Women You Should Know: Jane Addams
Rhetta Akamatsu
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Who was Jane Addams?
Well, for one thing she was the first American woman to win the Nobel prize.
She was a feminist and a pioneer and innovator in the field of social work (before the field actually existed as social work.) 
Jane was born in 1860 to a prosperous and politically active miller who served as an officer in the Civil War. She was the last of nine children. She was born with a congenital spinal defect that limited her physical activity as a child, and even though it was corrected by surgery, she was never physically strong.
In 1881, at age 21, Jane grduated from Rockford Female Seminary. She then spent 6 years studying medicine, but was finally forced to give up the plan of practicing as a doctor because of her poor health and intermittent hospital visits. While trying to regain her health, she studied in Europe, and spent several years trying to decide what she wanted to do next At 27, while traveling in Europe with her friend Ellen Starr, Jane visited a settlement house called Toynbee House in the East End of London, which was set up to provide assistance, work training, and education for London's poor. Jane thought that a similar establishment could and should be established in the working districts of Chicago.
In 1889, Jane Addams and Ellen Starr leased a large house in Chicago, moved in, and opened Hull House, one of the first settlement houses in America. They provided a night school for workers, nursed the sick, listened to the troubled, gave shelter to the homeless, and much more. There was a library, a music club, a book bindery, a swimming pool, even an art gallery.
They even brought women in from off the street, shocking society by finding value in those who were "no better than they should be." The house was a beacon of hope in a harsh world.
Well, for one thing she was the first American woman to win the Nobel prize.
She was a feminist and a pioneer and innovator in the field of social work (before the field actually existed as social work.)
Jane was born in 1860 to a prosperous and politically active miller who served as an officer in the Civil War. She was the last of nine children. She was born with a congenital spinal defect that limited her physical activity as a child, and even though it was corrected by surgery, she was never physically strong.
In 1881, at age 21, Jane grduated from Rockford Female Seminary. She then spent 6 years studying medicine, but was finally forced to give up the plan of practicing as a doctor because of her poor health and intermittent hospital visits. While trying to regain her health, she studied in Europe, and spent several years trying to decide what she wanted to do next At 27, while traveling in Europe with her friend Ellen Starr, Jane visited a settlement house called Toynbee House in the East End of London, which was set up to provide assistance, work training, and education for London's poor. Jane thought that a similar establishment could and should be established in the working districts of Chicago.
In 1889, Jane Addams and Ellen Starr leased a large house in Chicago, moved in, and opened Hull House, one of the first settlement houses in America. They provided a night school for workers, nursed the sick, listened to the troubled, gave shelter to the homeless, and much more. There was a library, a music club, a book bindery, a swimming pool, even an art gallery.
They even brought women in from off the street, shocking society by finding value in those who were "no better than they should be." The house was a beacon of hope in a harsh world.