social context Flashcards
The American Dream
The widespread belief that the United States is a land of opportunity and that individual initiative and hard work can bring economic success and dreams come true.
The Jim Crow Laws
- Legalised segregation of black people from white people
- Limited rights of black people → limited black voting rights
Misogyny (views on women)
- Despite the fact that women had achieved a lot in the 1920s through the suffragette movement and being given the vote, society went back to its norms when the Great Depression hit (1930s)
- They were objectified (prostitutes + property of their husband etc)
- They were paid and employed a lot less than men
- They were powerless with a lack of opportunities
- The domestic sphere created the idea that women should only be focused on childcare, housekeeping and religion
Approach to the mentally disabled
(eugenic society) (sterilisation act) - There was a huge lack of understanding towards mental disability
- There was a large movement for a eugenic (idealistic) society that aimed to create an ideal society with no ‘flaws’ (e.g. race, disability etc) and disabled people (mental and physical) were classed as flawed:
- This lead to the sterilisation act of 1924, which aimed to sterilize (unable to reproduce) as many ‘defective people’ as possible
- The chairman of the eugenics society said: ‘every defective man, woman and child is a burden’
