Jane Addams

Pioneer social worker and Nobel Peace Prize winner who revolutionized urban reform

Jane Addams (1860-1935) transformed social work through her establishment of Hull House in Chicago, one of America's first settlement houses. Her innovative approach addressed systemic poverty by providing education, childcare, and healthcare to immigrants while advocating for labor rights and women's suffrage.

Unlike traditional charity models, Addams focused on structural reform, influencing landmark legislation like the 1912 establishment of the Children's Bureau. Her 1909 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) co-founding demonstrated intersectional activism decades before the term existed.

As the first American woman Nobel Peace laureate (1931), Addams challenged militarism through the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Her 1910 memoir Twenty Years at Hull-House remains essential reading for understanding progressive era reforms.