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Jane Addams was a social worker, reformer, feminist, internationalist, and inspiration to generations of activists of all kinds throughout the twentieth century. 

In 1889, Addams cofounded Chicago’s Hull House, one of America’s most famous settlement houses, providing extensive social services to poor, largely immigrant families. In 1920, she was a cofounder of the American Civil Liberties Union. She worked with unions and other reform groups to sponsor legislation to abolish child labor, establish juvenile courts, limit the hours of working women, recognize labor unions, make school attendance compulsory, and ensure safe working conditions in factories. The Progressive Party adopted many of these reforms as part of its platform in 1912, and she played an active part in the party’s presidential campaign for Theodore Roosevelt. She also advocated for justice for immigrants and African Americans, for research to determine the causes of poverty and crime, and for women’s suffrage. 

In 1910, she became the first woman president of the National Conference of Social Work. Her books, particularly Newer Ideals of Peace and Peace and Bread in Time of War, as well as her peace activism informed early feminist theories and perspectives on peace and war. In 1914, she chaired the International Congress of Women at the Hague. She was a member of the Chicago Board of Education and a charter member of the American Sociological Society (now Association). She helped found the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy (now the University of Chicago’s Crown School of Social Work) before becoming the first female president of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections. In 1931, she was named just the second woman (and the first American woman) to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.