Surviving The Great Depression

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The nation was growing up. Movies were starting to show more violence and sexuality. Women were coming out of their shell so to speak. They were starting to dress and act much differently than ever before. Women were now showing a side that was not ever seen before in film. Such stars of the 1930's Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, and Bette Davis appeared self confident and sexy. Before this women were seen as housewives and not much more. Even outside of movies women were seeking much more independence. They were now looking for things other than the perfect man. They wanted jobs, but there just wasn't enough to go around.

Unemployment plagued America throughout the 1930's. The stock market crash of 1929 changed the lives of Americans forever. This began the era that we know as The Great Depression. Within three years the low wages that Americans had been receiving just was not cutting it. Unemployment was reaching record numbers. It was 50 percent or more in many places. There simply were not enough jobs or money to go around. Depression was becoming a way of life. People were living out of their cars, cardboard boxes and moving in with relatives that were slightly luckier than they were.

Many men were faced with terrible depression. Families that were economically and socially dependent on their husbands' jobs were devastated. Men just could not find jobs. They stood outside of the unemployment office day after day asking for work but there just wasn't enough to go around. Because of this many men felt extremely depressed. Some men left home, others turned to violence beating their wives, and some even killed themselves.

The depression was not just affecting white but blacks had things even harder. Black women who have been working much longer than white women now couldn't even find jobs. Black women dominated the field of domestic labor. Many worked in private households doing cooking, cleaning and other household duties. But many blacks weren't this lucky. They were discriminated from many relief programs.

To try and combat this depression president Franklin D. Roosevelt created something called the New Deal. This new deal was a series of programs that were geared to recovery and reform of the nation. Through the new deal the government became responsible for regulation of the economy. They also began to recognize the needs of poor families unable to support themselves giving them government support.

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