1915 - 40, boom, bust and recovery Flashcards
1
Q
How was World War one a turning point for Women?
A
- WWI opened up the opportunity for married women to legitimately enter the workforce.
- Thousands were able to take on roles that were traditionally held by men such as factories, offices and farms
- Around 11,000 women helped to serve in the US navy as nurses and telephone operators
- Can also be argued that the war helped shift public and political opinion, which led to the 19th amendment
2
Q
How was WW1 not a turning point ?
A
- Because there was still an expectation for women who had left the home to support war effort to return there after the men had returned home, and most married women held this expectation also
- Also not all women benefited equally, many black, native American and Hispanic women still faced discrimination
3
Q
What was the impact of the post world war one economic boom?
A
- During the 1920s, the US underwent a massive expansion of manufacturing industry that created economic prosperity
- The boom created more jobs for unmarried women and opportunity for an easier home life for married women, as it enabled working class families to own cars, washing machines and vacuum cleaners
- This would make the married women’s domestic duties more easier and she would be able to finish them faster thus they would then seek for new challenges beyond the home such as spending more time with their children an supporting their education
- Further business expansion increased the demand for secretaries, typists and filing clerks so this allowed more middle class women to do this, however they were still often paid less and had limited access to higher level careers
4
Q
How did the Great Depression effect women in the US?
A
- Had negative impact on women
- 26 states introduced laws which banned married women from working
- Resulted into people believing that women shouldn’t work if Men could not find work so that they could give up to make way for men to gain employment, this significantly effected women headed households
- Black and immigrant women were the most vulnerable at this tine because they were confined to the poorest paying jobs
5
Q
How did the New deal effect women opportunities and rights ?
A
- in 1933, Roosevelt promised his voters a new deal, which were a string of policies that were aimed to stimulate the economy and support those who were vulnerable
- Although the policies were biased towards the male breadwinner, women did benefit slightly from legislations that were not specifically targeted at them for example the
- Social Security Act (1935) helped to alleviate family stress by introducing welfare benefits for poor families
- The Fair Labor Standard Act ( 1938) which set new minimum wage levels and this benefited women because it led to the reduction of their working hours and the abolition of child labour
- Aid to Dependant Children ( 1935) which helped women with young families who were unable to work and had no head male of the household
- Eleanor Roosevelt strongly supported womens rights and black women
- Native American Women however benefited from this as the Indian Re organisation act gave them formal political rights
6
Q
How fair were political rights enabled for women by 1940?
A
- African American Women in the south were unable to take advantage of their vote since they continued to face racial discrimination and intimidation.
- Jeannette Rankin become the first women in congress
7
Q
How did the New Deal impact women’s political rights?
A
- Did not directly expand women’s political rights but it opened the door for more women to serve in government roles
- Only nine women had
entered politics by 1939 - Examples include Frances Perkins who become the first ever women appointed to the US cabinet position as the secretary of labor in 1933, however she did little to directly help women political rights
8
Q
What Impact did Eleanor Roosevelt have on Women rights?
A
- Before becoming the first lady, she had previously joined the league of women voters and the women’s trade union league and she showed herself to have strong beliefs
- Politically, she was able to pressure FDR’s administration to hire more women, she also actively supported womens politcal involvement and backed female leaders such as Frances Perkins
9
Q
Did the right to vote really help women?
A
- Not to a significant amount
- Because there was very little evidence that the vote was used by women to promote change
- This is because women were divided as to how the vote could be used best to improve conditions for women and increase opportunities
- This vote was mainly between feminists who wanted equal rights for women and middle class women who believed in doing the domestic duty at home and wanted to push for social reform
10
Q
Who were the flappers and what did it symbolise?
A
- were young women in the 1920s who challenges the traditional gender norms, they did this through their fashion, behavior and attitudes
- They were often middle class and they had bobbed hair, short dresses and they smoked and drank in public
- They helped to represent a feminist revolution and a new kind of women independence and freedom
11
Q
What were educational opportunities like for women?
A
- The number of women graduates from higher education grew in this period
- The number of female college students doubled between 1910 and 1940
- However there was still strong male resistance to women entering professions such as law and medicine
- in 1921, M. Carey Thomas, an African American women founded the Bryn Mawr Summer school for working class women
12
Q
What were African American and poor white families like?
A
- They remained quite large as compared to the white middle class family
- this may have been partly because of the ignorance about contraception
- However religious beliefs were also a factor, as Roman Catholics and some protestant communities, it was believed that relationships within marriage were for the purpose of procreation , thus artificial methods of birth were frowned upon
13
Q
What were the Comstock laws?
A
- Passed in 1873
- were a collection of federal and state laws that made it illegal to send obscene or sexual materials through the mail, specifically included information about contraception and abortion
- made the advertisement and distribution of contraceptives illegal
- this thus reinforced gender norms and the idea that the womens primary role was to be mothers
- and without birth control it meant women had less control over their reproduction lives which made it harder to plan families, pursue education or work outside the home
- However it was ended in 1938 when the the federal ban on birth control was lifted
14
Q
Who was Margaret Sanger ?
A
- Was a activist for women’s rights and was best known for her work in birth control and reproductive freedom
- strongly believed that women should have the right to choose if she would bear children or not
- in the early 1900s she began giving out newspaper articles with contraceptive advice to women , especially those who were poor
- she opened the first ever birth control clinic in the US in Brooklyn in 1916
- However she was arrested and jailed for defying the comstock act and it was closed down by the police
- She went on to establish the American Birth Control League in 1921 and by 1924 it had 27,500 members and its aim was to education through the use of lectures and conferences
15
Q
What was the 18th amendment ?
A
- Banned the sale, import, transport and manufacturing of alcohol
- leading to an era of prohibition which was the legal banning of it
- Middle class women heavily contributed to the passage of it as they had been involved in the temperance movement since the early decades of 19th century
16
Q
Why was alcohol a problem for women opportunities and rights?
A
- It would lead to domestic violence because many women lived in fear of drunken husbands who were abusive, and at the time there were very few legal protections against domestic abuse
- Men would usually spend their family money on alcohol and often left women and their children without basic needs such as food and medicine
17
Q
Why has women attitudes to prohibition changed by the late 1920s?
A
- Early attempts by some women to oppose prohibition had failed to gain a mass following, for example in 1922 the Molly Pitcher Club, led by M. Louise Gross, was formed in New York, in an effort to organise a female protest movement against the introduction of prohibition as they argued that prohibition limited personal freedom, its impact was limited however and it remained a localised response
- Prohibition did not stop alcohol it just made it illegal, because there was squeakeasies which were illegal bars which led to the growth of organised crime
18
Q
What was the WONPR?
A
- The Women’s Organisaion for National Prohibition Reform was a major group formed in 1929 to repeal prohibition in the US
- Led by Pauline Sabin
- had acknowledged that prohibition had failed
- was mainly made up of middle and upper class women
- its leadership was extremely powerful and well organised and by 1931 it had 1.5 million members nationwide
- showed that women’s political power was growing
19
Q
Why was the WONPR successful in achieving its goal?
A
- its leadership and core members were upper and middle class and were highly ranked at state and national levels, and were well connected
- used the same arguments and methods used by the WCTU and the ASL to secure prohibition, by pressuring congress men and relentless lobbying
