1.3- Society and Culture in Change, 1917-80 Flashcards
🌍IMMIGRATION
-Legislation:
-what was the 1917 immigration act?
-lists the number of ‘undesirable’ immigrants to be excluded, including homosexuals, insane persons and criminals, it also imposes a literacy qualification for anyone over 16
What was the 1921 Emergency Quota Act?
-restricts the yearly number of immigrants from any country to 3% of the total number of people from that country living in the USA in 1910
1924 Johnson Reed Immigration Act?
-changes the quota system to 2% of people from the country of origin in 1890 census (tipping the balance further in favour of Northern Europe) until 1st July 1927; after that, the number of immigrants was to be fixed at 150,000 and the quota was to be based on the 1920 census
What was the 1929 National Origins Formula?
-confirms the 150,000 limit and bans Asians immigrants altogether
What does this suggest about 1920s legislation?
-over time increasing in severity and peaks at red scare
What is the 1952 immigration and nationalist act?
-Did not allow for refugees and with the advent of the Cold War and an increase of refugees from places such as Cuba this led to the public criticising the quota system
What is the 1965 immigration and nationality act?
-immigration from Asia quadrupled, changing the ethnic make up of many US cities
What is the 1976 immigration and nationality act?
- while it did slow immigration, it also led to an increase in the number of illegal immigrants from central and southern America wanting to join their families
- expands to include Western Hemisphere for first time, number allowed is at 20,000 (for all)
What other significant legislation was there 1940-80? (During and post SWW)?
What was the 1940 Alien Registration Act?
- wartime measure which required non-citizens to register with the federal government
- after war normalised as ‘green card system’- entitles to live and work in USA indefinitely
- made sure only went to legal immigrants- those processed and registered by immigration service
What is the 1948 Displaced Persons Act?
-allows immigration of 415,000 people displaced by the war over 4 years but within quota limit (Truman asked for admissions to be separate from that of quota but failed to convince congress)
What is the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act?
-gives citizenship to Cubans entering country after 1959
What is operation wetback?
- 1954
- deporting ‘illegal’ immigrants, mostly Mexican
The impact of the Second World War and Suburban Life on women, 1941-60:
-what was the impact of the SWW?
- showed capable of men’s work
- 1940-Selective Training and Service Act- trained women eg: shipbuilding, aircraft and assembly
- only 16% married women worked in 1940- lack of childcare, in war women’s workforce rose 15-23%
- 1941 Lanham Act’s childcare provision- 1944-130,000 children in day care
- Women’s Land Army of America- farm workers, workshops and meetings and newsletter
- labour Bureau- 3 million working in agriculture June 1943
- empowered more women to seek opportunities
What impact did the Second World War have on black women?
- could train for professions previously not welcome-nursing courses-1,108 in 1939 to 2,600 in 1945
- some employers still refused black women-stigma- sexual disease
- employees difficult- Detroit rubber plant- refused to share toilets
What post-war changes were there for women?
- Half the married women who worked during the war left when ended- federally funded day care centres closed- 1946
- some forced- widowed, divorced- no choice
- dip after war but rose again especially 45-54 years old
- restrictions lifted due to war rarely re-instated
- married workforce rose- 10.1% in 1940 to 22.2% in 1950
- Black and white women been trained- Office, nurses…= continued after war- skills
- wider range of work
- more white married women enter work- developed aptitude and appetite for work
- changed attitudes- husbands and society- in 1936 82% of people thought married women should not work, 1938-78%, 1942- only 13%, by 1978- only 38%
- still lower wages than men- taken advantage of
- clerical, domestic or ship work mostly
- some progresses into insurance or advertising-main business of that office
- faces hostility- clerical group left and entered male world -black women faced even worse due to discrimination, prevent achieving as might have
What was suburban living like?
- middle and upper class
- lure of home ownership- economic and building boom= houses more affordable and commuting distance to cities
- socially segregated
- low cost black suburbs also grew within reach of white suburbs for employment eg: as maids, cooks, nannies, gardeners…
- some integrated- rare but not unknown eg: 1957 William and Daisy Myers= faces similar dangers to integrating other facilities
- 1950s suburbs grew, 1960- 19 million more than in 1950
- schools, leisure facilities, theatres, shops…
- pattern of life similar across class and race- wage earning husband and housewife, if both worked- childcare- more expensive
- own social networks and lives
- women worked-excluded from friendship groups and if did not concern demands of group, some even rules about eg: did not allow fences
- labour saving devices and better off- cleaners, maids or cooks
- too much time but still aspiration of American Dream
- Bill boards, magazines, shows “I Love Lucy”
- many left for suburbs created a downward spiral in inner cities, non-white ghettos grew and fostered racism
- girls- work exceptionally hard to change situation
What was the affect of suburban living on rural areas?
- Malls-focal point for rural housewives- variety of goods at better price than local stores eg: 1954- Detroit suburbs
- 1917-80= women who lived and worked on farms cut off physically and economically- more opportunities for urban women
Who were William and Daisy Myers?
-3000 neighbours surrounded house- burned crosses, state officials-ban still harassed but Daisy invited to join neighbourhood association of women- how to integrate
Name some other statistics and role of women in SWW:
- between 1950-70 American suburban population nearly doubled to 74 million
- 83% of all population growth occurring in suburban places
- Levittowns- 1946
- women earned 59% of the wages men earned in 1963
- 350,000 women served in US Armed Forced in WW2
- Women’s Airforce Service Pilots-accumulated more than 60 million miles in flight distances
- by 1945 nearly 1 out of every 4 married women worked outside the home-WW2
- Women’s Army Corps and in Navy (WAVES)- women accepted for volunteer Emergency Service
- in 1943- 310,000 women worked in US aircraft industry- 65% of industry’s total workforce (only 1% pre-war years)
The emergence, achievements and limits of the women’s liberation movement, 1961-80:
-politics of equality:
- 1961- Eleanor Roosevelt- set up ‘Commission of Enquiry on the status of women’
- 1963- results- praises Equal Pay Act- wider job opportunities for women in federal government- presidential directive 1960- positive and significant- needed and enforcing
- uniformly loser and minimum wage regulations- did not apply to low paid work eg: hotel
- not enough day care
- non-white- worse position- racial discrimination
- women accounted for 1 in 3 workers but were discriminated in access training, work and promotion
- 1963 report- not encouraged to think about careers and encouraged (high class) into higher education only
- 1958 Education Act- job counsellors work with students- not many, only 12,000 for all state schools in USA- not trained- patchy and dangerous advice- doesn’t consider needs or abilities of girls
- influence 1964 CR act- included sexual equality but also found gap between passing of law and enforcement
- 7 million non white women long to minority racial groups- 1963 report
- twice as likely (Black women) to seek employment
- all forced into low- paid service occupations same with American Indians, Hispanics…= burdened with language problems
- unbroken cycle of deprivation- social cost- unhappiness, indignity and delinquency
