Jane Addams was one of many women that spent their time helping the less fortunate during the Gilded Age. While industrialization certainly brought money, technology, and a wave of new views, idea, and changes in lifestyle, it also brought with it mass suffering. Industrialization was brought upon the bleeding backs of the workers, at a time where conditions were harsh, pay was low, and unions were illegal. People were living in cramped conditions, and the standard of living was deplorable. In order to improve this, people like Jane Addams created settlement houses in areas of need to simulate what typical living was like and try to solve it, while also providing other services like basic academic and housework education. Jane Addams went above and beyond in her work with her settlement house, the Hull House. Efficient and pragmatic in all her work, Addams reflected the ideal industrial reformer, evident in the reach and multitude of services she offered at the Hull House. Like many social reformers at this time, Jane Addams was a young, middle class woman. Many women of this time, unless they were poor, often had quite a bit of free time, expected to only stay in the house and not work. To occupy their time, and do something with their lives, many women took up a cause. In many cases, it was the improvement of poor …show more content…
When she noticed the lack of local medical care, she provided an infant welfare clinic and free medical clinic. She saw there were no bathtubs in the settlement houses so she installed showers in the Hull House basement and bathhouses for the neighbors. There weren’t any local libraries so she opened a reading room. Addams believed in investigation a problem and solving it. It was no wonder the Hull House expanded into a dozen building spreading over more than a city