Jane Adams: A Women of Peace
By Jason Sibert
Jane Adams compiled a long list of accomplishments that will not be forgotten any time soon.
She spent her life advocating for causes like women’s suffrage and a world defined by peace. Adams was well known for starting Hull House in Chicago for the purpose of serving new immigrants to the United States. She was born in Cedarville, Illinois and spent the early part of her life in the state. Her father encouraged her to pursue a higher education and she attended Rockford University in Rockford, Illinois.
Adams’ husband Harry earned a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She studied medicine at the Medical College of Philadelphia but was unable to finish because of health problems. Adams started the Hull House in the 1880’s. Not only did the Hull House serve the immigrant community, it also served as a center for research, empirical analysis, study, and debate.
Adams used her experiences and taught sociology at universities around the country. She was a founding member of the American Sociological Society. In 1998, Adams joined the Anti-Imperialist League which opposed the annexation of the Philippines. She was a supporter of the Progressive Party of 1912 that nominated former President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1915, Adams became involved in the Women’s Peace Party. She was invited by European women peace activists to preside over the International Congress of Women in the Hague in April of 1915 and was chosen to head the commission to find an end to World War I. This included meeting ten leaders in neutral countries as well as those at war to discuss mediation. This was the first significant international effort against the war.
Addams was elected president of the International Committee of Women for a Permanent Peace, established to continue the work of the Hague Congress, at a conference in 1919 in Switzerland. The International Committee developed into the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Addams continued as president, a position that entailed frequent travel to Europe and Asia.
In 1917, she became a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation USA (American branch of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation founded in 1919) and was a member of the Fellowship Council until 1933. When the US joined the war, in 1917, Addams started to be strongly criticized. She faced increasingly harsh rebukes and criticism as a pacifist. Her 1915 speech on pacifism at Carnegie Hall received negative coverage by newspapers such as The New York Times which branded her as unpatriotic. Later, during her travels, she spent time meeting with a wide variety of diplomats and civic leaders and reiterating her Victorian belief in women’s special mission to preserve peace. Recognition of these efforts came with the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Addams in 1931. As the first U.S. woman to win the prize, Addams was applauded for her “expression of an essentially American democracy.” She donated her share of the prize money to the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
Jason Sibert is the executive director of the Peace Economy Project in St Louis.
