American Dream - Unit 3: Society and Culture in change

Question 1

19th Amendment, what and when was it and CA?

Answer 1

1919
Gave women equal voting rights
Ratified in 1920

Many women felt pressured to vote the way their husbands demanded
Many poor women did not vote
Very few black women voted, especially in the South

Question 2

League of Women Voters

Answer 2

1920

Group that encouraged women to vote

Question 3

What impact did WW1 have on women? + CA

Answer 3

More women gained employment

These women still earned less than men, and after the war women were expected to go back to more household oriented roles or ‘female’ jobs

Question 4

Increase in working women from 1910-1940 + CA

Answer 4

Approximately 5,400,000

This was mostly single, well-off white women, as many jobs such as teaching were barred from married women
Women were also still payed less than men

Question 5

Women’s Bureau of Labor + CA

Answer 5

1920
Campaigned to improve women’s working conditions and the more widespread employment of women

Were largely ignored by the Bureau of Labour

Question 6

Who were flappers, and what was their impact? + CA

Answer 6

Worked, cut their hair short, wore short dresses, many smoked and drank in public and drove their own cars, attended male-dominated sports events e.g. boxing
Somewhat shifted public perceptions of women

Only a small % of the female population, many adopted a more traditional role after marriage and the actions of employers often pushed women to do this

Question 7

When it came to hiring and firing…

Answer 7

women were often the last to be hired and the first to be fired.

Question 8

How did the Great Depression impact women?

Answer 8

Many women struggled with getting well paid work to support their families, and so they had to take jobs with undesirable working conditions

1932 report by the Women’s Bureau of Labour reported that 97% of women working in slaughtering and meat packaging were working out of necessity rather than want

Restricted working hours for women made supporting their families financially very difficult

Question 9

Why did some women believe that the Women’s Bureau of Labour was hindering women’s progress?

Answer 9

1908 - The Bureau supported the Supreme Court Muller v Oregon ruling that women’s working hours should be restricted to ten hours a day

Pushed for legislation for a female minimum wage when a male one did not exist

Question 10

How did the New Deal impact women’s working conditions and employment?

Answer 10

New Deal policies pertaining this mostly favoured helping men, for example setting up the Civilian Conservation Corps which provided forestry work for young men aged 17-23

CA: However, Eleanor Roosevelt pushed for a female equivalent of this, and in 1933 Camp Tera was set up, and by 1936 there were 36 camps, focused on teaching women workplace skills

CCA: Only took in women for 2-3 months and provided no wages

Question 11

What group of women did the Great Depression impact especially negatively?

Answer 11

Black women

Question 12

During the depression, for every dollar a white man earned…

Answer 12

a white woman earned 61 cents and a black woman 23 cents

Question 13

Housewives Leagues

Answer 13

1930
Set up by an African American woman, Fannie Peck
Encouraged women to shop in black-stores and to organise local help for those in need
Helped people on a small scale

Question 14

The impact of the second world war on women

Answer 14

Women gained more employment (Rosie the Riveter)
1940 - Selective Training and Service Act prepared to draft men into the military for if the US was to join the war, and to train women in jobs such as shipbuilding and aircraft assembly
1940 - Only 16% of married women worked
1941 - Lanham Act, provided childcare provision so that more women could work
Over the war the % of married women employed increased by 8%
1943 - Labour Bureau gave a rough estimate that there was 3 million working women in agriculture (hard to determine because this doesn’t take into account illegal migrant labour and women taking over farms while their male family members went to fight in the war)
Due to worker shortages black women could train for professions in which they had previously not been welcomed in, however some employers still refused to hire black women, saying they had ‘sexual diseases’

Question 15

What amount of married women who worked during the war left work when it ended, and what were some of the factors that contributed to this?

Answer 15

Around half

Choice - no longer needed to in order to sustain a stable household income
Social pressure
1946 - Federally funded day-care centres closed down

Question 16

After WW1 there was a dip in the amount of women employed that did not significantly rise again within a shorter period. What was it like after WW2 in regards to this?

