Women civil rights - main developments

Question 1

How did work change for women after the civil war?

Answer 1

There was a considerable expansion of women in the labour market.
10% of women had jobs in 1840, 15% in 1870, and 24% in 1924.
There was a big increase in white-collar industries.
In areas with large textile factories, the proportion of women working was higher.
In the south, among freed slaves, the problem of making smallholdings pay was so great that women were forced to contribute heavily to agricultural work.

Question 2

How did work change for single and married women after the civil war?

Answer 2

There was a higher proportion of working married African American women than white, but as child labour declined, there was more demand for women workers.
At the end of the civil war, 60% of female workers were domestic servants, and 1% in white collar.
1920, 18% servants and 40% clerical or professional positions.
But this did not apply to African Americans.

Question 3

What jobs did women work in before the 1930s?

Answer 3

Within professional employment, teaching and nursing predominated, followed by charity and welfare.
So the stereotype that women were linked to caring roles dominated.

Question 4

How did women’s workers rights change?

Answer 4

Larger numbers of women workers saw a growth in union organisation.
There were more strikes and demands for better wages and conditions.
But only 2% of trade unionists were women in 1914, despite 25% of female employment being in factories.

Question 5

How did the family change after the civil war?

Answer 5

The average of five children per couple declined to 3 in 1920.
With prosperity, family size fell as middle class Americans wanted to ensure their children could prosper.
Women faced having fewer children and looking after them better, and also expected more of their partners.

Question 6

How did women gain from the social changes after the civil war?

Answer 6

1870, more boys than girls were in school, but in 1920 this was more equal.
1890, there were more female high school graduates than male, and secondary education had expanded generally.
African American girls still increased from 10% in 1870 to 30% in 1914.

Question 7

How were women limited by the social changes in education after the civil war?

Answer 7

The proportion of women teachers increased from 60 to 96% from 1870-1914. But this showed women were staying in the stereotype of teaching.
The proportion of women in higher education remained lower.
The number of women with degrees doubled, but only 30% of university degrees were given to women in 1920.

Question 8

How did the growth in education and employment impact women?

Answer 8

Women became more confident in participating in public campaigns.
There was more cooperation and expansion of women’s clubs.
There was much less progress however in economic opportunity - rewards, access to managerial positions, enter traditionally male professions and to make decisions.

Question 9

How did WW1 impact women?

Answer 9

It added to the numbers of women employed as demands grew for products in engineering, food processing and textiles.
The diversity of female employment increased, with more women in heavy industry and transport.
African Americans saw a change in lifestyle as northern industries needed more labour.

Question 10

How did WW1 have a limited impact on women?

Answer 10

As the demand for food increased, numbers in farming increased. They were labelled farmerettes, despite there being a well-established tradition of women in rural occupations.
Around 30,000 women worked in the armed forces, but there was less change as this was in domestic service like laundry or nursing.

Question 11

How did WW1 change work for women directly?

Answer 11

Growth in government extended opportunities for clerical work.
Women as train and tram conductors, and police impressed upon the public.
20,000 women travelled overseas to support the army, in the YMCA, red cross and salvation army, but not many as doctors.
358 women were killed overseas.

Question 12

How were the changes of WW1 not significant?

Answer 12

After the war, many women did not stay in their new roles in industry.
They were pressurised to give up jobs by the men returning home.
Although wages rose, there was inequality between male and female labour, as well as little attempt to provide childcare facilities for women who worked.

Question 13

What were the post-WW1 social changes?

Answer 13

The younger generation in the roaring twenties was associated with the relaxed traditional attitudes during the war.
Women wore less restrictive clothes, had shorter hair, smoked, more sexually ostentatious and wore shorter skirts.
The flappers symbolised this, being more independent and emancipated younger women going against Victorian norms.

Question 14

Why was the flapper era not a turning point?

Answer 14

In conservative, rural USA there was little acceptance of this.
In areas suffering from falling farm prices, there was little money available for make up or fashion.
In urban centres, the greater sexuality saw women becoming sex objects for men and increased double standards rather than emancipation.

Question 15

How did contraception and abortion limit the flapper era?

Answer 15

Birth control was limited, and abortion the main means to prevent birth. Before 1973, there was a million illegal abortions a year.
The diaphragm was invented by Margaret Sanger in 1917, but she was arrested for obscenity and there was limited acceptance of birth control advice.

Question 16

How did contraception change before 1950?

Answer 16

The import of birth control devices was made legal in 1936.
Most doctors believed in abstinence to prevent children.
Men were unwilling to wear condoms, and for poor women, diaphragms were difficult and unhygienic.
The birth control pill was not until 1950s, and abortion legalised in 1973.

Question 17

What was the position of women in work in the 1920s?

Answer 17

Women continued to face discrimination and attitudes were slow to change.
Most of the 12% of wives who worked did so to support their families, not for independence.
Married made up to 28% of the female workforce, still mainly in domestics or textiles, and predominantly African Americans or immigrants.

Question 18

How did the stereotype of women in work continue in the 1920s?

