How Did Jane Addams Influence Social Work

Keenan Cantrell

Dr. Fisher

History

5 March 2017

Jane Addams was a pioneer American settlement activist/reformer, social worker, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in women's suffrage and world peace. Jane Addams is a woman of history I admire, because she spoke up for all women in her time period and she is one of the reasons that women today are able to vote. In 1931 she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize which made a great impact on other women and influenced them to work toward their goals and that a woman can do pretty much anything a man can. Jane Addams is also recognized as the founder of the social work profession in the United States. She co-founded, with Ellen Gates Starr, the first

settlement house in the United States, Chicago's Hull House. In an era when presidents such as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson identified themselves as reformers and social activists, Addams was one of the most prominent reformers of the Progressive Era. She helped America address and focus on issues that were of concern to mothers, such as the needs of children, local public health, and world peace.
Jane Addams was Born in Cedarville, Illinois she was the youngest of eight children born into a prosperous northern Illinois family of English American descent which traced back to colonial New England; her father was politically prominent (Berson 8). Three of her siblings died in infancy, and another died at age 16, leaving only four by the time Addams was age 8. Her mother Sara Addams died when Jane was two years old. Addams spent her childhood playing outdoors, reading indoors, and attending Sunday school, when she was four, she contracted tuberculosis of the spine, Potts disease, which caused a curvature in her spine and lifelong health problems. This made it complicated as a child to function with the other children, considering she had a limp and could not run as well. As a child, she thought she was "ugly" and later remembered wanting not to embarrass her father, when he was dressed in his Sunday best, by walking down the street with him. Jane adored her father when she was a child, as she made clear in the stories of her memoir, Twenty Years at Hull House (1910). Her father John Huy Addams was an agricultural businessman with large timber, cattle, and agricultural holdings; flour and timber mills; and a woolen factory. He was the president of The Second National Bank of Freeport. John Addams was a founding member of the Illinois Republican party, served as an Illinois state senator and supported his friend Abraham Lincoln in his candidacies, for senator (1854) and the presidency (1860). John Addams kept a letter from Lincoln in his desk, and Jane Addams loved to look at it as a child. In her teens, Addams had big dreams—to do something useful in the world. Long interested in the poor from her reading of Dickens and inspired by her mother's kindness to the Cedarville poor, she decided to become a doctor so that she could live and work among the poor. It was a vague idea, nurtured by literary fiction. She was a voracious reader. The settlement house movement led by Jane Addams was one of the earliest progressive reforms.
Addams and Starr were the first two occupants of the house, which would later become the residence of about 25 women (Berson 33).

The Hull House was a center for research, empirical analysis, study, and debate, as well as a pragmatic center for living in and establishing good relations with the neighborhood. Residents of Hull-house conducted investigations on housing, midwifery, fatigue, tuberculosis, typhoid, garbage collection, cocaine, and truancy. Its facilities included a night school for adults, clubs for older children, a public kitchen, an art gallery, a gym , a girls club , a bathhouse , a book bindery , a music school , a drama group and a theater, apartments, a library, meeting rooms for discussion, clubs, an employment bureau, and a lunchroom. The Hull House neighborhood was a mix of European ethnic groups that had immigrated to Chicago around the start of the 20th century. That mix was the ground where Hull House's inner social and philanthropic elitists tested their theories and challenged the establishment. The ethnic mix is recorded by the Bethlehem-Howard Neighborhood Center: "Germans and Jews resided south of that inner core. Hull House became America's best known settlement house. Addams used it to generate system-directed change, on the principle that to keep families safe, community and societal conditions had to be improved. Starr and Addams developed three "ethical principles" for social settlements: "to teach by example, to practice cooperation, and to practice social democracy, that is, egalitarian, or democratic, social relations across class lines. Generally, Addams was close to a wide set of other women and was very good at eliciting their involvement from different classes in Hull House's programs. Nevertheless, throughout her life Addams did have significant romantic relationships with a few of these women, including Mary Rozet Smith and Ellen Starr. Her relationships offered her the time and energy to pursue her social work while

being supported emotionally and romantically. From her exclusively romantic relationships with women, she would most likely be described as a lesbian (Berson 76). in contemporary terms, similar to many leading figures in the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom of the time. Her first romantic partner was Ellen Starr, with whom she founded Hull House, and whom she met when both were students at Rockford Female Seminary. In 1889, both had visited Toynbee Hall together, and started their settlement house project, purchasing a house in Chicago. Her second romantic partner was Mary Rozet Smith, who was financially wealthy and supported Addams's work at Hull House, and with whom she shared a house. Lilian Faderman, the notable historian, writes that she was in love and she addressed Mary as "My Ever Dear", "Darling" and "Dearest One", and conclusively establishes that they shared the intimacy of a married couple. Their couple hood did not end until 1934, when Mary died of pneumonia, after forty years together. It was said that, "Mary Smith became and always remained the highest and clearest note in the music that was Jane Addams' personal life”. Together they owned a summer house in Bar Harbor, Maine (Berson 84). When apart, they would write to each other at least once a day - sometimes twice. Addams would write to Smith, "I miss you dreadfully and am yours 'til death". The letters also show that the women saw themselves as a married couple: "There is reason in the habit of married folks keeping together", Addams wrote to Smith.

Works Cited
Berson, Robin Kadison. "Jane Addams - Books on Google Play." Jane Addams - Books on Google Play. N.p., 01 Jan. 2004. Web. 05 Mar. 2017. .
"Bibliography." Jane Addams Papers Project. N.p., 29 Oct. 2015. Web. 05 Mar. 2017. .
N.p., n.d. Web. .