Information about the social reformer, Jane Addams, and the settlement house movement that she helped lead. (Laura) Jane Addams won worldwide recognition in the first third of the twentieth century as a pioneer social worker in America, as a feminist, and as an internationalist. More than any other American woman of the 20th century, Jane Addams inspired and mobilized generations of women and men committed to the improvement of their communities, states and the nation as a whole.