Jane Addams
By: Laura Zahn
Basic Info
Jane Addams was born in 1860 and died in 1935. She was born to Sarah Weber and John Addams. In her childhood she witnessed many examples of government corruption and business practices that harmed workers. After being around this social action, she began to seek social justice. Addams attended the Women's Medical College of Philadelphia. Unfortunately she had to drop out because of illness.
Life's Work
Addams' college friend and herself co-founded Hull House in Chicago's slums. She kept her focus on the problem of imbalanced social class power. Addams was also active in the woman suffrage and peace movements. The Novel Peace Prize in 1931 was awarded to Addams, the first sociologist to receive this honor. Despite this, in her career she suffered from class discrimination. Because she didn't teach at a university she was not considered a sociologist. With her obvious world recognition of being the earliest female social reformers, she clearly worked passed her suffering.