new deal

Question 1

how did the economic position of women improve

Answer 1

• more married women working in 1940 than 1933
• 1933 federal emergency relief act allowed financial assistance & homeless women could seek refuge in city shelters
• women employed in preference to men (BUT ONLY BECAUSE THEY WERE PAID LESS)
• number of female workers increased

Question 3

how many women were working in the civil works administration by february 1934

Answer 3

~275,000 women

Question 4

how many women were in the work division of the federal emergency relief administration by 1935

Answer 4

~204,000 women

Question 5

how many women were involved in new deal work relief

Answer 5

743,000 women

Question 6

how much did the number of women workers increase in 1930s

Answer 6

from 11.7%to 15.2% of the total workforce

Question 7

how did women’s political position improve

Answer 7

• women taken into positions of power = major advance in employment of women in government
• women able to vote (19th amendment 1920)
• eleanor roosevelt (first lady) pushed for more women in public office

Question 8

examples of women in positions of power

Answer 8

‣ frances perkins was secretary of labour 1933-45

‣ mary dewson = director of women’s division of democratic national party (1932-34), chair of women’s division advisory committee (1934-37) & member of social security board (1937-38)

‣ mary mcleod bethune apportioned senior position in national youth administration by roosevelt 1936

Question 9

how did women’s economic position not improve

Answer 9

• pressure to save jobs for men after WSC
• falling wages affected many (especially domestic workers who were mostly unprotected by labour legislation & included many ethnic workers)
• public works projects paid for by federal money were largely to provide men jobs
• wage gap
• new deal legislation discriminated against mothers/married women to boost employment for men
• buil-in inequality in pensions (assumption of new deal social legislation was men worked & women looked after them/the home)

Question 10

how did women’s social position not improve

Answer 10

• discriminatory attitudes regarding gender remained
• gender discrimination was the norm (especially in new deal programmes - eg. men’s jobs paid more than women’s)
• AA women suffered racial discrimination in social security in south

Question 11

evidence for discriminatory attitudes remaining towards women in new deal

Answer 11

1936 gallup poll showed 4/5 of those asked agreed that married women should not work & take jobs from men/single women

Question 12

how did women’s political position not improve

Answer 12

• voting was restricted
• women achieved substantial representation of party committees only in minority of states by 1940
• only 2 female governors of states (standing in for husbands) 20 years after 19th amendment
• federal agencies largely run by men

Question 13

how was females voting restricted

Answer 13

• registration wasn’t easy (eg. married women has to re-register as individuals) & problems in meeting local residency requirements
• difficult for women looking after children to travel to voting stations
• AA women in south restricted by literacy tests & verbal/physical abuse