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Women in the depression era
Role of women during the great depression
Role of women during the great depression
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Junior Thesis Rough Draft Roland Ko Yellow 1/29/14
Research Question: How did the Great Depression affect women in both the household and in the job industry, in addition to the long-term benefits for equality for women? Through putting in hard work under strenuous conditions at the factory, in addition to maintaining their households for their families, and with built up motivation, women were able to make strides towards equality. At the workplace, women persevered through the arduous conditions of the factories and the animosity from their coworkers. At home, women had to additionally maintain as well as take care of their families after working from their jobs. Through their overwhelming contributions towards
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Showing their worth by not only working along wit men at their factory jobs under conditions that men deemed to be unfit with women, and through their maintenance of the house women were able to show that they were equal with men. Proving that women were up to par with men, women were finally able to get their push for equality. Although many women were still looked down upon as inferior and as less than men, women were able to unify and fight together for equality. With the Great depression giving more opportunities for people in the job industry and in the political industry, many women were able to capitalize and achieve their self goals of being in governmental and political positions. Being able to be in political positions gave women some sort of representation in government. before when a large majority of men were in politics, women were not able to voice their opinions and could not further their movements through equality because a lot of men deemed women as unimportant housewives who should stay at home and comfort their husbands as well as raise their kids and maintain their households. Proving the men who deemed women as inferior wrong, women were able to push their movements through public protesting through spreading their fights for equality. However, women in general were split on whether women should be allowed to have the same amount of equality as men. With a good majority of wealthy women appealing for reforms for women, women were still able to achieve more for their freedom movement due to the fact that women were actually getting recognition. Despite lobbying being unable to push women’s fights for equality further than the 1920’s, it is
Hollingsworth and Tyyska discuss the employment of women in their article, both wage work and work performed outside of the “paid labour force.” (14). They also look at work discrimination of women based on gender and marital status. They argue that disapproval of married women working for wages during the Depression was expressed not only by those in position of power, such as politicians, but also by the general public and labour unions. They suggest that the number of women in the workforce increased as more young wives stayed working until the birth of their first child and older women entered the workforce in response to depression based deprivation. Hollingsworth and Tyyska also give examples of work that married women did that was an extension of their domestic duties such as babysitting for working mothers or taking in laundry. They also state that some women took in boarders, sold extra produce from gardens, or ran make-shift restaurant operations out of their homes.
Levine, Linda. “The Labor Market During the Great Depression and the Current Recession”. 19 June 2009. 6 March 2010. < http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/R40655_20090619.pdf>.
Although these women did not live to cast their votes in an election, their hard work did pay off by obtaining women the right to own property and fight for custody of their children in a court of law. In this day women cannot imagine being thrown out of their homes because their husband had died or being forced to leave their children in order to escape an abusive relationship.
The Effect of the Great Depression on National and Individual Morale The Great Depression of the 1930’s was an era of hopelessness and fear for many. Coming soon after the prosperous Coolidge era, the Depression affected a nation of people who had based their self esteem around their ability to work and provide well for their families (Clements, page 67 - 69). Individuals and families had to contend not only with an existence that pushed people close to suicide and starvation, but a total loss of self worth and the haunting memories of the cars, radios and relatively luxurious lives they would have led five years previously.
During the 1920’s, America was a prosperous nation going through the “Big Boom” and loving every second of it. However, this fortune didn’t last long, because with the 1930’s came a period of serious economic recession, a period called the Great Depression. By 1933, a quarter of the nation’s workers (about 40 million) were without jobs. The weekly income rate dropped from $24.76 per week in 1929 to $16.65 per week in 1933 (McElvaine, 8). After President Hoover failed to rectify the recession situation, Franklin D. Roosevelt began his term with the hopeful New Deal. In two installments, Roosevelt hoped to relieve short term suffering with the first, and redistribution of money amongst the poor with the second. Throughout these years of the depression, many Americans spoke their minds through pen and paper. Many criticized Hoover’s policies of the early Depression and praised the Roosevelts’ efforts. Each opinion about the causes and solutions of the Great Depression are based upon economic, racial and social standing in America.
