9) POST WAR: New Frontier, Great Society and Feminism Flashcards
What did Kennedy do to improve education as part of his New Frontier?
Set up Peace Corps, an organisation that sends volunteers abroad to assist people in poorer countries.
What did Kennedy do to improve the economy?
Cut taxes to give people more money to spend. Made $900 million available to businesses to create new jobs. Gave grants to companies to buy high tech equipment. Increased government spending in armed forces, creating jobs.
What did Kennedy do to improve healthcare and poverty?
Increased minimum hourly wage. Training schemes for the unemployed. $4.9 billion available for loans to improve housing, clear slums and build roads and telephone lines. Social Security Act increased benefits for the elderly and unemployed. Increased funding for research into mental illness.
What were the criticisms of the New Frontier?
New machinery put workers out of jobs. Unemployment stood at 4.5 million in 1963. Minimum wage was only helpful to the employed and housing loans were only useful if people could afford the repayments. His efforts to provide funding for schools were blocked by Southern politicians. The CEEO did nothing to find jobs for millions of unemployed African Americans.
What did Johnson do to improve education as part of his Great Society?
Operation Headstart gave money to poor schools. VISTA was set up as a domestic version of Peace Corps. Elementary and Secondary Education Act provided major funding for schools.
What did Johnson do to improve the economy?
Minimum hourly wage increased from $1.25 to $1.40. Job Corps was introduced to help high school leavers get jobs.
What did Johnson do to improve healthcare and poverty?
Housing Act funded low-income housing. Model Cities Act cleared inner city slums. Air and Water Quality Acts tightened controls over pollution. Medicare was created (Kennedy’s idea) to fund healthcare for the elderly and low income families.
What were the criticisms of the Great Society?
Many say he spent far too much on his reforms. By 1968, unemployment was rising and there was widespread rioting in poorer areas of some cities. He fully supported US involvement in the Vietnam War which was becoming increasingly unpopular and costly.
What were the results of Kennedy’s report on women in the workplace?
Women earned around 60% less than men. 95% of managers were male. Most work for women was part time with limited responsibility. Women could be legally dismissed if they married. Only 4% of lawyers and 7% of doctors were female.
Who wrote the Feminine Mystique, when and what was it about?
Written by Betty Friedan and published in 1963. Argued that well qualified women felt depressed and undervalued because they were unable to pursue a fulfilling career.
When was the Equal Pay Act passed by Congress?
June 1963.
What was NOW and when was it established?
National Organisation for Women in 1966. Demanded complete equal rights for women in US law. Within a few years, NOW had 40000 members who wrote to politicians, organised large demonstrations and took companies to court.
What was the Women’s Liberation Movement?
Groups of younger more extreme women used different approaches such as disrupting the 1968 Miss World Beauty Contest.
What was ERA?
Equal Rights Amendment. Approved by Congress in 1972 and stated that ‘Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied by the United States or by any State on account of sex’.
Why didn’t ERA become part of US constitution?
Phyllis Schlafly organised a Stop ERA campaign. He argued that it would lead to women in combat, greater abortion rates, unisex bathrooms and homosexual marriages. Not enough states voted for it as a result.
