not everyone was pleased with her efforts in this quarter and she was considered "dangerous" by some at the time. Her efforts were rewarded when she received the Noble Peace Prize in 1931.
Citations
& References:
Links
http://nobelprizes.com/nobel/peace/1931a.html
http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/ja_bio.html
http://womenshistory.about.com/education/womenshistory/msubaddams.htm
References
Uglow, J., (Ed) 1999 The Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography London, Macmillan (p. 5)
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