Answer 16

Although there was an initial dip, female employment then began to quickly rise again, especially for married 45-54 year olds, raising by 12.1% from 1940-1950 for this age group

Question 17

What restrictions on female employment were lifted during and after WW2?

Answer 17

Restrictions on married women working certain jobs (such as teachers) had been lifted during the war, and were rarely reinstated afterwards, giving women a wider range of job prospects

Question 18

Increase in black women on nursing courses from 1939-1945

Answer 18

Roughly 1500

Question 19

Non-white female employment after WW2 + CA

Answer 19

Many who had been trained as nurses or office workers were kept on their jobs and worked their way up to higher work opportunities, could access a larger range of jobs past domestic and farming work

CA: As more married white woman began to enter the workforce they were often hired before non-white women

Question 20

Why did many women continue working after the war?

Answer 20

• Income reasons

- Skills acquired gave many women an aptitude for certain jobs and a desire to work and apply these skills

Question 21

Give three different years and the percentage of the population that believed married women shouldn’t work in order to show changing attitudes towards this topic over time

Answer 21

1936 - 82%
1942 - 13%
1978 - 38%

Question 22

What barriers did women still face in employment after WW2?

Answer 22

Lower wages than men
Workplace sexism
Work remained mostly clerical, domestic or as shop work

Question 23

What kind of lifestyle became popular from 1941-1960?

Answer 23

Suburban living

Question 24

Attitudes towards African Americans in suburbs

Answer 24

Treated with racism and violence

1957 - Family moved into Pennsylvania, house was stoned

Question 25

Increase in people living in the suburbs from 1950-1960

Answer 25

19 million

Question 26

How did the suburban lifestyle impact women?

Answer 26

Many women who worked were excluded from social life
Many women had better household appliances, less time doing housework
Those who remained in the city often did so because of poverty, and this pressured women to try to get married in order to leave

Question 27

Commission of Enquiry on the Status of Women

Answer 27

Set up in 1961
Report published in 1963
Found that although 1/3 workers were women, many faced workplace inequality
Found that the Equal Pay Act needed enforcing
Found that there wasn’t enough day-cares to help married women work
Found that non-white women struggled even worse

Question 28

Equal Pay Act

Answer 28

1963

Stated that employers could not discriminate on the basis of sex in regards to wages

Question 29

Civil Rights Act

Answer 29

1964

Included gender equality, but this was often ignored

Question 30

Betty Friedan

Answer 30

1963 - Published ‘The Feminine Mystique’
Talked about the constraints of suburban life
Spurred many educated, middle-class white women to organise themselves
In 1966 Friedan helped set up the National Organisation for Women

Question 31

National Organisation for Women

Answer 31

1966
Founded by Betty Friedan and several others
Pushed for more equality and better enforcement of the Civil Rights Act
Held petitions, lobbied politicians, provided services for working women

Question 32

ERA

Answer 32

Equal Rights Act
Groups had been pushing for this to be passed since 1923
An equal rights amendment was passed in 1972

Question 33

Who were the young radicals?

Answer 33

Under 30’s, white, middle-class, educated
Many had worked with African American rights groups such as the SNCC, but many were run by men and therefore ignored women’s issues
Wanted immediate change, set up local groups
1968 - Voice of the Women’s Liberation Movement magazine began, collapsed a few years later
Media hyperfocused on more radical action in order to portray feminism in an extreme light

Question 34

1970 Strike

Answer 34

Many feminist groups, including NOW, came together to strike on the 50th anniversary of women getting the vote

Question 35

Increase in NOW membership

Answer 35

1967-1974

From 1,000 to 40,000

Question 36

What three main things did women campaign for later in this period?

Answer 36

Free childcare
Legalised Abortion
Equal opportunities in employment and education

Question 37

Gloria Steinem + CA

Answer 37

1972 - Ms magazine
Widely praised for catering to the needs of professional, modern women
People like Kate Millet were widely criticized for being ‘too radical’