Women New Deal

Question 1

Traditional/ Negative view + Quotes

Answer 1

• Gender discrimination lay at the heart of many policies
• Chafe: “In 1940 the percentage of women at work was almost exactly what it had been in 1910 and there seemed little reason to expect any change in the future”
• Clements: “Much New Deal legislation worked against women”

Question 2

Balanced View + Quotes

Answer 2

• New Deal did enforce gender roles but this was reflective of wider societal attitudes
• Benefitted enormously politically
• Baxandall and Gordon subscribe to this view
• “Sexism had long pervaded American society, and Roosevelt’s administration, preoccupied with the economic crisis, did little to change the situation” - Boyer

Question 3

Positive View + Quotes

Answer 3

• Broadly positive to women, particularly in the influence women had over policy and the increased political opportunity now available to them
• Ware emphasises the role of women such as Perkins in “Beyond Suffrage”, showing how women now had tremendous influence in the administration

Question 4

Situation before the New Deal

Answer 4

• Great Depression had caused unemployment
• Drop from nearly 29% of married women working in the boom to 12% in 1930
• Women seen as cheap labour
• lack of political participation
• The 1920’s- ‘Flappers’- Social attitudes changing as women have growing independence and greater determination to rebel.

Question 5

6 acts that helped Women Economically

Answer 5

• Social Security Act (1935)
• Aid to Dependent Children (1935)
• Fair Labour Standards Act (1938)
• National Recovery Administration set up by the National Industrial Recovery Act (1933)
• National Labour Relations Act (Wagner Act) 1935
• Federal Emergency Relief Act (1933)

Question 6

Social Security Act

Answer 6

• 1935

- Introduced welfare benefits for poor families which helped married women as it released some of the pressure on them.

Question 7

Aid to Dependent Children

Answer 7

• 1935

- Helped women who were unable to work, had young families and no male head of house. Benefits to white women.

Question 8

Fair Labour Standards Act

Answer 8

• 1938
• This set minimum wage levels which benefitted working women Eval: Still did not equal male wage levels. (E.g. Female teacher earned 20% less than her male counterpart in 1939.) Also established maximum working hours of 44 hours per week for the first year, 42 for the second year and 40 thereafter. Eval: Female white collar workers were paid at lower rates than male factory workers

Question 9

National Recovery Administration

Answer 9

• National Recovery Administration (1933)- Under the leadership of Frances Perkins, Women saw gains in the reduction of working hours, abolition of child labour and the establishment of the right of all workers to join a labour union

Question 10

National Labour Relations Act (Wagner Act)

Answer 10

• National Labour Relations Act (Wagner Act) 1935- Allowed industrial workers to form trade unions and as such during the 1930’s female membership of trade unions increased from 265,000 to 800,000 (mostly white women)

Question 11

Federal Emergency Relief Act

Answer 11

• Federal Emergency Relief Act (1933)- Allowed financial assistance and homeless women could seek additional refuge in city shelters.

Question 12

Female employment stats

Answer 12

• More married women working in 1940 than in 1932, even if men were strongly against it.
• By 1940, there were 1.5 million working mothers. Eval: Women were seen as cheap labour
• Number of female workers increased from 11.7% to 15.2% of the total workforce in the 1930s

Question 13

Prominent Political female figures in this period

Answer 13

• Frances Perkins
• Mary McLeod Bethune
• Eleanor Roosevelt
• Ellen Woodward
• Mary Dewson
• Florence Kelly (Acted against)

Question 14

Role of Frances Perkins

Answer 14

• Frances Perkins served as the US Secretary of Labor from 1933-1945
• In that time Perkins managed to reduce working hours, establish minimum wage laws and abolish child labour through the National Labor Relations Act of 1935.
  Eval: No women-specific policies
  BUT: - Negative reaction to Perkins being appointed US Secretary of Labour highlights continuing and deeply entrenched prejudices of businessmen, labour unionists and politicians against women in positions of influence

Question 15

Role of Mary McLeod Bethune

Answer 15

• Mary McLeod Bethune was the first black woman to enter government when appointed Director of Negro Affairs in the NYA in 1936. ( National Youth Administration)

Question 16

Limitations of women in political positions

Answer 16

• Women could not always work to advance Women’s Civil Rights - they felt that they had to show they could benefit the wider society, not just women
• Those women that did have high power often accepted the priority of getting men back to work to ensure the stability of family life. Eval: There is an argument that these women in power did fight for equality and wanted to be active in national politics and not just feminist ones
• Discriminatory New Deal legislation highlights the lack of influence women had in federal agencies and government.
• Although more women in positions of influence, still far from equal to men

Question 17

Role of Eleanor Roosevelt

Answer 17

• Eleanor Roosevelt was crucial in getting women appointed to public positions and to ensure that elected and appointed officials heard their ideas
• Eleanor joined League of Women Voters and Women’s Trade Union League in 1921 before becoming first lady

Question 18

Ellen Woodward

Answer 18

Prominent figure in the PWA

Question 19

Role of Mary Dewson

Answer 19

• Mary Dewson was the director of the Women’s Division of the Democratic National Party between 1932 and 1934 + chair of the Women’s Division Advisory Committee 1934-37 + A member of the Social Security Board 1937-38.

Question 20

Role of Florence Kelly

Answer 20

• One reformer, Florence Kelly argued it was the fed’s role and the role of women in positions of influence to regulate the economy as a whole and not just set up special regulations for women.

Question 21

US vs. One Package of Japanse Pessaries

Answer 21

• 1936 SC case
• Declared that doctors were allowed to distribute contraceptives across state lines- Overturned the Comstock laws of 1873.
• Eval: Many states still restricted it so it was only wealthier women who could benefit because they could pay market prices for it

Question 22

Women in the CWA and the FERA

Answer 22

• Women only accounted for 7% of CWA (The Civil Works Administration) jobs nationwide, and the 12% of FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Administration) workers who were women received lower wages than men.

Question 23

Women and Wages/ Pensions/ Conditions

Answer 23

• FLSA’s minimum wage of 20% was higher for men
• Social Security Act gave men a 50% better pension than women
• National Recovery Administration in 1933 set the principles of lower pay for female workers.
• Women in domestic work received very few benefits and those in the South often saw their incomes fallen.

Question 24

Male attitudes to Women in work

Answer 24

• By 1936, a Gallup poll showed 82% of men were opposed to married women working

Question 25

Female minorities in this period

Answer 25

• Black female sharecroppers also saw their incomes fall significantly
• AA women hit severely by the Great Depression and received very little with the New Deal
• Women from minority groups did not benefit from the New Deal.
• Throughout the 1930s, African American and Mexican-American women continued to suffer as a result of discrimination and prejudice

Question 26

How did Nellie Taylor Ross gain influence

Answer 26

• Became governor of Wyoming after her husband died.

Question 27

Overall

Answer 27

• Women did benefit slightly economically from the New Deal but there is no significant change in social attitudes seen and the benefits were very limited
• The New Deal cannot be blamed for the general attitudes of society - FDR was criticised for “too much intervention” and lack of priorities, so it’s hard to criticise what he didn’t do
• Essentially a large continuity in the position of women and had a negative impact relative to men
• The prevailing patriarchal cultural attitudes hindered the progress of women’s rights during this period
• Many of the aspects of the New Deal did inadvertently help women, but this was secondary to the aim of the New Deal which was to increase the economic position of men, largely at the expense of women. It did not see an attitudinal shift away from women as “homemakers”