Chapter 9 Flashcards
How were black nurses treated differently than white nurses during World War II?
They were often assigned menial, not skilled, tasks.
Dorothea Lange’s photograph, “Migrant Mother,” became an icon of the Depression decade because it
illustrated the suffering of families caught up in the nation’s economic collapse.
Although Rosie the Riveter succeeded in breaking down sex-segregated labor patterns, the press instead chose to emphasize that
these women had maintained their femininity.
How did some white women respond to the employment of African American women in the defense industries?
In a show of solidarity, they demanded that African American workers be paid equal wages.
What role did First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt play in the New Deal?
She pushed the president to pay more attention to the problems of African Americans and women.
How did World War II impact the lives of Mexican women in the United States?
Employers stopped asking for proof of legalization because they needed all the workers they could find.
How were the WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots) different from the other women’s military agencies?
WASPs performed high-status male jobs such as serving as test pilots.
How did the Social Security Act of 1935 reinforce women’s inequality as wage workers?
Women only received benefits after their husband died if they quit their paying jobs.
The 1932 National Economy Act helped set a trend of firing or not hiring
women whose husbands already had jobs.
Japanese American internment during World War II led to the erosion of
the strong patriarchal authority of the Japanese household.
In addition to male employment rates, what other rate dropped during the Great Depression?
The fertility rate
Black women fought persistent discrimination in the defense industries by
organizing a march against U.S. Employment Services offices.
How did World War II affect the lives of Chinese women in America?
Jobs in the defense industry offered significant economic improvements over the work they had traditionally done.
Social reformers Julia Lathrop and Frances Perkins opposed the ERA because they
believed it would damage protective labor laws for women.
Why did more women serve in local government rather than on the national level during the 1920s?
Many local positions were nonpartisan and seemed more appropriate for women.
How did American housewives’ lives change in the 1920s?
Women were expected to be better consumers, provide cleaner homes, and raise healthier children.
What concerns were raised by women enlisting in the military during World War II?
Women could fall prey to sexual immorality and drunkenness.
What was the job market like for African American women after World War I?
Most African American women were engaged in farm work and domestic service.
How did the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) reflect existing assumptions about women’s subordinate role in the workforce?
It allowed women to be paid lower wages than men.
During World War II, women became the objects of a massive propaganda campaign to urge them to
work in the defense industry and other sectors of the economy.
In terms of their sexual lives, American wives of the 1920s experienced change in
the increasing availability and respectability of reliable birth control.
What also ended with the end of World War II?
Women’s brief venture into well-paid industrial labor
Women’s military service during World War II was restricted and highly regulated largely because of
cultural anxieties about servicewomen sacrificing their femininity.
How did homemaking become more complicated for women during the Great Depression?
Women had to deal with the presence of extended kin, as many families combined households.
Why did support for reform movements diminish after World War I?
The Red Scare cast suspicion on all liberal reform initiatives as suspect and dangerous.
What were the “slave markets” in New York City and other large cities during the 1930s?
The street corners where black women would stand waiting for white women to hire them
Sociologists writing in the 1930s, assessing the psychological effects of the Depression, gave the impression that
men were hardest hit because they were traditionally the chief family wage earner.
The main impact of the Nineteenth Amendment on women’s activism of the 1920s was to
expose the class, race, age, and ideological differences among women.
