The Creation of Women in

Social Welfare

By: Joy MacMurchy, Tami Moody, Ashley Burkhardsmeier, Brandi Burkhardsmeier

“The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent

when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls.”

Born eighth of eleven children in Johnstown, New York in which five of her siblings died in early childhood or infancy

Stanton's father, was a prominent attorney who served one term in the Congress and later became a judge which planted the earliest seeds which grew into her legal and social activism

Mother was distant in childhood after she fell into severe depression from loss of so many children

Attended Jamestown Academy and studied Latin, Greek, and mathematics until age 16 and went on to Troy Female Seminary

Christian background but soon feared her damnation and left Christianity for a view that ethics are the best guide for thought and behavior

Married abolitionist Henry Brewster Stanton in 1840 and had six children

• Her father’s statement, "Oh, my daughter, I wish you were a boy!“ showed her that her own father valued men more than women.

• Encounters with fugitive slaves at the home of her cousin Gerrit Smith

• Sexual discrimination when young men that she surpassed academically went on to Union College but she could not because they were only accepting men

• Lucretia Mott’s exclusion from being an abolitionist delegate, even after all of her hard work

• Over a glass of tea and a discussion with friends, Stanton raised her concerns regarding the extreme limitations on women under America’s new democracy. She found it amazingly ironic that the American Revolution had just been fought seventy years prior in order to gain freedom, yet women were not included in this American freedom. Within two days of this conversation, a meeting had been announced for women to gather and discuss how changes could be made.

• Outraged when the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London, in 1840, denied official standing to women delegates. Stanton formed the first women’s rights meeting in the U.S. in 1848.

• 240 Supporters, including 40 men attended

• Wrote Declaration of Sentiments– “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women

are created equal…” – Addressed inalienable right to freedom, lack of voice and voting

rights, leadership roles, reform of marital and property laws, education and employment discrimination, exclusion from church ministry, a woman’s life belongs to God, different moral standards for men and women, and overall suffrage of women

• Abolitionist

• Temperance Movement– Woman’s State

Temperance Society (1852-53)

• Lobbied for Ratification of 14th and 15th Amendment

Opposed passage of the fifteenth amendment without it being changed to include female suffrage, unlike American Woman Suffrage Association which supported Amendment as written

Focused attention on voting rights and admittance of working women into labor unions

In 1890 the NWSA merged with AWSA to form the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

The organization started to try and win support through a state-by-state approach rather than nationally

Became the most mainstream and nationally visible pro-suffrage group

“The best protection any woman can have . . . is courage.”

Founded in 1869, based in New York

Stanton was first President and Susan B. Anthony was first Vice President

Married Woman’s Property Act, 1848

Allowed women to hold property, gain custody of children, make contracts, keep earnings and inheritance, and sue in court

Equal guardianship of children

Divorce laws

Women could leave marriages that were abusive to the wife, the children, or the economic health of the family

The Woman’s Bible

Helped publish the first three volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage

Impacted passage of Women’s Suffrage Amendment

Active in European Women’s Movement

Founder of women’s rights newsletter, The Revolution

Julia Lathrop

“It is doubtful that many people strolling through a book store or reading publishers’ advertisements will recognize the name of Julia Lathrop, yet she was on of the people who shaped the social and political history of the United States.” –Jane Addams

BACKGROUND ON JULIA LATHROP

•Born in Rockford, Illinois-1858

•Began her college education at Rockford Seminary for a year

•She then transferred to Vasser College-she received her degree in 1880

•After she graduated she worked as a secretary in her father’s law office. This is when she became interested in the treatment of the mentally ill, equal rights for women and social reform

•In 1890 Julia joined Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Star at the Hull House in Chicago

•She spent the next 22 years there

•She led organizations to increase public knowledge on child welfare, social work, immigrant protection and the mentally ill

•Plato Club-the large amount of members were elderly men who debated philosophical and religious matters

•Soon Julia Lathrop became an asset to the Hull House Organization

JULIA LATHROP AND THE HULL HOUSE

The Hull House created by Jane Addams was made to offer not only food and shelter but also to bring about education to those of the lower class. They also attempted to help immigrants adapt to the American way of life. This settlement tried to bring equality to the social classes by having the well educated live among the poor, so they begin to know them directly.

Illinois Board of Charities

•In 1893--1st woman to receive a state position of the Illinois Board of Charities, this was appointed by Governor Altgeld

•In her work with the board, Lathrop visited many facilities in and around Chicago, that housed people who were mentally ill, aged, sick, or disabled. She advocated that separate facilities should be established that would attend to these specific groups.

“My picture of Miss Lathrop is characterized by her eagerness to let youth speak for itself—and speak with her sympathetic support close at hand. She gave youth her friendship and faith. She gave to youth as to all others credit for the accomplishments she herself inspired.”

