Hilda Polachecks Life and the Role of Women in America in the 20th Century

20TH CENTURY AMERICAN HISTORY
Name
Course
Instructor
Date
Q3: Hilda Polachecks Life and the Role of Women in America in the 20th Century
“I came a Stranger: The Story of a Hull-House Girl” by Hilder Satt offers an interesting account of the journey of Polacheck from Poland to Chicago and the role of Jane Adams in her life. The story is both humorous and poignant and highlights what Hull house meant to a girl like Hilda. Hilda came to Chicago as a stranger when she knew no English and she had to strive a lot to learn. To Hilda, the feminist and labor politics that took place during her era held a lot of meaning. In the story, Hilda describes the struggles, tragedies, romance, and triumphs she went through.
The story narrates about what happens at the turn of the 20th century. It was a time when there were many movements for reforms to ensure that rights of women were taken into consideration. The women during this era sought to have more power and social control in a world that was thoroughly dominated by the males. Settlement houses such as the Hull-House, served to give women political and social tools which they could use for their advancements. During this period, women never had a right to vote. Using reform activities, they formed a more united front on which they used to voice their opinions.[Polacheck, Hilda. I Came a Stranger: The Story of a Hull-House Girl. Vol. 122. University of Illinois Press, 1991]
The Hull-House symbolized settlement house movement. Many women found a place they could share many common things in the house. Within the house, the women had the ability to forge a united front in working together for change even though the odds were stuck against them. But there was a feeling among women that they were more superior compared to their male counterparts. Even though they were constrained to dealing with family issues, they used their powers on such topics as family, child, and labor to be apolitical and ensuring that they never challenged their femininity.
Women during this period did a lot of labor and yet they were more constrained to domestic issues and much of the work they did was unpaid. But at the Hull-House, the overall goal was to improve the status of women as working-class citizens and make them more independent as their male counterparts. Even in this era, there were women that belonged to the elite class. There were also elite women. They often participate in reforms and ensured that women had more access to power. These elite women too had the urge to improve their standings within the society.
There was more solidarity among women in their quest for change. Hull-House provided them with a place they could meet and strategize on how they would be initiating the changes they needed. There was a line of separation between men and women. Men were seen to have more class that women could not even come close to. It was the duty of women such as Jane Adams to ensure that such lines of separation were erased and more equality was practiced between the two genders. It was an era where there were a lot of prejudices that separated people along racial, religious, and gender backgrounds.
Hilda was married off at a relatively young age of 17 years. It is an ag...