Sexism In The Hull House

Knowing about the segregation with blacks and immigrants amongst the settlement houses, almost completely implies that there was sexism that existed as well. The middle-class reformers that worked in these settlement houses were mostly women who stayed at the settlement house and worked to help those less fortunate. These women became the care givers, teachers, and health service providers for their community. There were many settlement houses founded by women but some of the most popular are the Hull House founded by Jane Addams and Ellen Starr and the Henry Street Settlement 1893 in New York by Lillian Wald (Women in the Progressive Era).

Lillian Wald was a head-hard worker. Coming from a well off family and having attended nursing school, Wald became very interested in the poverty endured by the new immigrants. She founded a settlement that grew to seven buildings. In her settlement she had many classes, clubs, and other extracurricular activities to keep the minds of immigrants flowing (Women in the Progressive Era). As Wald was head more to the education of immigrants Addams, and Starr were envisioning a different type of education.

In 1889 intending to bring culture of the arts to immigrants, Ellen Starr and Jane Addams purchased an abandoned mansion (Kelland 783). The Hull House provided services such as child watch, educational classes, employment agencies, public kitchens and even a library. According to Women in the Progressive Era, by the second year of the Hull House, fulfilled more than two thousand people a week. Just ten years after the Hull House was founded it grew to include roughly 13 buildings, along with working women’s programs, conference rooms, a gym, and a pool. Hull-House helped educate immigrants by ha...

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...experiences with new immigrants influenced the theories developed by academic in the fields of education, sociology, and social psychology.” (Lissak 7)

By 1910 there were more than 400 Settlement houses. Immigrants Americanization has proven to through the many different programs and settlements (Daniels 419). Settlement houses today have changed their names, most are called community centers, community houses, or neighborhoods. They are still embedded closely into their communities and communicating healthy living (Settlement House Movement). Back in the early 20th century most settlement houses were scattered in northern and mid-western areas. This movement rapidly expanded with the growing immigrant population. With the immigrant population growing so vast, “settlement leaders sought to overcome the centrifugal forces of urban disintegration to restore order to a