Category Social Sciences

Jane Adams was a Nobel Peace Prize winner and perhaps, the most famous social worker from the United States. As a young woman, Jane desperately wanted to make a difference in the world. She found her opportunity when she visited Toynbee Hall, the settlement house in London. It inspired her to start Hull House. Hull House’s purpose was two-fold. Its primary purpose was to serve the poor inner city residents. Its other purpose was to give an outlet for educated, well to do women to prove they useful to society. Hull House worked for social change, addressing such issues as child labour, public health reform, garbage collection, labour laws and race relations.

          Jane believed women had a social responsibility to work for peace because, working men would never be against war. She took on a leadership role in the Woman’s Peace Party. Jane had a heart attack in 1926. She never fully regained her health. As a matter of fact, she was being admitted to a Baltimore hospital on the very day on December 10, 1931, that the Nobel Peace Prize was being awarded to her in Oslo. True to her cause, Jane gave all her prize money away.

              Emmeline Pankhurst and her husband Richard Pankhurst believed that women should have the same rights as men. In 1889, Emmeline founded the Women’s Franchise League, which fought to allow married women to vote in local elections. In October 1903, she helped found the more militant Women’s Social and Political Union or WSPU. Emmeline’s daughters Christabel and Sylvia were both active in the cause. British politicians, the press and the public were astonished by the demonstrations, window smashing, arson and hunger strikes of suffragettes, as the women who fought for their rights were called. Like many suffragettes, Emmeline was arrested on numerous occasions over the next few years, and went on hunger strike herself, resulting in violent force-feeding.

              When World War I broke out in 1914, Emmeline turned her energies to supporting the war effort. In 1918, the Representation of the People Act gave voting rights to women over 30. After the war, Emmeline was chosen as the Conservative candidate for an East London seat, but her health failed before she could be elected. She died on 14th June in London, a few weeks after the Representation of the People Act establishing voting equality for men and women was passed. Emmeline Pankhurst was born a Victorian Englishwoman, but she shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back.

            Mary Cassat was an American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in France. She followed a style of painting known as the Impressionist Style, and her paintings reflected the social and private lives of women, with particular emphasis on the intimate bonds between mothers and children.

           Mary Cassat’s favorite subjects became children and women with children in ordinary scenes. Her paintings express a deep tenderness, and her own love for children. But she never had children of her own. Her big breakthrough came in 1892, when she received a commission for a mural for the Woman’s Building at the Chicago World’s Fair. Sadly, the mural painting got lost after the fair, and has not shown up until today.

            Mary Cassatt was also an excellent printmaker. From 1890 to 1891, she made a series of ten colour prints, known as ‘The Ten’. This series is considered as a landmark in Impressionist printmaking. She continued to make prints until 1896. It was tragic that, this woman who loved colours and beauty should have poor eyesight- in fact, when she died at the age of 82, she was completely blind. 

Frances Willard was an educator, reformer, and suffragist. Do you know who a suffragist is? To put it simply, a suffragist is a person who fought for a woman’s right to vote. She started her career by teaching at a variety of institutions for ten years. She went on a world tour with her friend Kate Jackson in 1868, and returned to Evanston to become head of North Western Female College.

By 1874, Willard’s ideas had clashed with those of the university president, and she resigned. She then accepted the presidency of the Chicago Women’s Christian Temperance Union. In 1874, temperance activism became the focus of her life. The temperance movement of the 19th century was an organized effort to fight against the consumption of intoxicating liquors, and its ill effects on the family, and society.

In addition to temperance, Frances Willard promoted women’s rights, suffrage, equal pay for equal work, and an eight-hour day. She joined forces with the Prohibition Party and in 1890, plunged into the formation of a People’s Party, but her foray into politics was not very successful. She will always be remembered as marvellous teacher, an excellent speaker, a successful lobbyist, and an expert in forming public opinion.

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was the first woman officially approved to practice medicine in Great Britain, and was a pioneer in opening education in medicine to women.

In 1859, Garrett met Elizabeth Black-well, the first woman in America to graduate from a regular medical school. She was inspired by her to try and become a doctor too. However, she was told that, no medical school would accept her, so she started to work as a surgical nurse. She used the opportunity to attend surgical procedures, and gain some of the training given to medical students. At the end of her three-month trial period, she unofficially became a medical student. However, it was only after many setbacks and rejections that she managed to finally qualify and get her name on the medical register.

Garrett opened a dispensary for women in London, and also maintained a strong interest in the reform of education. After becoming England’s first female doctor, the first female M.D. in France, the first female member of the British Medical Association and the first female dean of a medical school, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson also became Britain’s first female mayor. Her life was truly a distinguished one! 

Alexandrine Tinne, who was born in 1839, was a Dutch explorer in Africa, and the first female to attempt to cross the Sahara. When Alexandrine was 19, she and her mother toured Egypt. Together they travelled by camel and donkey to the Red Sea, then later to the Holy Land and Damascus. The region was still considered dangerous, especially for female travellers. This particular journey, though grueling, sparked a thirst for adventure in Alexandrine, and a desire to explore the region even further. She and her mother set out to explore the Nile, and reached Wadi Haifa, but were halted by a large waterfall.

Alexandrine then set out on another expedition, accompanied by her mother and aunt. The three ladies hoped to see how far west the Nile basin extended. The journey was not an easy one for any of the travellers, and they were all particularly afflicted by tropical fevers. It is said that, they were bitten so extensively by mosquitoes that their faces swelled beyond recognition. Many members of the group fell ill, and Alexandrine’s own mother died before they reached Khartoum, in July 1864. Her aunt also died in Khartoum, and a heartbroken Alexandrine returned to Cairo.

Alexandrine’s ceaseless spirit of adventure pushed her onwards, and in 1869, she began a journey across the Sahara. Sadly, she could not reach her goal for she was murdered on the way. But she will always be remembered for her yearning to bring knowledge of regions unknown to the rest of the world… not as man or as a woman… but as a fearless explorer.