key info/dates - changing economic/employment opportunities Flashcards
from summary textbook - for feb mini
how many women worked between 1840s-1920s) - 3x %
10% of free women -1840s
15% - 1870
24% - 1920s
which work did women do towards the end of the 19th century
domestic service, textiles, white-collar work, education & care professions
why were there more opportunities for female workers
- more female education
- greater economic diversity
changes in employment
- less domestic service work by 1917 than 1860s
- rise in office work
- female labour took over in textiles - instead of child labour
continuity regarding employment
- much female employment based on traditional roles eg. childcare, nursing & textiles
–> opportunities for management, business & higher wages were limited - wage gap between men/women
- white american women: reluctant to employed married due to idea they belong in the home
- AA women: low paid factory work, domestic service & sharing tasks on smallholdings
- little female membership of trade unions
change in employment of WW1
- higher demand for engineering products, war material, food processing & textiles
- opportunities in farming
- 3 million extra jobs in industry/farming
- more women in armed forces
- many worked in heavy industry
- worked in transport
how many women worked directly in the armed forces by 1918
30,000
how many women travelled overseas for war work
around 20,000
what was the issue with these changes
often did not outlast war
which type of women worked in the inter-war period
mostly unmarried
more continuity or change in WW1? what aspect?
continuity - type of work
what did the onset of the depression in 1929 cause
pressure on women not to ‘steal’ men’s jobs
were women employed more/less, why
more as paid less
what did this higher employability rate cause
an increase in women working from 12% to 15% in the 1930s
how many women were recruited for WW2
100,000
how many women entered the workforce - what fraction of total workforce
6 million = 1/3 of all workers
what jobs did women have in WW2
new roles, eg:
- heavy industries
- lumber
- steel mills
- transport
what encouraged women to join workforce & what did it enforce
= propoganda
- enforced idea that women were able to do heavy work & skilled assembly tasks
negatives
- wage levels were unequal
- women kept domestic responsibilities
what happened at the end of the war (negative)
- return to more traditional work
what happened at the end of the war (positive)
- more women into higher education eg. 1/2 uni graduates were women by 1986
what fraction of uni graduates were women by 1986
1/2
what contributed to more white-collar & public-service work
economic diversification & growth of government
whilst inequality remained, what began to better it
- equal pay act
- feminism improved = more awareness of other issues facing women eg. sexual harassment in the workplace
