As more women gained access to a college education in the late nineteenth century, many hoped to use their skills and talents for more than homemaking and child rearing. Jane Addams, born in 1860 to a Quaker miller in Illinois, was one of these women who hoped to improve the life of others and society at large. After completing her education, Addams took a trip to Europe, where social activism in the slums of London had a dramatic effect on her. She returned to Chicago to found her own version of London's "settlement houses" in 1889. The British settlement houses, which inspired Addams, were residences located within destitute neighborhoods with programs designed to improve living conditions. Addams's Hull House, located in an immigrant area of the city with appalling living conditions, provided numerous women with the opportunity to serve the poor neighborhood and reform conditions there...