The Role Of The American Women In The Settlement Movement

The Settlement Movement,which was launched in the end of the19thcenturyand the early20thcentury in America by some highly educated progressive women,isan urban reform that advocated people to settle in the slums to “aid in solving thesociety and industry problems brought by the modern city life”. Somebody called it"settle salvage movement" or "shelter movement". The two names can not reflect theessence of the movement accurately. In my view, the movement is not only an act ofsocial assistance,but also a reform of perfecting social function perfection andpromoting social progress kind of perfect social function. Considering the movementis mainly centred on the communities or the slums, I think that "the settlementmovement"is more accurately.Women played an important role in the settlement movement. In the beginning,they focused on the social life.Then they turned attention to participating in the socialproblems legislation. Women always stood in the forefront throughout the movement,and it became an important manifestation of the feminist movement.The settlement movement involves many subjects such as history, sociology,and the study of women. It can deepen our understanding of the settlement movementand the the cities landscape and help us to build a deeper understanding of the Womenin American history from the sympathy, for their own emancipation helpdisadvantaged groups until the shift to focus on the public to analyze the role ofwomen in the movement.Moreover,Analyzing the role of women in the settlementmovement is a supplement to the study of American women movement and aguidance for our social work. This article explores the role of women in thesettlement movement mainly from the rise,the climax and the decline stages of thespecific activities.This article is divided into five parts and from three stages to discuss the role ofwomen in the community reform movement. The first part focuses on the rise of the movement and its background, mainlydiscusses the social status of women, three increase of specific performance, in therise of women’s economic status are better educated and social activities experience.In the second part, I discuss the rise stage of the movement of the earlywomen’s activities and efforts, including cultural art club, conducting lectures, healthygrowth and education for young children, assistance, protection of migrant,governance of community health with practice, and analyze the characteristics ofwomen in these activities, thus we can see the important role of the women in themovement.In the third part, I discuss the activities and efforts of the women, such aschildren labor legislation, improving working conditions of women and protectimmigration legislation activities and analyze the characteristics of the womenactivities in the climax stage in the focus of expansion of scope and the struggle wayinnovation etc. Then we can see the decisive role of women in the climax stage of thesettlement movement.In the fourth part, I discuss the causes of the movement modified decline,especially the factors related with women, such as the leaders pacifist views andanti-war stance to be isolated and helpless, and the expand of the areas of femaleemployment, women are no longer limited to community work and some other factors.It analyze the influence of women on the development of the movement from anotherangle.In the fifth part, I analyze the role of women in the movement as a whole.In themovement, they are not only leaders, but also the main force. Then I discuss theenlightenment of this issue for social reform and the current women work,combinethe role of women with the real condition,exspecting to draw lessons from history.The sixth part is the summary of dissertation, I discuss the practice of women inthe movemen and the characteristics,function,at last, I summarize its practicalsignificance.