The Women's Social Work
Life for women in the early 1880s was difficult. Jobs were scarce, and prostitution was rampant. Girls as young as 13 were selling themselves or being sold for money. When Florence Booth, a pioneer of The Salvation Army’s social work for women, caught wind of this travesty she knew The Salvation Army needed to do something. She and her husband, Bramwell Booth, were moved as they walked the streets of London and saw the desperation and despair. Florence championed the cause and helped bring social reform.
In 1884 Florence inaugurated The Women's Social Work which was run from a small house in Hanbury Street, in Whitechapel, London.
"She was young, delicate, refined; her remarkable powers of grasp and administration had not been developed at this time; she was typical of the well-educated, rather shrinking and self-conscious girl of the English professional classes — perhaps the last person in the world to whom any one would have thought of committing so hazardous and dreadful a business as this rescuing of fallen women. But she was moved by her husband’s appeal, and, in spite of some doubt on William Booth’s part, was appointed to take charge of the Salvation Army’s first Rescue Home."
She continued to lead this pioneering aspect of The Salvation Army's work for the next 28 years, until Bramwell became General.
One of the tangible ways The Salvation Army helped these destitute women was by opening homes for women in the hopes they would not have to turn to prostitution and providing a safe haven for those who were already suffering from the trade. Many of the residents were young, expectant mothers. Realizing the need for additional care for pregnant women, The Salvation Army opened rescue homes across the globe.
Read more about this topic: Florence Eleanor Soper
Famous quotes containing the words social work, women, social and/or work:
“Without our suffering, our work would just be social work, very good and helpful, but it would not be the work of Jesus Christ, not part of the Redemption.... All the desolation of the poor people, not only their material poverty, but their spiritual destitution, must be redeemed. And we must share it, for only by being one with them can we redeem them by bringing God into their lives and bringing them to God.”
—Mother Teresa (b. 1910)
“[When asked: “Will not woman suffrage make the black woman the political equal of the white woman and does not political equality mean social equality?”:] If it does then men by keeping both white and black women disfranchised have already established social equality!”
—Anna Howard Shaw (1847–1919)
“American feminists have generally stressed the ways in which men and women should be equal and have therefore tried to put aside differences.... Social feminists [in Europe] ... believe that men and society at large should provide systematic support to women in recognition of their dual role as mothers and workers.”
—Sylvia Ann Hewitt (20th century)
“Women of all classes are awakening to the necessity of self-support, but few are willing to do the ordinary useful work for which they are fitted.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)