As a pioneering American social worker, feminist, and internationalist in the first part of the 20th century, Jane Addams gained notoriety on a global scale. She was the eighth of nine children to be born in Cedarville, Illinois. Her father was a wealthy miller, a prominent figure in the community, and a Civil War officer who worked as a state legislator for sixteen years (Farrell, 2019). The inherent spinal abnormality that prevented Jane from being physically active as a child or really robust even as an adult was fixed through the operation.
Jane Addams finished from the Rockford Female Seminary as president of a class of seventeen students, but she did not get her bachelor’s degree until the institution changed its name to Rockford College for Women the following year. She started studying medicine but gave up after six years due to bad health, spent sporadic times in the hospital, and spent twenty-one months traveling and studying in Europe. Then spent nearly two years studying, writing, and deciding what her goals in life should be. When she was twenty-seven, she traveled to a settlement home in London’s East End with a companion when they were on their second European tour. This visit assisted her in putting the finishing touches on her current plan to build a similar house in an underserved neighborhood in Chicago.
Miss Addams and Miss Starr made speeches about the neighborhood’s needs, solicited money, persuaded young ladies from wealthy families to donate, looked after kids, nursed the ill, and listened to individuals in disturbed states of mind. Two thousand guests were staying at Hull-House at the end of its second year of operation (Farrell, 2019). In what effectively became a night school, there were kindergarten lessons in the morning, club sessions for older kids in the afternoons, and more groups or courses for grownups in the evening.
Work on the first juvenile justice system statute, tenement home regulations, an eight-hour workday for women, factory inspections, and workers’ insurance were among the objectives Addams collaborated on with unions and other reform organizations. In addition, she supported women’s right to vote, promoted studies aimed at identifying the reasons for poverty and violence, and fought for justice for African Americans and immigrants (Farrell, 2019). She was elected as the National Conference of Social Work’s first female president and actively participated in Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive Party campaign for the presidency.
Addams inserts a solid social responsibility norm into this ethical paradigm, going beyond just foreshadowing care ethics. Addams promotes the obligation of social participation and awareness in order to foster the possibility of care. The conventional definition of obligation has drawn criticism from several care ethicists. In the past, moral responsibility was defined as an obligation to act on behalf of other people. In comparison to most of the contemporary care ethics conversation, Addams’ terminology is more aggressive.
The development of a sociological idea that put ethics at the center of all sociological research and social activities analysis was one of Jane Addams’ most important contributions to sociology. This idea is crucial because it promotes ethical cooperation in all sociological and societal decisions. A policy that promoted life exposure was Jane Addams’ second significant contribution to sociology (Farrell, 2019). This is due to her contention that exposure to various circumstances aids in the development of a respectful and sympathetic attitude toward other people.
Finally, Addams applies caring ethics to society at large; she is not satisfied with separating societal and personal morality. She wants democracy and all of its institutions to be cared for. For instance, Addams believes that because social community inhabitants live nearby these institutions, they have the opportunity to examine them from the perspective of the recipients. She thinks this viewpoint is critical and that institutional administration should eventually adopt it. Social settlements serve as Addams’ model of a democratic endeavor, but she also instills other organizations with the same compassionate principles.
The establishment of juvenile courts in Chicago served as a prime illustration of compassion since it required contextualized consideration for the circumstances of young people. Adult education programs that dealt with current, relevant problems were developed with consideration for the needs of Hull-House neighbors (Farrell, 2019). The Hull-House members’ behavior most prominently displayed care ethics in their openness to listening, taking in information, and responding. Addams saw socializing care as taking part in a rich democratic dream.
Miss Addams, who openly opposed America’s involvement in the conflict, was assailed in the media and dismissed from the daughters of the American Revolution. However, she found a way to fulfill her humanitarian instincts when she worked as Herbert Hoover’s aide distributing food relief supplies to the women and children of the enemy countries. Miss Addams suffered a heart attack and never fully recovered her health. In fact, the day before she received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, she was hospitalized in a hospital in Baltimore (Farrell, 2019). A burial ceremony was conducted in Hull-courtyard House three days after an operation showed she had cancer that had not been suspected.
Reference
Farrell, J. C. (2019). Beloved lady: A history of Jane Addams’ ideas on reform and peace. JHU Press.