Society and Culture in Change - Topic 3.1

Question 1

How did WWI change the position of women in America?

1917-1921

Positives and Negatives

Answer 1

Positives:

• Women had the chance to work since men were off to fight in Europe
• Highlighted women’s importance to society –> 19th Amendment
• Work opportunities grew for women as society was beginning to change

Negatives:

• Women did not receive equal pay to men if working the same job
• Most women were fired from their jobs and returned to being a housewife once the men returned

Question 2

How did the Roaring Twenties impact womens’ place in society?

1921-1929

Social and Economic

Answer 2

Social:

• Flappers (young women who weren’t bound by old rules) sought out more freedoms and had more independence than the previous generation, economically and sexually. Flappers shifted public thinking of women
• However, the number of flappers was low and many women returned to the traditional role once married

Economic:

• Women’s Bureau of Labour was set up to improve conditions of women in the workplace
• 9.8% of women were in work in the 20s
• Women could earn a wage, even if that wage was less than a man’s; gave them more independence from their fathers or husbands; wages were rising consistently because of the boom
• Once a women married, it was expected for her to have children and therefore they would be laid off from work and there was still a stigma of women in the workplace

Question 3

How did the Great Depression affect womens’ position in society?

1929-1939

Positives and Negatives

Answer 3

Positives:

• Eleanor Roosevelt set up organisations for jobless young women to go into forestry. By 1936, there were 36 camps caring for 5000 women
• Fannie Peck established a league of small black shops in Detroit, that encouraged women to spend there to help those, locally, in need. This idea spread across the nation

Negatives:

• High unemployment = lower wages & rising prices; for every $1 a man earnt, a white women would earn 61¢, and a black women, 23¢
• There was a lot of competition for work as women needed to provide for the family financially
• Black women were edged out of jobs by white Americans

Question 4

How did the New Deal & WWII change the position of women in society?

1936-1945

Positives and Negatives

Answer 4

Positives:

• The New Deal’s ‘Aid for Families with Dependent Children’ provided benefits for those who needed it the most
• Women showed again that they could do a man’s job
• Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 prepared men for the draft and train women to replace men’s spots in e.g., shipbuilding
• Lanham’s Act of 1941 extended federal childcare provisions
• More black women were on nursing courses during the war and 23% of women were in the workplace during the war
• Rosie the Riveter used as propaganda to get women to work

Negatives:

• Only 16% of married women worked due to childcare provisions
• Some businesses refused to employ black women

Question 5

How did post-War affect womens’ place in society?

1945-1959

Positives and Negatives

Answer 5

Positives:

• Employment of women aged 45-54 rose after the war
• Restrictions of women in teaching positions never resurface
• Women who were trained in the war continued to work in domestic and agricultural sectors

Negatives:

• Many women were not re-employed after the war
• Married women left work because childcare provisions were stopped in 1946
• Pay was still considerably lower than men
• If women worked, and lived in the suburbs, they were often excluded from social groups
• Adverts promoted the housewife life again, portraying it as the “American Dream”

Question 6

How did the Swinging Sixties change the lives of women in America?

1960-1969

Social, Economic and Political

Answer 6

Social:

• The Feminine Mystique was published in 1963 by Betty Friedan; it looked at constrains of women in suburban life and the problems that white, educated, married women faced
• NOW (National Organisation for Women) was established in 1966
• Black rights were seen as a priority at the time, women’s rights came second

Economic:

• Minimum wage didn’t apply to roles that women worked in
• Enforcing the EPA was found to be hard, so women often did not receive equal pay to men

Political:

• Kennedy set up the Commission of Enquiry on the Status of Women
• Equal Pay Act of 1963
• NOW worked with the political system to achieve equality and better enforce the EPA and CRA
• LBJ extended his EO to improve employment conditions for those discriminated on the grounds of, originally, race and colour, to include sex as well

Question 7

How did the position of women change during the ‘Me’ Decade in America?

1970-1980

Positives and Negatives

Answer 7

Positives:

• National Women’s Political Caucus was established in 1971
• 26th August - Nearly every feminist group took part in a strike all presenting the same demands: Equal opportunity, free childcare and free abortions on demand
• NOW’s membership rose from 1000 in 1967 to 40,000 in 1974
• Some states began to become slightly more lenient with abortion laws
• Einstadt v Baird (1972) - Contraception was legal for women in/outside of marriage
• Roe v Wade (1973) - Abortion was federally legalised
• Women could open a bank account without a male family member with them from 1974

Negatives:

• Conservatives rejected Second-Wave feminism
• 15 states refused to ratify the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment)
• US did not sign up to the UN’s policy of introducing non-discrimination of women in all aspects of life
• Employers practiced finding “acceptable” reason to discriminate against women
• Working class and non-white women felt excluded

Question 8

To what extent did women’s position in society change?

1917-1980

Answer 8

Change:

• Women achieved political equality
• The EPA achieved equal pay for everyone
• Women could access an abortion on demand
• Contraception was legalised for everyone whether in marriage or not
• Women’s role as a traditional, childcaring housewife changed to that of an independent women who could live without a man being tied to them and could be financially independent from their fathers or husbands
• Women could work in the same workplaces as men

Continuity:

• Women still faced discrimination in the workplace
• Still a stigma of women in the workplace, although this was disappearing
• ERA was not ratified
• Equal Pay was not ubiqutious and accepted everywhere
• Still a strong backlash against conservatives wanting to keep women in the home