Jane Addams was born in September 6, 1860 and died in May 21, 1935. She was an intelligent educated woman who came from an upper-class family. She graduated as valedictorian of Rockford Female Seminary. She started to study medicine however she had to leave school due to her spinal defect. She was uncertain of her career, so she made a few trips to Europe. When she came back from her second trip, which was to England, she was inspired to settle down and start the settlement house called the Hull House.
Immigrants and Their Living Conditions
Chicago's economy was growing due to the industrial era as well as its population of 100,00 increased to 1 million in three decades. Immigrants flooded the U.S. but his time it was from mainly non-English
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However, she could only help so much that is why she fought for laws to be changed. Addams helped Kelly, her friend who had stayed in the Hull House, get an investigator job in the Bureau of Labor Statistics of Illinois and expose the harsh conditions people were living and working in. This lead to outlawing child labor laws and mandating an eight-hour workday for women. She established the Immigrants' Protective League and in 1893 her fight for better sweatshop working conditions paid off with the passing of a Workshop and Factory Act. His act also helped pass child labor laws, so children were not taken advantage of and put in harm's way by companies who wanted to make a profit. This outlawed children under 14 years old in Illinois to work in factories or sweatshops. To help their families' children would also steal that is why Jane Addams help establish the first Juvenile Protective Association which was the first juvenile court system called the Juvenile Court of Chicago and a Juvenile Psychopathic Clinic. This was important because if these kids were found guilty they would be sent to jail with adult criminals but with the juvenile court systems they got more appropriate punishments like being sent in to detention