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She won worldwide recognition as a pioneer social worker in America, as a feminist, and as an internationalist. Jane went to an all- women’s institution in Rockford, Illinois where she was one of the first women of that day to attend college. Here at college she began to study medicine but had to abandon her studies due to poor health. She then traveled and studied in Europe for twenty-one months, and then spent almost two years reading and writing books. On her second trip to Europe she visited Toynbee Hall, a pioneering Christian settlement house in London.
Toynbee Hall was darted in 1884 by a man named Arnold Toynbee. He like many other social workers dedicated his life to serving the poor. The idea that started the Toynbee Hall was to take the social elite and have them live with the poor. The poor would be educated by these socially elite people therefore bettering their lives and expanding the minds of the affluent. Toynbee Hall was Jane Addams muse. In Chicago of 1889, Hull House became the bread and cheese of Jane Addams lifelong legacy. Hull House was the first co- educational settlement of its time. It was located in the middle of one of
Chicago heavily populated immigrant areas and was known for its various social programs. One thing the Hull house was not good at was reaching out to the male population. This was especially tough in a time were men and women had very separate roles in society. Many great female minds were involved with Hull house. For example, Alice Hamilton, a physician who trained in Germany and the U. S. And who is credited with founding the field of industrial medicine, lived at Hull House for 22 years. She went on to teach at Harvard where she became a nationally recognized social reformer and ace activist.
The first woman to head a federal agency, the Children’s Bureau, Julia Lothrop, also helped out at the Hull House for 22 years. Saxophonist Befriending went on in her career and became a component in the area of social work education. These are only a few examples of women who used their Hull House experience to help pave their way to helping others. Not only was Jane Addams passionate about helping others but she was also a source of inspiration to women of her time. This was a huge change in the American dynamic. Women were starting to become educated and get jobs like men.
Although women did not have the same rights or benefits of men, women were starting to make a difference. Jane Addams wrote about the goings on at the Hull House community which made her a popular author and a well-known public speaker. She also ventured to write about issues of race, education and world peace. She became one of the most respected and well-recognized individuals in the nation. She was a part of many progressive campaigns and also was a founding figure in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Women’s International League for Peace and
Freedom. When Theodore Roosevelt ran for the presidential nomination of the Progressive Party in 191 2, he asked Jane Addams to second the nomination, which was the first time a woman had been asked to do this. Jane Addams had caused the gender roles of the time to blur. After World War broke out in Europe, her outspoken pacifism and disagreement with the United States affiliation to it ignited many negative responses from society. The men were not happy that a women was causing such a stir. Because of this, Jane Addams, for a time, became the subject to gender criticism and Lander.
A biographer by the name of Allen Davis reported that a writer had insisted that what Addams needed to “disabuse her of her pacifism” was “a strong, forceful husband who would lift the burden Of fate from her shoulders and get her intensely interested in fancy work and other things dear to the heart of women who have homes and plenty of time on their hands. ” This was a period of time where her work and thoughts were under scrutiny and harsh criticism. She wrote countless articles and books about the nature of citizenship and patriotism.
Some of which never made it to the public due to the thought that she was “anti-American. Because of the war Jane Addams wrote and focused more on world peace and global social concerns. She has two books in particular dedicated to the topics. Jane Addams received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 for her humanitarian philosophies and idealistic world views. She suffered a heart attack towards the end Of her life where she had a bigger passion and new area of interest in the world. She focused more on the global effects on society and less time at the Hull House. She worked avidly towards world peace and towards ending racism.