Settlement Houses
The settlement house movement began in Britain in 1884 when middle-class London reformers established Toynbee Hall, the first settlement house, in East London to provide social services and education to the poor workers who lived there. Inspired by the British movement, American social reformers began founding settlement houses in the late 1880s to respond to growing industrial poverty. In 1886, Stanton Coit founded Neighborhood Guild, the first US settlement house, in New York City. In 1889, Jane Addams and her friend Ellen Starr founded Hull-House in Chicago, which would eventually become the most famous settlement house in the US. By 1887, there were 74 settlements in the United States, and the number had ballooned to over 400 by 1890. Forty percent of settlement houses were in Boston, Chicago, and New York—the leading industrial centers—but most small cities had at least one settlement.
The major purpose of settlement houses was to help to assimilate and ease the transition of immigrants into the labor force by teaching them middle-class American values. In Chicago, for instance, Hull-House helped to educate immigrants by providing classes in history, art, and literature. Hull-House also provided social services to reduce the effects of poverty, including a daycare center, homeless shelter, public kitchen, and public baths. Settlement houses like Hull-House were a nexus for political activism, with reformers like Jane Addams becoming involved in advocating social legislation to combat poverty in local, state, and national politics.
One of the revolutionary characteristics of the settlement house movement was that women filled many of the most important leadership roles, in an era when women were still excluded from leadership roles in business and government. Approximately half of the major US settlement houses were led and staffed predominantly by women. Among the most influential leaders were Jane Addams, Mary Simkhovitch, Helena Dudley, Lillian Wald, Mary McDowell, Florence Kelley, Alice Hamilton, and Edith Abbott.
Textile and Women
The major industry in the East earmarked for organization by the International Workers of the World (IWW) was textile manufacturing. Approximately half of the textile workers were female, a large percentage under the age of twenty with many less than fourteen. Women played such a pivotal role in textiles that industrial unions without their full participation were inconceivable, just as industrial unions in Southern lumber had been inconceivable without the full participation of blacks. The IWW also understood that no textile strike would succeed if women who worked at home succumbed to the anti-union pressures generated by the employers and their allies in the press, public office, the school system, and the clergy. Women who did not themselves work in the mills had to be convinced that whatever the immediate hardships of a strike, there would be real long-term benefits for their families and community.
The conditions faced by textile workers were grim. Wages for all but a few skilled workers were so low that most were in chronic debt, and work conditions, especially for women and children, were lethal. At a time when the national life expectancy was nearly fifty years, over a third of all mill workers died before the age of twenty-six. Substandard housing was the rule in mill towns, which were usually organized into de facto language ghettos with the most recent immigrants having the worst accommodations.
The settlement house movement began in Britain in 1884 when middle-class London reformers established Toynbee Hall, the first settlement house, in East London to provide social services and education to the poor workers who lived there. Inspired by the British movement, American social reformers began founding settlement houses in the late 1880s to respond to growing industrial poverty. In 1886, Stanton Coit founded Neighborhood Guild, the first US settlement house, in New York City. In 1889, Jane Addams and her friend Ellen Starr founded Hull-House in Chicago, which would eventually become the most famous settlement house in the US. By 1887, there were 74 settlements in the United States, and the number had ballooned to over 400 by 1890. Forty percent of settlement houses were in Boston, Chicago, and New York—the leading industrial centers—but most small cities had at least one settlement.
The major purpose of settlement houses was to help to assimilate and ease the transition of immigrants into the labor force by teaching them middle-class American values. In Chicago, for instance, Hull-House helped to educate immigrants by providing classes in history, art, and literature. Hull-House also provided social services to reduce the effects of poverty, including a daycare center, homeless shelter, public kitchen, and public baths. Settlement houses like Hull-House were a nexus for political activism, with reformers like Jane Addams becoming involved in advocating social legislation to combat poverty in local, state, and national politics.
One of the revolutionary characteristics of the settlement house movement was that women filled many of the most important leadership roles, in an era when women were still excluded from leadership roles in business and government. Approximately half of the major US settlement houses were led and staffed predominantly by women. Among the most influential leaders were Jane Addams, Mary Simkhovitch, Helena Dudley, Lillian Wald, Mary McDowell, Florence Kelley, Alice Hamilton, and Edith Abbott.
Textile and Women
The major industry in the East earmarked for organization by the International Workers of the World (IWW) was textile manufacturing. Approximately half of the textile workers were female, a large percentage under the age of twenty with many less than fourteen. Women played such a pivotal role in textiles that industrial unions without their full participation were inconceivable, just as industrial unions in Southern lumber had been inconceivable without the full participation of blacks. The IWW also understood that no textile strike would succeed if women who worked at home succumbed to the anti-union pressures generated by the employers and their allies in the press, public office, the school system, and the clergy. Women who did not themselves work in the mills had to be convinced that whatever the immediate hardships of a strike, there would be real long-term benefits for their families and community.
The conditions faced by textile workers were grim. Wages for all but a few skilled workers were so low that most were in chronic debt, and work conditions, especially for women and children, were lethal. At a time when the national life expectancy was nearly fifty years, over a third of all mill workers died before the age of twenty-six. Substandard housing was the rule in mill towns, which were usually organized into de facto language ghettos with the most recent immigrants having the worst accommodations.