The Humanitarianism of Jane Addams

by David Hornung, PhD, LMSW

     On September 6, 2022, we celebrate the 162nd birthday of Social Work Pioneer® Jane Addams. Although every social worker and social work student at some point in their career learns about Addams’ work as the founder of Chicago’s Hull House, many are unaware of the contributions she made to democratic moral philosophy. In 1907, Addams released a book titled Newer Ideals of Peace (2007), in which she laid out a comprehensive way for social workers and lay people to conceive of politics, social policy, war, and peace. In the text, she introduced the world to what she referred to as “humanitarianism.” This article will explore Addams’ concept of humanitarianism and look at current social issues for which social workers can effectively use this philosophy to stand with our clients in the fight for social justice.

     Addams’ definition of humanitarianism is not a clear one. Rather, it’s a concept that is best understood when compared to its opposite, militarism. Addams saw the United States in 1907 as being governed socially, politically, and economically by an ideal of militarism. Knight (2011) quotes Addams, explaining militarism as—

...seeing enemies, whether overseas or around the corner, where there were none; distrusting the people; adopting laws that institutionalized distrust, adopting laws that institutionalized that distrust; being content with “the passive results of order and discipline”; pursuing “conquest and repression”; basing a nation’s patriotism upon war; and admiring excessively the courage and daring that war required. (p.137)

     Militarism wasn’t just aggression carried out by the military of one state against another. Addams, according to Knight, saw militarism present in “the way that city government disdained and distrusted immigrants as if they were the ‘conquered people.’”

She saw it in the way industry, distrusting labor unions, refused to negotiate, leading to unjust working conditions and class warfare. Most of all, she saw it in the “unrestricted commercial spirit” that, “when it dominated a nation, she believed, led to war.” (pp. 137)

     Addams felt the only way to defeat the expanding forces of militarism was to adopt the ideals of aggressive humanitarianism. This type of humanitarianism requires action, organization, and participation. The ideal requires that we identify a social, political, or economic wrong and then take direct action to work alongside those who are victimized. Addams saw it as an ideal that requires one to be “awake” in the world. To be apathetic in the face of oppression is to be a silent supporter of human misery.

     Let’s look at some current issues that have spawned from industrial capitalism’s dalliance with militarism to see where social workers, the heirs of Jane Addams’ thought and philosophy, can have an impact on expanding her ideals of humanitarianism.

Women’s Rights

     From the start of Jane Addams’ career, special attention was given to the plight of women. One of the most influential suffragists of her time, Addams was a leading voice for the rights of women in the home and civil society. Although Addams was alive to see women make extraordinary gains in many professional and domestic areas, one must wonder if Addams would declare the current state of woman as benefiting from those improvements.

     According to the United Nations report The World’s Women 2020: Trends and Statistics, the ideals of humanitarianism are still far from realization (United Nations, 2020). Before the COVID-19 pandemic, women already spent about three times as many hours on unpaid domestic work and care work as men. During the pandemic, this disparity was exacerbated not only in the U.S., but globally, with women spending an additional 5.2 hours/week on childcare alone compared to 3.5 extra hours for men (UN Women, 2020).

     In the labor market, only “28% of managerial positions are held by women globally.” In 2022, women are still overworked, underpaid, and exploited for their labor.

     When it comes to women’s health and autonomy, humanitarianism is on the run from encroaching militarism. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that “7 million women a year” are treated for complications from unsafe abortions performed in countries where the procedure is illegal (World Health Organization, 2021). This grim reality may not be relegated to the global south. In June 2022, the United States Supreme Court struck down the 1973 Roe V. Wade decision, stripping women of the constitutional right to make decisions regarding their reproductive health. It may only be a matter of time before women in the United States face similar outcomes as their sisters in the global periphery.

Labor Rights

     The plight of working people was always at the center of Jane Addams’ work. Addams even got her first experience in politics lobbying for the end of child labor. In 1912, when Addams was a delegate to the Progressive Party Platform, it was her advocacy that led Theodore Roosevelt to run on a policy platform of “unemployment insurance, minimum safety and health standards for industry, child labor laws, the eight-hour day for women, the six-day week for workers, and the creation of a department of labor” (Knight, pp. 173). From establishing clubs and programs at Hull House that gave union organizers a place to work to her advocacy on behalf of victims of state sponsored violence during the 1894 Pullman strike, the rights of organized labor have always been essential to Addams’ political philosophy.

