The Encounter With Dorothea Dix: Women's Rights

1874. In the early 70's other forms of treatment and placement efforts were put in place, so that mentally ill people would be able to have a better quality

Skylar Dishman Mrs. Stout/Dr. Shadden-Cobb ELA/Social Studies 8 May 2017 Dorothea Lynde Dix Dorothea Lynde Dix was a woman who had accomplished much in her life. Not only did her achievements help people with mental illnesses during that time, but also significantly changed the treatment of mentally-ill patients today. Dorothea Dix was born on April 4, 1802 in the hometown of Hampen in Maine. She was the first child of three born to Joseph Dix and Mary Bigelow Dix. Her mother was unhealthy and her father was an abusive alcoholic.

She was soon appointed to organize and outfit the Union Army hospitals and to also oversee the experienced nursing staff that was required. She was the first women to serve at such a high capacity in the federally appointed role. She was very disliked and feared

Midwest and South, as well as in portions of eastern Canada. At this point, she had helped to establish six new hospitals for the mentally ill and had influenced the improvement of numerous other facilities.” She continued on doing this for the next three years. In 1848 she asked for over 12 million acres of land for the mentally ill including the blind and the deaf from Congress. Both houses of Congress, approved of this but then “vetoed by President Franklin Pierce” in 1854.

Dorothea Dix Dorothea Dix was born an raised in Hampden, Maine in 1802. She gave America a new insight on how the mentally ill should be treated and demonstrated the appropriate way to care for others by her call for a reform. Dix was very courageous, she took risks despite the consequences. She was described by most people as the greatest humanitarian, and the most useful and distinguished person in America. This woman changed history by turning America’s views of the mentally ill from cruel and not appearing to have a proper place in the world, into something completely different.

Dorothea Lynde Dix Dorothea Dix is well known for her efforts to reform insane asylums and because of her dedication to changing the lives of help themselves who are in need of assistance, such as the mentally ill and the imprisoned. “She was a leading figure in those national and international movements that challenged the idea that people with mental disturbances could not be cured or helped.” Throughout her years of improving and changing of the prison conditions and the mentally ill, Dorothea Dix has made significant changes through her efforts and can be seen all over the U.S, Canada, and many European Countries. Dorothea Dix was born in a small town of Hampden, Maine in 1802. Dorothea Lynde Dix´s parents were Joseph and Mary Dix.

Dorothea Dix Dorothea Dix reformed the conditions of prisoners and the mentally ill. Dorothea had realized that a few prisoners weren't even guilty, they just had mental illnesses. Dorothea´s life work became telling the public about the conditions the inmates were in and also the mentally ill. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott Early on, Elizabeth and Lucrecia had organized a women's rights convention in Seneca Falls.

The Reform of mentally ill was led by Dorthea Dix, a teacher and activist for the treatment of

She asked her students about the harsh conditions they lived under; their answer is what led to her desire to reform mental institutions. Dorothea Dix traveled over 60,000 miles in 8 years gathering information for her reports. These reports brought about changes in treatment. They also revealed that insanity was a disease, not a choice. With her detailed observations, she approached dozens of state legislatures such as: New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Arkansas, Indiana, Illinois, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Maryland,

So how do you punish the criminals and treat the mentally ill? That was the question that many states were wrestling with. States answered this question by building separate prisons and Asylums. Early prisons were commonly holes in the ground like abandoned mines and populated with both criminals and mental ill people(Brinkley, A. 2013 pg 333). As the understanding of the punishment for the criminals improved, states responding by building Penitentiaries with New York being first.

Billions of dollars are spent making sure, severely mentally ill offenders can be treated. Billions of dollars have been spent making sure prison psychologists and psychiatrists have private offices to treat their inmate patients. Billions have been spent on individual cells for inmates near nurse’s station. Billions of dollars have been spent attempting to reduce overcrowding, and to improve health care in its prisons. What’s interesting about this entire ordeal, is the fact that my daughter is in the 11th grade, and every year she has been in high school she has had printed copies of chapters from the school textbooks.

Women’s rights and the way they live has changed greatly over the course of time. Back in the day, women did not have equal rights to men and they had to face many challenges in order to receive the jobs they wanted. Nowadays, women can get the same jobs as men and their power is much more appreciated. The 1930’s affected women in a positive way over time as they tried to work their way up in government positions, obtain more profitable jobs, and help provide for their families; but they still had a long ways to go getting equal rights to men.

The life of Women in the late 1800s. Life for women in the 1800s began to change as they pushed for more rights and equality. Still, men were seen as better than women, this way of thinking pushed women to break out from the limitations imposed on their sex. In the early 1800s women had virtually no rights and ultimately were not seen as people but they rather seen as items of possession, it wasn’t until the late 1800s that women started to gain more rights. The Civil War actually opened opportunities for women to gain more rights, because with many of the men gone to war women were left with the responsibilities that men usually fulfilled during that time period.

She taught the staff to influence the government and issues movements in order to help and improve the slums and work conditions, to get rid of child labor, and lower the work hours. The settlement houses started to spread rapidly, in the end about 400 settlement houses were built across America. In the settlement houses, Addams made nurseries, penny savings banks, employment bureaus, social clubs, and music, lecture, reading groups. The settlement houses taught immigrants how to be more sanitary and it helped the poor work harder to take of their family. Addams goal was to help as much as she could and she certainly achieved that

The Red Cross organization already existed, but she brought it to America and revolutionized it as well. “She wanted the American Red Cross to help the victims of natural disasters, not just war, and she later persuaded the International Red Cross to do that too” (Summers). Along with this, she helped the Red Cross push many treaties. International human kindness had never been this influential. On top of everything, she came up with new ways to care for people.