"True Peace is not merely the absence of war, but the presence of justice."
Outside her work as a prominent social reformer, Addams was a deeply committed pacifist and peace activist. Jane Addams was a feminist by philosophy. She believed that women should make their voices heard in legislation and own the right to vote. She also thought that women should generate aspirations and search out opportunities to create them. As her reputation grew, Addams was drawn into larger fields of civic responsibility. But, for her own aspirations to rid the war, Jane Addams created opportunities or seized those offered to her to advance the cause. First, she gave lectures at the University of Wisconsin, which she eventually published as a book called The Newer Ideals of Peace. In the next two years, as a lecturer sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation, spoke up against America’s entry to the first World War. In January, 1915, she accepted the chairmanship of the Women’s Peace Party, an American organization, and four months later the presidency of the International Congress of Women. Jane Addams then served for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom until 1929 as honorary president for the remainder of her life. She went on to establish the National Federation of Settlements the following year, holding that organization's pride for more than two decades thereafter. As a result of publicly opposing the war, Addams was often attacked in the press, but this never stopped her humanitarian impulses. Jane Addams is forever remembered not only as a pioneer in the field of social work, but one of the nation’s leading pacifists.