The stereotypical Canadian family during the Great Depression consisted of a father who left home to find work elsewhere in the country, a mother trying to make ends meet with what little they had left, and their malnourished children. Although, as is often the case with stereotypes, this was not how all of the population lived. Specifically speaking, women were not just resigned to waiting for their husbands or fathers to come home with money and provisions. Many Canadian women in the 1930s may have been the only reason their families survived that decade of hardship and sacrifice. Women who fit this role in ways that are not often discussed, such as young women in the workforce, farm women, and women activists, shall be examined in the following
Today, nothing remains of the former social role of women. Nearly all professions are open to women. The numbers of women in the government and traditionally male-dominated fields have dramatically increased. More women than men earn bachelor’s degrees. Many women's groups still prevail and are major political forces. Although the two movements hoped to achieve different things and used different tactics, they still came together to gain women’s rights and have achieved more than anyone would have ever anticipated.
Throughout most of recorded history, women generally have endured significantly fewer career opportunities and choices, and even less legal rights, than that of men. The “weaker sex,” women were long considered naturally, both physically and mentally, inferior to men. Delicate and feeble minded, women were unable to perform any task that required muscular or intellectual development. This idea of women being inherently weaker, coupled with their natural biological role of the child bearer, resulted in the stereotype that “a woman’s place is in the home.” Therefore, wife and mother were the major social roles and significant professions assigned to women, and were the ways in which women identified and expressed themselves. However, women’s history has also seen many instances in which these ideas were challenged-where women (and some men) fought for, and to a large degree accomplished, a re-evaluation of traditional views of their role in society.
Women began to speak out against the laws that were deliberately set against them. Throughout this time period, women were denied the right to vote in all federal and most state held elections. Women struggled to achieve equality; equality as citizens, equality in the work place, and equality at home. During this time, Americans worked to fight corruption in government, reduce the power of big business, and improve society as a whole.
Although they were fighting for a worthy cause, many did not agree with these women’s radical views. These conservative thinkers caused a great road-block on the way to enfranchisement. Most of them were men, who were set in their thoughts about women’s roles, who couldn’t understand why a woman would deserve to vote, let alone want to vote. But there were also many women who were not concerned with their fundamental right to vote. Because some women were indifferent in regards to suffrage, they set back those who were working towards the greater good of the nation. However, the suffragettes were able to overcome these obstacles by altering their tactics, while still maintaining their objective.
During the Great War and the huge amount of men that were deployed created the need to employ women in hospitals, factories, and offices. When the war ended the women would return home or do more traditional jobs such as teaching or shop work. “Also in the 1920s the number of women working raised by fifty percent.” They usually didn’t work if they were married because they were still sticking to the role of being stay at home moms while the husband worked and took care of the family financially. But among the single women there was a huge increase in employment. “Women were still not getting payed near as equally as men and were expected to quit their jobs if they married or pregnant.” Although women were still not getting payed as equally it was still a huge change for the women's
During this time most men were in the war. With most of the man gone many jobs were left open. This lead to women having to work. Women responded to this call of work differently. Women with families didn’t want to work but they didn’t have much choice. They took work because they felt it was the patriotic thing to do it was also the economic incentive that lead to many taking jobs.
One of the most changing topics in the 1930’s was the role of women in society. They started to work more because their work during the war was being recognized. Divorce became easier to achieve and many women divorced their husbands. Even though, the women were starting to gain more freedom, most of them were housewives and
The Second World War was a turning point for women workers: “The general belief is that WWII had an important impact on the participation of women in the labor market” (Bellow and Cardia 2). Before the World War II, a woman’s contributions were
“Between 1870 and 1920, the number of women in the work forces more than doubled.” (pg. 500) Many contributions had led to this. The woman of America had various jobs during the period. Such jobs these ladies had were being care takers, servants, textile workers, and social workers. Many women however took a turn in the century and began taking control of college. With this came greater opportunities because “there were nearly 1,000 women social workers in 1890 and nearly 30,00...