Women and the Fight for Reform :: essays papers

Women and the Fight for ReformWomen in the late nineteenth century, except in the few western stateswhere they could vote, were denied much of a component part in the governing process.Nonetheless, educated the middle-class women saw themselves as a morallyuplifting force and went on to be reformers.Jane Addams opened the sociable settlement of Hull base in 1889. Itoffered an array of services to stand by the poor deal with slum housing,disease, crowding, jobless, infant mortality, and environmental hazards.For women who held jobs, Hull stick out ran a day-car center and aboardinghouse. Addams was only one of many ahead of time reformers to take upsocial last. Jane Porter Barrett, an African American, founded the Locust alley Social Settlement in Hampton, Virginia, in 1890. Her settlementoffered black women snappy instruction in child care and in skills of a existence a homemaker.Lillian Wald, a daughter of Jewish immigrants from New York City,began a visiting- toy with s ervice to reach those too poor to pay for doctorsand hospitals. Her Henry bridle-path Settlement offered a host of vitalservices for immigrants and the poor. Wald suggested the formation of aFederal Childrens Bureau.By the end of the 19th century, many women reformers focused on theneed for state laws to restrict child labor. Young children from poorfamilies had to work late hours in mines and mills and were exploited byplant managers. No state laws prevented the children from being overworkedor abused.One of the first to challenge the maturation of orphaned ordependent children was Sophie Loeb, a Jewish immigrant from Russia Onceher convey was deceased, she watched the desperation of her mother as thefamily slipped into poverty. As a journalist, Loeb campaigned for windowspensions when this was still a new idea.Helen Stuart Campbell, born in 1839 in New York, began her public rush as an author of childrens books. Then she used novels to exposeslim lifes disconfirming eff ect on women. In 1859 she wrote a novel about cardinalwomen who break from their dependence on men and chart new lives. Campbell withal wrote how easy it was fir womens lives to be ruined by poverty anddespair. somewhat women went beyond advocating reform to promoting revolution.There are many other far-famed women who helped lead the fight toreform. Like Florence Kelley. In 1891 Kelley worked with Addams at HullHouse and became an investigator for the Illinois Bureau of Labor, and thenwas appointed the U.