With men being the main source of income to the family, married women had it the easiest in the Great Depression. If their spouse had a job, the family had whatever little money they had to get food. Single and widowed women were struggled the most to keep afloat. Most women didn't seek relief either, and would keep to themselves, mainly because they were ridiculed for seeking relief or jobs. In 1939, the percentage of women in the work force was equal to the unemployed rate. The argument was made to fire all the women to give these jobs to "more deserving men." In fact, nearly the opposite happened. The number or working women slightly rose during the depression, and doubled for married women.
Throughout this decade, women continued to struggle to be equal citizens as their male counterparts. The minimum wage was set lower for women than for men and the jobs created by FDR's New Deal really only helped men get more jobs. After the passage of the Wagner Act, which gave workers the right to strike, passed in 1935, many women went on strike and joined organized unions
While Eleanor Roosevelt was embraced by many for being a very strong women of the time period, her modern ideas scared some Americans. My grandfather told me that his parents hated the Roosevelts, especially Eleanor because she went against what was considered acceptable for woman. A short story that I found funny was when my grandfather's second grade teacher asked him to write something nice about FDR after he died, he said he couldn't because his family didn't like the Roosevelts. The teacher was speechless and didn't respond to him because she thought the idea of not liking the Roosevelts was absurd. While today everyone admires Eleanor, it was interesting for me to learn that her ideas weren't as popular back then. I hoped this helped clarify how women faired in the Great Depression.
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/great-depression/essays/women-and-great-depression\
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snprelief1.htm
Something I forgot to add, women recieved the right to vote in national elections through the passage of the nineteenth amendment in 1920. Women under the constitution were closer to being politically equal to men with the ratification of this amendment. Overall, women made great leaps by gaining more individual status in this time period. No longer was the women fully dependent on a man, although life for single and widowed women was by no means easy. But in this decade, women had the chance to be individuals by voting and getting a job.
ReplyDeleteReally Interesting Post! Adding onto this, I would say this resurgence of women wanting to work during the Great Depression created much worse relationships between men and women during this time period. Men didn't believe that women should be allowed to work while men were still unemployed. Also, most of the unemployed men at this time believed that a lot of jobs were more suited to women, only angering them further.
ReplyDeleteReally glad to have this point of view! I think it's always important to see the way women have influenced our economy throughout the years, whether or not the influences are more nuanced. I also would love to see some of how companies changed their advertising methods to make up for demographic changes. I had heard once that the reason women began shaving their body hair was because razor companies marketed the idea of smooth skin when all the men were at war and they still had products to sell.
ReplyDeleteI think it's really cool to see how the roles of women changed throughout history. Although I think it's horrible that women didn't always have the same rights as men, I think it's really cool to be able to trace the history of how things got to the way they are today. Really interesting post. Also I really like the story you shared about your grandfather. Was he mainly against the Roosevelt's because of Eleanor's views or did he also disagree with different administrations FDR put in place?
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