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NATIONAL HISTORY DAY 2016
Settlement House Movement
ost nineteenth century immigrants to the United States settled in Eastern and Midwestern urban centers, where
industrialization had created a need for a steady supply of low-skill, low-wage workers. A lack of sufficient and
affordable housing led to families living in cramped, unhealthy conditions. Low wages and unreliable employment prospects
kept many families in poverty. In response to increasing urban poverty, charitable and religious organizations established
settlement houses, based on an English model, to redress the social situation. By 1890 there were more than 400 settlements
in the United States. Forty percent of them were located in Boston, Chicago, and New York—the leading industrial centers—
but most small cities had at least one.12
The settlement house movement’s primary goal was to
assimilate immigrants into American culture and ease their
transition into the labor force by urging them to adopt middleclass American values.13 The prevailing culture of the time saw
ethnic and racial minorities as fundamentally different from
the middle-class native-born population. Immigrants’ failure to
acculturate was seen as partially responsible for their poverty
and lack of social mobility.
The settlement movement was unique in that many of the
most important leadership roles were filled by women, at a
time when women were largely excluded from leadership roles
in business and government. Middle class reformers, often
women, lived in settlement houses and undertook reform
work in surrounding neighborhoods. Many of the services
they provided were directed toward immigrant women and
children. Their initial offerings included childcare services for
working mothers, cooking classes, English-language classes, and
healthcare services. Women were viewed as the linchpins to
changing culture, especially in their roles as mothers.
Jane Addams, c. 1914
Library of Congress
Over time, settlement workers expanded their roles from being merely service providers to community advocates. They
lobbied local and state governments to provide community services such as public bathhouses, neighborhood parks and
playgrounds, branch libraries, better waste collection and disposal, as well as kindergartens and night classes in public
schools.14 They went on to form national coalitions that urged the state and federal government to pass reform legislation,
such as minimum wage laws, workplace safety standards, and laws regulating child labor. The advocacy was in response to
the conditions they encountered in immigrant neighborhoods.
Settlement House Movement,” Harvard Unive '6