JANE ADDAMS: THE FORGOTTEN LADY
BY: Mohammad Imran
Jane Addams was a sociologist, social reformer and social worker who favoured democratic inclusion, pacifism, internationalism, feminism and pluralistic society, was born in Cedarville in 1860.
In 1931 she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and is recognized as the founder of social work profession in United States. The Cultural Zeitgeist of that time was women becoming doctors was popularly emerging but Jane wanted a career as a social reformer and wanted to live next to the poor.
As Jane grew, she became one of America’s leading social critics and activist who ‘helped make “progressivism” and “social justice” respectable causes to be taken seriously’ by excelling as a founder and head of Hull House.
As a leader of reform and as a public intellectual, she initiated major reforms in child labor, juvenile justice, working conditions and civil rights. Through her advocacy and example, Addams provided care, respect, and opportunities for the underprivileged and her efforts established new legal precedents for the protection of societies less fortunate.
Jane founded Hull House in 1889 that became an intellectual center in Chicago. Active in the notorious Pullman strike and other political issues in the volatile, fast growing city, she achieved national recognition almost immediately. Intellectuals around the world came to the settlement to meet this intellectual lady and the people who gathered around her.
The Hull House group professionalized the contribution of women in social work. With their neighborhood work, they contributed to a more structural political focus. It 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.
As an advocate for laborers, Addams participated in the Haymarket riot which called attention to the horrible working conditions laborers were subjected to. A number of financial supporters of Hull House took exception to Addams’ active involvement in the labor movement and withdrew their support.
Addams work on behalf of women was also a source of controversy. she was an ardent feminist by philosophy. In those days before women’s suffrage she believed that women should make their voices heard in legislation and therefore should have the right to vote, but more comprehensively, she thought that women should generate aspirations and search out opportunities to realize them.
As an active member of the National American Women Suffrage Association, Addams led the movement for women’s right to vote. Again, her advocacy for the rights of women made her a target for criticism. Addams’ concern extended to issues of racial equality as well.
Jane Addams as a peace building worker believed that the essence of peace is the “nurture of human life and that the “abolition of degrading poverty, disease, and ignorance” was at the heart of peace building.
She advocated that Achieving peace required that all men and all nations move in the “direction of compassionate tending to citizens. Addams maintained that as men and nations tended to the needs of citizens, the possibility of war became more remote.
Her understanding of peace was deeply rooted in her sense of optimism about human beings. Addams believed “human beings are more similar than they are different and what unites is stronger than what divides. Given this view, she maintained that “war is not a natural activity for mankind” and that it was abnormal for men to fight against each other.
The most important aspect of Addams’ philosophy is educational philosophy that aims to go well beyond a philosophy of schooling. That is to say, it encompasses not only teachers and students, but workers, parents and grandparents, children and adolescents, adults and the elderly – every member of a community and all of their experiences at any age and stage of life. Addams believes that community is formed through education, particularly through the educational relationships we have with others .For Addams, learning does not happen prior to “real life”; living together is itself a continual process in which we learn to live. Education is more than a mere tool to be used toward better living; it is a way of living together.
In books such as ‘The Long Road of Woman’s Memory’, ‘The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets’, ‘Newer Ideals of Peace’, and ‘Democracy and Social Ethics’, Addams discusses issues that concern us even now: immigration; culture; social morality; class conflicts; sexism; and racism.
Through her work at Hull House and extensive notes about the people of the area, Addams made a major contribution to the field of sociology .Addams’s career as a sociologist was especially connected with her close relationship to the University of Chicago. Her collaboration with Dewey, Mead, Small and Thomas as well as urban sociologists was mutually beneficial.
She contributed to the creation in the Chicago University both sociology and social work as academic disciplines, while many researchers adopted Hull House as a social laboratory for urban sociology. Thus It would not be an exaggeration to note that Jane was one of ‘the first public sociologists, who worked hard to link social research and social justice issues and dealt conceptually and empirically with socialproblems of the industrialized cities.
Perhaps Jane’s best demonstration of her commitment to sociological analysis was hull house maps and papers published in 1895. This study’s most striking sociology aspect was race, ethnicity and income levels. Environmental sociology, Family, Health, Criminology, Industrial sociology, labour reforms, political sociology, sociological research methods, urban sociology and women and contemporary society were dealt with in prolonged detail.
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