Jane Addams

Laura Jane Addams (1860 to 1935) was an American settlement activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator, philosopher and author, and a leader in the history of social work and of women's suffrage. In 1889 she co-founded Hull House in Chicago, one of the most famous American settlement houses, which provided extensive social services to poor, largely immigrant families. Philosophically a radical pragmatist, she was arguably the first woman public philosopher in the United States. She is recognized as the founder of the social work profession in the United States, was a co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920, and in 1931 became the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, which she shared with Nicholas Murray Butler.