Zusammenfassung der Ressource
The changing position of women, 1917-80
- THE IMPACT OF WW1
- gave women a chance to work,
wages often less than men. war
ended - most fired to open jobs for
returning men
- Congress passed the 19th
Amendment to the Constitution,
giving women the vote under the
same state rules as men
- women could vote as long as
they voted in large numbers,
politicians would address
the broader issue of
women's rights in order to
gain their votes
- 1920 the League of
Women Voters was
set up to encourage
women to vote
- poor w didn't vote, or
voted the way their
husbands did, few black w
did
- mainly educated white
women who felt that the
vote was a significant
change
- IMPACT OF THE ROARING
TWENTIES
- economic boom -
many people better
off than ever before
- mass production --
consumer goods
cheaper & hire
purchase made them
easier to buy. road
building - cars could
travel further, faster
- widespread
electrification -
more people
could run
electric
appliances
- after war ended,
expectation that
things would return
to 'normal' including
w resuming their
traditional roles
- some jobs e.g. teaching
were barred to married
w & many employers
made it a rule not to
employ them
- lives of single
well-off white w
that were most
open to change
- changing
industries
created more
office jobs
- 1920 Women's Bureau
of Labour set up, to
improve women's
working conditions &
campaign for the wider
employment of w
- 1910 - 1940 no.
of working w
8.3% of
population -
9.8%
- w same job as men -
paid less, 'last hired,
first fired' situation
similar to blacks
- FLAPPERS
- young women - worked, short
hair, wore short dresses, some
smoked &drank alcohol, drove.
'behaved like young men'
- went to jazz clubs &
speakeasies - seen
as places not for a
'lady'
- shifted public
perceptions of w, but
were only small% of
female population
&many adopted a more
traditional role once
married
- Went to male
dominated sporting
events e.g. boxing
matches without a male
escort
- IMPACT OF THE GREAT
DEPRESSION
- brought unemployment,
falling wages and rising
prices
- w looked for work to
supplement husbands
income or if
widowed/divorced took
any work they could find
- Women's Bureau was largely ignored
within the Bureau of Labor because
of its focus on w, some thought it was
hindering women's progress when it
supported gov legislation e.g. ruling
that w's working hours should be no
more than 10 hours a day & when it
pushed for legislation e.g. when it
pressed for a minimum wage: men
had no minimum wage
- restricting working
hours often forced
the poorest w to
break rules/ lost
their jobs
- regulations mainly to
industrial not
farming/domestic service
where a large proportion of
the labour force was black&
female
- migrant labour pool was
enormous, alll competing
for badly paid jobs,
back-breaking work in
appalling conditions
- IMPACT OF THE NEW DEAL
- men came first in New
Deal policies on
unemployment&
working conditions
- e.g. Civillian Conservative Corps
1933-42 found work for young aged
men 17-23 - about 2.5 million young
men were employed
- Eleanor Roosevelt -
made camps for
unemployed w
- By 1936 - 36 camps
taking about 5,000 w a
year. However, only took
w for 2/3 months &
provided no work/or
wages. Only training was
in budget management
- for every dollar a white
man earned, a white w
earned 61 cents & a black
w 23 cents, on average
- IMPACT OF WW2
- 1940 Selective Training &
Service Act prepared to
draft men into the
military &to train women
to fill their places,
including in shipbuilding
&aircraft assembly
- 1941 Lanham Act's childcare
provision was extendedly
1944, there were 130,000
children in day care
- % of married w in workforce rose
from 15 to 23
- Women's Land Army of
America re-formed to
provide farm workers
countrywide. estimate 3
million women working in
agriculture 1943
- worker shortages meant black w could
train for professions where they had
previously not been welcome.
However, some places refused to
employ black w saying they had&
spread sexual diseases
- POST- WAR CHANGES
- married w left work
but widowed,
divorced &separated
w had no choice but
to work
- after a dip, female
employment rate rose
again especially for
45-54 age group
- Before war, married w
barred from many jobs;
these restrictions were
lifted during the war
&rarely reinstated after it,
so a wider range of jobs
was open to w
- w who had been
trained - nurses etc
continued to work&
so moved into a
wider range of work
rather than
domestic& farm
work, which was their
predominant
employment pre-war
- Generally, war significantly
changed the attitudes of
husbands& society to married
women working. changes attitude
of married w, they acquired skills
during the war made them want to
go to work
- w still paid lower wages then men for same work. Work
remained mainly clerical domestic or shop work. Some
white w moved into main business of that office but faced
hostility from the predominantly male world they had
entered nothing compared to the hostility b people faced
on desegregating