Jane Adams Social Work

Jane Adams, pioneer American settlement social worker, public philosopher, sociologist, author, peace activists, and leader in women's suffrage, was born on the eve of the Civil War, September 6, 1960, in the small farming community of Cedarville, just outside Freeport, in northern Illinois. She was the youngest of five children. Her family was known as the wealthiest and most respected family in the community. She attended Rockford Female Seminary where she was the first woman to be awarded a Bachelor's degree, an event that mark the school's transition to collegiate status. She was serving as a desirable model student and a fascinating campus leader, serving as class president all four years, editor of the school magazine, president of the literary society, and valedictorian. She was among the fist college- educated woman in the United States.

In 1919, she was a main concern for the US and labeled the most dangerous woman in America.

This seems to be the point where her role in sociology fell. In spite of the fact that she made great contributions to the field of sociology, she was hardly ever acknowledged. She was looking for it to expand and develop in a different direction. One very important reason Jane was not looked at as a sociologist was because she was female. Social work, which is mainly seen as dominated by women, and sociology, as dominated by men, formed shortly after W.W.I. This field may have been different but Jane stayed with it, resulting in more professional careers in sociology. Although Jane has been labeled a social worker, it is very apparent that she played a large role in sociology. It is difficult to determine where because women were basically discouraged from entering the field. One author suggests that her work may have been understood since most sociologists never cited work done by close colleagues. Kasler who studied early German sociologists formed criteria to determine whether or not someone is a sociologist which

included:

occupy a chair of sociology or teach it
membership in the German Sociological Society (changed in this case to the American Sociological Society)
co-authorship in sociological articles or textbooks
self-definition as a "sociologists"
definition by others as a sociologists (1986, 89).
Jane passed and met all of these requirements. Not only was she ignored, but those she associated with; WEB DuBois, who was a black sociologist, were as well such as. While she was strongly influenced by the British, the American white men were following the works of the French and German. Jane did not let this discourage her; she simply made the Hull House into a meeting place for both men and women sociologist's of any race to gather

Jane died in 1935, three days after it was discovered that Jane had cancer. At the time of her death she had written ten books, more than two thousand articles and had given hundreds of speeches.

It is apparent that Jane Addams was an extraordinary woman. She has done and cotributed several things to improve lives from the private to the public area. She is one of the reasons society lives the way they do.