Women and the Fight for Reform Women in the late 19th century, except in the few western states where they could vote, were denied much of a role in the governing process. Nonetheless, educated the middle-class women saw themselves as a morally uplifting force and went on to be reformers. Jane Addams opened the social settlement of Hull House in 1889. It offered an array of services to help the poor deal with slum housing,disease, crowding, jobless, infant mortality, and environmental hazards.For women who held jobs, Hull House ran a day-car center and aboardinghouse. Addams was only one of many early reformers to take upsocial work. Jane Porter Barrett, an African American, founded the LocustStreet Social Settlement in Hampton, Virginia, in 1890. Her settlementoffered black women vital instruction in child care and in skills of abeing a homemaker. Lillian Wald, a daughter of Jewish immigrants from New York City,began a visiting- nurse service to reach those too poor to pay for doctorsand hospitals. Her Henry Street Settlement offered a host of vitalservices for immigrants and the poor. Wald suggested the formation of aFederal Children's Bureau. By the end of the 19th century, many women reformers focused onthe need for state laws to restrict child labor. Young children from poorfamilies had to work late hours in mines and mills and were exploited byplant managers. No state laws prevented the children from beingoverworked or abused. One of the first to challenge the exploitation of orphaned ordependent children was Sophie Loeb, a Jewish immigrant from Russia Onceher father was deceased, she watched the desperation of her mother as thefamily slipped into poverty. As a journalist, Loeb campaigned forwindow's pensions when this was still a new idea. Helen Stuart Campbell, born in 1839 in New York, began her publiccareer as an author of children's books. Then she used novels to exposesl...
