Jane Addams Social Reforms

958 Words4 Pages
Social reform is often difficult to achieve because of the many different factors that are influencing society; such as political and economic factors. As astonishing as it seems a woman was able to overcome the hurdles of many factors to pursue her dream in aiding society for the better. Or as Opdycke puts it “…Addams had two consuming desires: She wanted to serve society, and she wanted to count for something in the world,” (Opdycke, 2012, p.15). Jane Addams the first woman public philosopher in the United States knew she had a desire to create social reforms within society to provide needs for underprivileged people. Her defiance against the social norms at that time provided her with insight on what she wanted to accomplish with her idea…show more content…
Addams drew the inspiration for the Hull Houses from Toynbee Halls in the London slums. It is similar in the sense that they provide services for people, however, Addams made sure that her staff were privileged women who wanted to learn about life outside of their social status. Thus, allowing them to broaden their view on life and what social reforms were needed in society. As a result the Hull House was established in Chicago. Why Chicago? During the Progressive Era, Chicago faced the Haymarket Affair which created a negative stigma for immigrants. These immigrants were looked as terrorist and faced awful conditions; such as, low-wages, dangerous working conditions and long hours. Addams saw Chicago as “‘Street stretches beyond street of little houses, mostly wooden, begrimed with soot, rotting, falling to pieces. The pathways are of rickety and worm-eaten planks. . . . The streets are quagmires of black mud,”’ (Opdycke, 2012, p.23). This was the beginning of Addams social justice journey in…show more content…
When we see a need that needs to be address we must find practical ways to address them. Jane Addams provides us with a prime example that even if your socioeconomic status is different than those the problem is affecting you can still implement changes. All it takes is conviction, genuine emotions, compassion and sympathetic actions. Addams demonstrated how we as social workers must have objective views and be adaptive towards our social reforms. To clarify, we must think our alternatives or other adaptive ways to address one situation. If we go head on with one way of tackling a situation then we will not be able see the bigger issue or the root of the problem. Another resourceful tip Addams exhibited in the creation of the Hull Houses was how we as social workers have to be able to practice cooperation. Practicing cooperation is often hard because of the abundance of opinions in one specific focus area- often some of these opinions may overshadow other. Thus it is important to learn how to balance cooperation and collaboration. Jane Addams was extremely influential in the field of social work and even today her development of Hull Houses are widely admired by generations because of the social reforms she was able to create during her
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