—Mrs. Kenneth Rich

The Creation of the Children's Bureau

The Children's Bureau was formally created in 1912 when Presiden t William Howard Taft signed into law a bill creating the new federal

government organization. The stated purpose of the new Bureau wa s to investigate and report "upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of

children and child life among all classes of our people."

Julia C. Lathrop, first Chief of the Children's Bureau

•In 1912 Julia moved to Washington D.C. where she was appointed Chief to the Federal Children’s Bureau

•The reasoning for appointing her was because she was an educator, State Board of Charities member, and Hull House insider who had read law in her father’s office and visited every state institution and almshouse in Illinois.

•She made issues like child labor laws and juvenile delinquency.

Julia Lathrop

The Children’s Bureau Today

-a nonprofit organization that receives funding from the U.S. Department of health and services. This is all a direct result of Julia Lathrop’s hard work and dedication.

-The Children’s Bureau protects children from neglect and abuse and also offers family services, adoption, and foster care.

Through the Efforts of Julia, the Sheppard-Towner Act of 1921 was realized-a law which provided grants for state use in the health care of mothers and children.

Lathrop resigned from the Children’s Bureau position in 1922, and went to live with her sister in Rockford, Illinois

From 1925-1931, she participated as a member of the Child Welfare Committee of the League of Nations.

Until her death in 1932, she fought against the capital punishment of juveniles.

JANE ADDAMS

Biography

• Born in Cedarville, Illinois on September 6, 1860

• She was the youngest of eight children

• Her mother died when she was three years old, her father remarrying in 1868

• She is most well-known for founding the world famous social settlement Hull-House in Chicago, Illinois

• She also built her reputation as one of America’s most prominent women through her writings and her international efforts for world peace

• Died in Chicago, Illinois on May 21, 1935

Accomplishments

• She graduated from the Rockford Female Seminary in Rockford, Illinois in 1882, as valedictorian of her class

• In 1889 she and Ellen Gates Starr co-founded Hull-House• In 1899 she gave a Democracy or Militarism speech in

front of the Chicago Liberty Meeting• Along with workers, she lobbied the state of Illinois to

examine laws governing child labor, the factory inspection system, and the juvenile justice system

• She began to form the juvenile court system, because she felt it was unfair to try adolescents as adults

• The first juvenile court opened in 1899 in Chicago • By 1920, only three states did not have juvenile courts

Accomplishments• In 1905 she was appointed Chicago's

Board of Education and chairman of School Management Committee

• She was elected the first woman at the National Conference of Social Work in 1905

• In 1906 she wrote Newer Ideals of Peace, which discussed problems with the military among civilians

• She helped found Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy in 1908

• In 1909 she was the first woman president of National Conference of Charities and Corrections

Accomplishments

• In addition to her involvement in the American Anti-Imperialist League and the American Sociology Association, she was also an influential member of both the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

• In 1911 she helped to establish the National Foundation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers and became its first president

• Her first book was released in 1910, followed by two every year

• Her biggest success in writing came with the release of the book, Twenty Years at Hull House, this became her autobiography

Accomplishments

• She received the first honorary degree given to a woman by Yale University in 1910

• In 1910 she was the first female president of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections (NCCC) which she gave 18 papers from 1897-1933

• In 1911 she was the first vice-president of National American Women suffrage Association

• She campaigned for Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Party and seconded his nomination for President of the Progressive Party

• In 1913 she was elected second to Thomas Edison in Independent magazine's poll for "Who Was the Most Useful American"

Accomplishments

• She helped work for legislation to protect immigrants from exploitation, limit the working hours of women, mandate schooling for children, recognize labor unions, and provide for industrial safety

• She produced eleven books and numerous articles, as well as maintaining an active speaking schedule nationwide and throughout the world

• In 1915 she organized the Women's Peace Party and the International Congress of women

• She was elected the first president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in 1919

• In 1931 she was the first American female and only social worker awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

HULL-HOUSE

Hull-House

• Hull-House was founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1989

• One of the first settlement houses in the United States

• Influenced by Toynbee Hall in the east end of London

• Settlement houses provided welfare for a neighborhood's poor and a center for social reform

Hull-House• Its facilities included a night school for adults; kindergarten

classes; clubs for older children; a public kitchen; an art gallery; a coffeehouse; a gymnasium; a girls club; a swimming pool; a book bindery; a music school; a drama group; and a library

• By 1900 Hull-House activities had broadened to include the Jane Club (a cooperative residence for working women), the first Little Theater in America, a Labor Museum and a meeting place for trade union groups

