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Women During the 1930s. Iconic “Migrant Mother”. Dorothea Lange photo, 1936. Eleanor Roosevelt. Complex Picture. Depression was gendered experience Expanded opportunities for white women (sometimes more than white males)
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Iconic “Migrant Mother” Dorothea Lange photo, 1936
Complex Picture • Depression was gendered experience • Expanded opportunities for white women (sometimes more than white males) • Continued individual achievement, esp. in emerging fields like film & aviation • Women shaped New Deal policies
The Depression & Gender • Crisis discussed as male dilemma • Class differentials • Hostility to married women workers • Desertion rates increased; divorce did not • Fertility rates declined
Race Differentials • White women benefitted from New Deal federal employment & lesser impact on light industry • Black women hurt by constriction of agriculture sector and domestic work . North Carolina cannery, 1930s
Network Help • Family assistance • Ethnic/racial communities • Boarders
Single Women • Cultural prohibition against female hoboes, sleeping in flophouses • For desperate: Domestic service or prostitution
Married Women • Number +50% in labor force • Cheaper domestics • Home-based work increases • Media vilifies Office work, 1930s
Gov’t Limitations • 1932 Economy Act (federal) • Local gov’ts followed • By 1940, only 13% districts hiring married women teachers; 70% fired upon marriage • By 1940, 81,000 fewer female teachers
Women’s New Deal Network • 28 female political appointees • All born 1865-1904; median 1881-2. • 70% college, half graduate school • 10 never married; 9 widowed by 1930 • ½ group leaders in suffrage movement; ½ active in war effort
Network Center • Provided entrée to President • Applied pressure to other officials • Appeared personally to support own & FDR causes
Molly Dewson • Patronage positions: • Promoted social justice issues • Demonstrated value of women’s contributions • Rewarded female Dem. political leaders • Head Women’s Division, • DNC
Frances Perkins • First female Cabinet member • Many New Deal reforms out of Labor • Led Social Security initiative • Helped bring in labor groups
1933 Conference on Women • Brought women’s groups like League of Women Voters, Women’s Trade Union League into problems of getting relief to women. • By 1935: 300K women on FERA work relief (12% of total on relief; 10% of total women unemployed.) FERA camp, 1934
Mary McLeod Bethune • Founded NCNW, 1935 • “Black Cabinet” • Nat’l Youth Admin. • Fed. Council on Negro Affairs
Complex Picture • Depression was gendered experience • Expanded opportunities for white women (sometimes more than white males) • Continued individual achievement, esp. in emerging fields like film & aviation • Women shaped New Deal policies