C9 - America and the ‘Great Society’

Question 1

How did JFK’s ‘New Frontier’ help education?

Answer 1

The Peace Corps was set up - an organisation that sends volunteers abroad to assist people in poorer countries (it still exists today).

Question 2

How did JFK’s ‘New Frontier’ help the economy?

Answer 2

• taxes were cut to give people more money to spend
• $900 million made available to businesses to create new jobs
• gave grants to companies to buy high-tech equipment and train their workers to use it
• increased government spending on the armed forces, creating jobs

Question 3

How did JFK’s ‘New Frontier’ help healthcare and poverty?

Answer 3

• minimum hourly wage was increased
• $4.9 billion made available for loans to improve housing, clear slum areas and build roads and telephone lines
• training schemes for the unemployed were introduced
• Social Security Act increased benefits for the elderly and unemployed
• increased funding for research into mental illness and allocated funds to help poor rural areas

Question 4

What were some criticisms of the New Frontier?

Answer 4

• new equipment in factories meant fewer workers were needed, resulting in job losses
• by 1963, unemployment stood at 4.5 million, only 1 million less than in 1960
• the minimum wage increase was only helpful to those in work and housing loans were only helpful if the recipient could afford the repayments
• the Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity (CEEO) helped those who already had a government job but did nothing to help the millions of unemployed African Americans

Question 5

How did LBJ’s ‘Great Society’ help education?

Answer 5

• ‘Operation Headstart’ gave money to poor schools in cities
• the Elementary and Secondary Education Act gave major funding for schools
• the Volunteers In Service To America (VISTA) programme was set up as a domestic version of the Peace Corps
• the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities gave grants to fund artists and galleries

Question 6

How did LBJ’s ‘Great Society’ help the economy?

Answer 6

• the Job Corps was set up to help high school leavers get jobs
• the minimum hourly wage was increased from $1.25 to $1.40

Question 7

How did LBJ’s ‘Great Society’ help healthcare and poverty?

Answer 7

• a Housing Act funded low-income housing
• the Model Cities Act cleared up inner-city slums
• Air and Water Quality Acts tightened controls over pollution
• safety standards were improved for consumer products
• ‘Medicare’ was created (a JFK idea) to fund healthcare for the elderly and low income families

Question 8

What were some criticisms of the ‘Great Society’?

Answer 8

• some say LBJ spend far too much on his reforms
• LBJ fully supported US involvement in the Vietnam War, which was becoming increasingly unpopular and costly

Question 9

What was it like for women in the workplace in 1963?

Answer 9

• women earned around 60% less than men
• 95% of managers were male
• most work for women was part-time, with limited responsibility
• only 4% of lawyers and 7% of doctors were female
• women could be legally dismissed if they were married

Question 10

What was the Feminine Mystique?

Answer 10

A bestselling book by Betty Friedan. Published in 1963, it argued that well-qualified women felt depressed and undervalued because they were unable to pursue a fulfilling career. It called for equality between men and women.

Question 11

When was the Equal Pay Act?

Answer 11

June 1963

Question 12

What was NOW?

Answer 12

The National Organisation for Women (NOW) was a feminist group formed in 1966 which demanded complete equal rights for women in US law. Abortion was illegal in all US states, but NOW wanted to change that. Within a few years, NOW has over 40,000 members, who write to politicians, organised large demonstrations and took to court companies that didn’t pay women the same as men.

Question 13

What was the ‘Women’s Lib’?

Answer 13

The Women’s Liberation Movement, or ‘Women’s Lib’, involved groups of younger, more extreme women, who used a different approach to highlight their cause, for example, they disrupted the 1968 Miss World Beauty Contest.

Question 14

What were some feminist organisations?

Answer 14

NOW, Women’s Lib, Women’s Campaign Fund, North American Indian Women’s Association, National Black Feminist Organisation.

Question 15

What was the ERA?

Answer 15

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was approved by Congress in 1972. It stated that ‘Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied by the United States or by any State on account of sex’.

Question 16

What was the ‘stop ERA’ campaign?

Answer 16

• the stop ERA campaign, led by Phyllis Schlafly, opposed the ERA, arguing that it would lead to women in combat, greater abortion rate, unisex bathrooms and homosexual marriages
• the campaign was successful - the ERA failed to become part of the US Constitution because not enough states voted for it

Question 17

What was Roe v Wade?

Answer 17

In 1973, there was a famous court case in which 21-year-old Jane Roe’s lawyers argued successfully that she had the right to an abortion. She had already had 2 children, both of which had been put up for adoption. In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled that women in all states had the right to safe and legal abortion, overriding the anti-abortion laws of many states.