• At its height, Hull-House was visited each week by around two thousand people

Hull-House• Residents of Hull-House included; Jane Addams, Florence

Kelley, Dr. Alice Hamilton, Julia Lathrop, Ellen Gates Starr, Sophonisba Breckinridge, and Grace and Edith Abbott

• The Hull-House residents and their supporters forged a powerful reform movement

• Among the projects that they launched were the Immigrants' Protective League, The Juvenile Protective Association, the first juvenile court in the nation, and a Juvenile Psychopathic Clinic (later called the Institute for Juvenile Research)

• Through their efforts, the Illinois legislature enacted protective legislation for women and children and in 1903 passed a strong child labor law and an accompanying compulsory education law

Frances Perkins What a Legacy she left

1880-1965

• Didn’t grow up in poverty-stricken home

• Her childhood best friend lived in poverty

• Perkins wondered why?

• Her parents answer: idleness and alcohol

Background: young girl

Background: young woman

• Mount Holyoke College for Chemistry • history assignment: required her to research factory conditions• found horrifying working conditions:

-men, women and children working long hours for very little pay-no safety precautions, no insurance policies

More influences

• Read Jacob Riis’s book, How the Other Half Lives

• Heard Florence Kelley speak, who would later become her good friend and mentor- her speech “first opened my mind to the necessity for and the possibility of the work which became my vocation”

Francis Perkins as a social worker

• quits teaching to take up social work

-no social work education•social work is new profession •takes the field by storm

Francis Perkins as a Social Worker• Earned masters in Political Science

• Learned as she worked. Worked a number of social work jobs

• Busting in New York:

-N.Y.C. Consumer’s League executive secretary

-investigated over a hundred bakeries, found appalling conditions

-brought findings to Board of Health and regulations were changed and enforced

-investigated factories fire safety

-tried to get policies changed, no one listened, until Triangle Shirtwaist Company burned down

-committees finally formed: Committee on Safety in N.Y.C. & N.Y. State Factory Investigating.

-Perkins advised them both

-laws got passed

-From committees and her work, they made N.Y. one of the top states in “improving sanitation, safety, and work conditions”

Administrative jobs

• Asked by Al Smith, friend and Governor of N.Y. to be part of the Industrial Commission of the State of N.Y.

• Uproar: wanted a man appointed

• Smith re-elected 1 term later

-Perkins became Commissioner of the State Industrial Board

Winning Favor

• Roosevelt becomes Governor of N.Y.

• Appointed also by Roosevelt as Commissioner of the State Industrial Board

• Told Roosevelt, she would only take the job, if he: “supported her efforts to propose legislation to reduce working hours, improve workmen’s compensation, restrict child labor, abolish sweatshops, and establish more safety codes”

Commissioner of the State Industrial Board

• created committee to study and lower unemployment

• studied ways to put people back to work

• traveled to England to study unemployment insurance

• pushed legislation: protect women and children workers and lower unemployment

FDR Elected President: Perkins as Madame Secretary

• Appointed Secretary of Labor on FDR’s cabinet

• First female cabinet member; this is huge!!!

• Perkins:-reorganized Bureau of Labor-created U.S. employment service: assisted people looking for jobs

Perkins as Madame Secretary

• Great Depression hits • Perkins creates countless programs for relief efforts:-CCC -FERA -NRA, and many more• Steel codes: established good wages, hours and working conditions• Made it legal to form unions• Division of Labor Standards: cooperated with States in all problems of

health, safety, and working conditions

Perkins as Madame Secretary

• Headed Committee on Economic Security (social security insurance):

-researched and created social security insurance for unemployment and old age

• Congress approved Social Security Act Aug. 10, 1935

-covered: unemployed, blind, disabled, elderly, and children of single parents (ADC)

• BIG VICTORY!!!

Perkins as Madame Secretary• Perkins worked to get 2 major bills passed • Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act: 8-hour

day, minimum wage, no child labor under the age of 16, for all services and goods purchased by Government

• Wages & Hours Act: -for all companies who conduct business in more than one state-ended employment of children under 16-minimum wage: .40/hour-40 hour work week-time and a half for over time

• Still have these regulations today!!!

Perkins as Madame Secretary

• Served 3 full terms with FDR• She tried to resign, but he wouldn’t let her go • She wrote about FDR, “I am bound to him

by ties of affection, common purpose, and joint undertakings.”

• completely changed social welfare by changing policies and getting laws and regulations passed

Perkins Legacy

• Perkins accomplished so much for the United States social welfare system

• many of the programs she started are still around today

• social welfare in the United States would not be the same without her influence

• our nation would have completely different ideas about unemployment, child labor, minimum wage, ect…

• changed social welfare by changing policies and getting laws and regulations passed

• role model for women• left a legacy of ideas that we still

uphold today