Women In America| 1917-80 Flashcards
social impact on women, cultural change, WWI+2, GD, New Deal etc.
What was the Roaring Twenties?
1920s economic boom: rapid industrialisation of electricity and mass production.
Name a few of the impacts of the economic boom.
Road building- faster cars.
Electrification.
How did this ‘boom’ affect the position of women?
what was there an idea of?
Expectation that women would return to household work; wives and mothers.
What did they call the contribution of women in the war as?
phrase.
An exception for exceptional times.
To which group of women were most open to change?
White, single women.
What was set up in 1920 to improve women’s working conditions and campaign for the wider employment of women?
A Women’s Bureau of Labour.
Between 1920 and 1940, by how much did the employment rate increase?
8.3% to 9.8%.
To which group of women did the ‘last hired, first fired’ situation apply to?
Black American women.
Give an example of one job that was barred to married women?
Teaching.
What was the name of the group of young women who were described at ‘making the most of their independence’?
Flappers.
Describe the appearance of the Flappers.
Short hair, short dresses, silk stockings.
What was extraordinary about Flappers in comparison to the way men were?
They drank and some smoked; even drove their own cars.
What was a disadvantage of these group of Flappers?
They were only a small percentage of the population.
Before WWI, women struggled with the rights to vote.
What then became an opening?
What then became a factor in making them work?
The War.
Though women were sent back after the war, what was a significant gain for them?
Government..
Congress passed the 19th Amendment which gave women suffrage.
What was the overall impact of the Great Depression?
For everyone.
Failing wages, rising prices, unemployment.
What type of women had to take any work they were offered?
Widowed.
What did the Supreme Court decide about women’s working hours?
They should work no more than 10 hours a day.
What kind of Labour jobs did women work in, more than ten hours a day?
Meat packing and slaughtering.
Overall, what was the New Deal to women?
A way to support them after the war.
What was the name of the policy, given through the New Deal, that helped women and their children?
a long name including everything about the family.
Starter: The New Deal’s Aid For F________
The New Deal’s Aid For Families With Dependent Children.
Who was the main advertiser for the rights of women through the New Deal?
Eleanor Roosevelt (wife of FDR).
What did Lady Roosevelt campaign for?
what did she do to ensure this was in place?
Work for jobless women.
* Camp Tera- privately funded for unemployed women.
What was an underlying factor in these camps for the unemployed women?
They were not getting paid or recieving wages.
Who benefitted less from the New Deal and why?
Black women; they earnt less and they were edged away from jobs that white women worked in.
Bonus: How much did the white women get paid compared to the Black women?
White- 61 cents.
Black- 21 cents.
What was the name of the Black woman who set up a ‘Housewives Leagues in Detroit’ in 1930?
Blu, the bird.
Fannie Peck.
What did this Housewives League encourage Black women to do?
think economically and socially.
Shop in Black run stores and organise local help for those in need.
What was the name of the media icon who worked for the female defense workers in the Second World War?
Rosie ‘the riveter’.
What were the most common female power posters saying on them?
‘We can do it!’
What did the 1940 Selective Training and Service Act do?
both men and women.
Train men for the military as well as women to fill in their places.
What percentage of women worked in 1940?
16%
By how much did the married women in the workforce increase?
15-23%
To which jobs did the Black women benefit from due to the worker shortages?
Nursing.
Why, in some places, employers refused to take in Black women?
what was the paranoia about them?
Potentially, they could spread or have sexual diseases.
Who was treated as the minority in this period?
Black American women.