Answer 18

Female occupations were more varied but in offices women suffered deep sexual prejudice.
They were much less likely to make decisions than men.
Single women in work were likely to be hairdressers, secretaries, clerks, saleswomen or a waitress.
Better educated women would be teachers or nurses.

Question 19

How was women’s progress still held back in the 1920s?

Answer 19

The expectations that women would run the home, the difficulties in preventing unwanted pregnancy, entrenched male attitudes to inequality of pay, and divisions among women about what their role should be ensured that the past had something of a dead hand on women’s rights and progress.

Question 20

What was the impact of the great depression on women?

Answer 20

The pressure was increased that women should not steal jobs from men.
However, as women worked for less they were often employed in preference to men by companies hit hard.
The number of women workers increased from 11.7% to 15.2% of the workforce.
Married women found it more difficult, and some were prevented from working in publicly run institutions.

Question 21

How did the Great Depression impact the wages of women?

Answer 21

The cut in wages hit African American women hard.
The small amount of progress women had made in their professions in the 1920s was reversed by the depression.
Although progressive legislation made more equal pay levels mandatory, the problems in enforcing this was considerable.
Unions put the interests of the men first.

Question 22

How did the New Deal impact women?

Answer 22

The New Deal stimulated public activity, but the 1930s saw a regression in many ways.
The idealised women seen in the movies were in sharp contrast to exploited and overused women in many economic sectors, to the hard pressed women who moved from depressed areas to find new work, and to the African American women suffering from low wages for menial work getting even lower.

Question 23

How was WW2 different from WW1?

Answer 23

The number of men in war was greater.
The growth in the government machine and the expansion in industry were greater.
There was less prejudice against direct participation - 100,000 women served in the Women’s Army Corps, the Navy and the Women’s Air Force.
Jobs included flying and testing planes, as well as typing, sewing, cooking and nursing.

Question 24

How was WW2 not that impactful on women?

Answer 24

Propaganda urged women to take over men’s jobs, though it was clear this was only during the war.
There was no equality in pay, in 1944 the average women’s salary was $31.12 a week, even though the men remained still made $54.65.

Question 25

How did women change in work in WW2?

Answer 25

There were more women as taxi drivers, heavy industry workers, drivers and workers in lumber and steel mills.
6 million women entered the workforce, making them a third of the labour force.
Relatively small numbers of adventurous women made a considerable impact as new ventures, such as training as pilots, were advertised.

Question 26

How did WW2 bring more social change than WW1?

Answer 26

Women shared challenges and dangers, 37,000 women were killed in accidents in ammunition factories.
They had travelled more inside and outside the USA and had been the subject of propaganda campaigns, this encouraged them to be more adventurous.
WW2 might have brought more social change, even if there was no symbolic change like gaining the vote.

Question 27

How was post-WW2 worse than post-WW1?

Answer 27

The reaction against change was greater.
The Cold War encouraged a social conservatism, the extended period of prosperity and the growth of suburban America tended to reinforce traditional values.
Changes in rights tended to be focused on African Americans rather than women.

Question 28

What is the abortion issue?

Answer 28

Roe vs Wade was passed by the Supreme Court in 1973.
It said, that during the first 3 months, states could not prohibit abortions.
In the second and third trimesters, they could not prohibit when the women’s health was at risk.
This put the mother’s rights above the foetus.

Question 29

What was the impact of the abortion issue?

Answer 29

The decision was seen as supporting the rights of women over their own bodies and attitudes which denied them freedom.
It seemed to show that American official opinion had moved towards greater recognition of women’s personal freedom.

Question 30

What was the opposition to abortion?

Answer 30

It also challenged some traditional views about women - that a women’s role was to care for children and the home above themselves.
But there was backlash of opposition which showed how strongly the counter view was held.
Women’s position in society was still a highly contentious issue.

Question 31

What did New feminism focus on?

Answer 31

Domestic violence and providing shelters for women.
Protecting women from sexual harassment in the workplace.
Education for women in their history and rights.
Protecting women from conservative attempts to restrict abortion and contraception.
Funding for education for young women.

Question 32

What was the division of New feminism?

Answer 32

Some women felt that insufficient attention had been given to sexist language, others that sexuality had been downplayed, and others that there was too much association with the political left.
The campaign for women’s rights had suffered because women focused on different reforms and the suffrage movement split.
There was no agreement about ERA.

Question 33

What was the position of women in the 1990s?

Answer 33

Women were more represented in politics - 7 females in congress by 1993.
Half of university graduates were women in 1986.
Women in authority was no longer unusual.
The casual sexism of the 50s and 60s was less around.

Question 34

How did women’s role physically change in the 1990s?

Answer 34

The much greater availability of contraception and decline in illegal abortions was a revolution.
Technology and a greater willingness by men to be part of the home and child-raising meant a change in family life.

Question 35

How was the position of women by the 1990s not the best?

Answer 35

The period of 1942-45, when women were so important in the nation and their achievements were so publicly praised, and their sense of adventure so welcomed, may not have been completely reconstructed in the 1980s.