Pragmatism şi feminism. Noi direcţii de cercetare
Pragmatism and Feminism. New Research Directions

Summary/Abstract: Born in 1860 in a small Midwestern town, Jane Addams is now recognized as one of the greatest women leaders in the United State’s history. She founded a famous settlement in Chicago called Hull House where she offered assistance for working people, especially immigrants. In 1892 the University of Chicago opened its doors bringing many faculty members as visitors and lecturers at Hull House. The 1890’s were lively and controversial years at Hull House: anarchists, marxists, socialists, unionists, and leading social theorists congregated there. Chicago pragmatism was born through their collegial contacts and intellectual changes. They wanted to combine scientific and objective observation with ethical and moral values to generate a just and liberated society. Hull House and Addams gained a national and international reputation as a radical, innovative and successful institution. Addams sorrounded herself with brilliant and dedicated people, particularly women, who wanted a new role in life and society: they lived at the settlement, wrote together, gathered statistics, investigated factories and industries, conducted health examinations, examinated sanitary conditions. So she quickly succeded in assuming leadership of the American social settlement and subsequently changed the course of American thought and politics. Jane Addams was author of eleven books and hundreds of articles and she continued her teaching and educating efforts through lectures across the country and the Hull House. She led social reforms organizations, campaigned for the Progressive Party and helped to found numerous government agencies, notably the Children’s, Women’s and Immigration Bureaus. She practiced and advocated free speech for all and “radical democracy”: equality must extend beyond citizenship rights and pervade all aspects of economic and social life. She was a “critical pragmatist”: she sought not only answers to problems, but those answers that were in the best interest of all, including the poor and disenfranchised. Addams was a cultural feminist and her views on women were little understood then or now. Having a popular image as a “saintly” woman who worked for the poor, in fact she believed that female values were superior to male ones and that society built on feminine values would be more productive, peaceful and just. Because Addams is now recognized as one of the greatest woman leaders of the United States it is necessary to address the issue of the importance of documenting her role in one, predominantly academic, discipline.

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