Abstract

    Historians have discussed societal changes at the beginning of the twentieth century since the 1970s, if not earlier.  They agree that members of the middle-class were concerned with what they perceived as moral and familial breakdown in the working-class. When talking specifically about the women at Hull-House, scholars recognize the women’s overwhelming dedication to the use of statistics in advocating for reform. What they fail to mention is if the women of Hull-House considered there to be a breakdown of traditional family values among the working-class, and if so, how the documents and statistics produced by the women of Hull-House relate to the middle-class view of the degradation of the working-class family. Answering and explaining these views of the working-class is the primary goal of Hull-House Women: Preventing the Breakdown of Working-Class Families.

     As this is in-progress, works to be examined are the writings of Jane Addams, the statistical research and analysis of the conditions in the Nineteenth Ward as described by the Hull-House women, and communication between Addams, Florence Kelley, Johnny Powers, and Theodore Roosevelt. These will provide insight into the reasons Hull-House was founded and by extension the impact of the Hull-House and its residential women on working-class families. It is expected that the women of Hull-House did see a slight breakdown of middle-class values among the working-class.