     The current state of organized labor is not close to operating under the ideals of humanitarianism. Currently, only “6% of the private sector workforce is unionized—the lowest share in a century” (Johnston, 2022). In South Carolina, the current workforce is just 1.6% unionized, (Southern Carolina Regional Development Alliance, 2022), barely registering existence in the market. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (2022) reports that the level of union participation continues to decline, even as the wages of workers in unions are significantly higher than those of the unorganized.

Budget Priorities

     For Jane Addams, nowhere was the idea of militarism vs. humanitarianism more clearly visible than in government spending. Where a nation chooses to spend its money says a lot about that nation’s priorities. This sentiment is echoed by the Reverend Jim Wallis when he says, “A budget is a moral document” (2017). So where, in the case of the United States, does the money collected by the federal government go? In looking at trends in the federal budget, it’s clear that Addams’ ideal of humanitarianism has a long way to go.

     For 2022, the United States government has earmarked $768 billion for the national defense (Edmondson, 2021). Conversely, “$665 billion of the federal budget in 2022 supports programs that provide aid (other than health insurance or Social Security benefits) to individuals and families facing hardship.” For a country that has not officially declared war on another state and has pulled out of its largest military engagement in Afghanistan, it’s hard to understand why so much is spent on war and preparation for hostilities and so little is spent on the economic welfare of its citizens. With “16% of America’s children living in dire poverty,” it’s hard to see any humanitarian principles on display in the 2022 fiscal year budget (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2021).

Where do we go from here?

     We could go on at length about issues and problems that violate the tenets of a humanitarian-based society. However, there are avenues of hope. Wages are the highest they have been in 20 years. Workers are moving in droves from low-paying jobs to jobs with better wages, more benefits, and opportunities to grow (Associated Press, 2021). The United States elected a Black female, born to immigrant parents, to the vice presidency. Voters in deeply conservative Kansas voted overwhelmingly to ensure that women have the right to make reproductive health decisions (Lysen, Ziegler, & Mesa, 2022). Even in the face of increasing militarism, there are specks of humanitarian growth.

     With the 2022 mid-term elections approaching, the best way to honor the legacy and vision of Jane Addams’ humanitarianism is to get out and vote for those candidates who best uphold the values of social work. Humanitarianism requires action. The action that all of us can take is making sure we get to the polls to ensure that a vision of a just society is supported by the people we elect to office. A future based on Addams’ ideal of humanitarianism is achievable. It’s up to us to go out and make it.

References

Addams, J., Carroll, B. A., & Fink, C. F. (2007). Newer ideals of peace. University of Illinois Press.

Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2021, September 20). New child poverty data illustrate the powerful impact of America’s safety net programs. https://www.aecf.org/blog/new-child-poverty-data-illustrates-the-powerful-impact-of-americas-safety-net-programs

Associated Press. (2021, October 29). Wages jump by the most on records dating back 20 years. US News. https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2021-10-29/workers-wages-jump-by-most-in-xx-years-this-summer

Edmondson, C. (2021, December 15). Senate passes $768 billion defense bill, sending it to Biden. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/15/us/politics/defense-spending-bill.html

Johnston, T. (2022, January 25). The U.S. labor movement is popular, prominent and also shrinking. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/01/25/business/unions-amazon-starbucks.html

Knight, L. W. (2011). Jane Addams: Spirit in action. W.W. Norton.

Lysen, D., Ziegler, L., & Mesa, B. (2022, August 3). Voters in Kansas decide to keep abortion legal in the state, rejecting an amendment. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/2022-live-primary-election-race-results/2022/08/02/1115317596/kansas-voters-abortion-legal-reject-constitutional-amendment

Southern Carolina Regional Development Alliance. (2022). Workforce by drive time. https://southerncarolina.org/workforce-by-drive-time

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2022, January 20). Union members—2021 [Press release]. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/union2.pdf

United Nations (2020, October 20). The world’s women 2020: Trends and statistics. https://www.un.org/en/desa/world%E2%80%99s-women-2020

UN Women. (2020). Whose time to care: Unpaid care and domestic work during COVID-19. https://data.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/Whose-time-to-care-brief_0.pdf

UN Women. (July 9, 2020). Ipsos survey confirms that COVID-19 is intensifying women’s workload at home. https://data.unwomen.org/features/ipsos-survey-confirms-covid-19-intensifying-womens-workload-home

Wallis, J. (2017, March 30). Truth that bears repeating: A budget is a moral document. Sojourners. https://sojo.net/articles/truth-bears-repeating-budget-moral-document

World Health Organization. (2021, November 25). Abortion [Infographic]. Author. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/abortion

David Hornung is an assistant professor at CUNY York College in the MSW program.