Most educated people know that the 1930s in the United States are referred to as the time of the Great Depression characterized by economic recession and stagnation, Wall Street Crash, high rate of unemployment, a decline in GDP, and a massive slowdown in multiple markets and industries. This period is discussed from both economic and social perspectives. However, the latter usually explores the effect produced by the recession on the American society in general. This paper focuses specifically on the rights and roles of women during that time, exploring some of the most prominent events in terms of women’s rights.
A decade prior to the Great Depression was accompanied by multiple feminist movements that successfully fought and gained more recognition, freedom, and rights for the American women. However, the challenges of the economic recession threatened to move the feminist issues to the side while some other extremely harmful problems occurred. In order to push through more issues related to women’s rights, the feminists began to integrate into the sphere of politics which was easier due to the recently obtained right to vote. The creation of the 19th Amendment that created sexual equality in reference to voting symbolized the women’s victory and that is why many stopped fighting being under an impression that the discrimination was over (Moran par. 9). Moreover, the majority of women remained politically passive and indifferent, so the right to vote became a pointless privilege.
Having achieved one significant change, the feminist activists and suffragists faced a challenge for identifying another common problem to battle (Moran par. 9). As a result, many of the formerly active feminist groups disintegrated and started to join the anti-war movements turning away from the gender equality concerns. At the same time, the growing rates of poverty encouraged many women to look for employment where they faced another inequality being perceived as the rule-breakers stealing the work from men whose gender role made them the suppliers of the families. The pursuit of the workplace equality and the protection of women from unfair treatment by the employers were quite unsuccessful and slow due to the major division in the opinions (Moran par. 12). In other words, the female politicians and activists shared two clashing perspectives – pro and against regular employment and careers for women.
The main gender role of a woman during the 1930s was based on wifehood and childbirth, the occupations that were deemed incompatible with career-building and ambitions of any kind. This point of view was popular among both men and women, and that is why the chances of women to obtain workplace equality or be hired at all remained lean. Regardless of their employment status and opportunities and status, women still were overloaded with all the house duties. However, compared to the jobs of their husbands, those of the housewives did not go away. In fact, keeping a harmonious home and making the ends meet became much more difficult for the women as the incomes of the families decreased during the Depression (Ware par. 3).
The major attempts to address the crisis undertaken by the political leaders resulted in a higher tension between men and women in terms of workplace equality and gender roles. This tendency occurred because the efforts of addressing unemployment were mainly directed at finding the jobs for men which often led to the displacement of women in a combination of questioning the very idea of working women. The division of occupations into “male” and “female” became sharper as men typically employed in mining or metallurgy proved to be unable to take over the jobs occupied by women (midwives, maids, clerical positions) (Ware par. 5).
Roosevelt’s New Deal programs continued to discriminate against women and supporting only the male job candidates and allowing lower wages for women workers doing the same jobs as their male colleagues. The Acts concerning labor standards failed to cover the areas where most women were employed – domestic work and agriculture (Ware par. 9).
The African-American and Mexican women, who used to dominate these fields initially, ended up in even harsher working situations as white women pressured by the dropping family incomes either refused to hire maids or started to look for domestic employment increasing the level of competition in the labor market. Overall, people of color (both men and women) were hit by the Great Depression in a much aggressive manner than the white citizens. Many of the jobs offered by the social support programs specified that they only targeted white candidates (Beach par. 5). Generally, the employment of women in the United States during the 1930s grew significantly; however these statistics only considered white women whereas the women of color continued to struggle for respect, appreciation, and tolerance.
Conclusion
The historical events described in this paper happened fairly recently, and this fact makes them rather unbelievable for the contemporary individuals living in the world where equal rights concerns are some of the most important social, economic, and political issues. The history of the 1930s is an illustration of the effect a crisis produces on a fragmented society making is even more disintegrated. In the US of that time, Americans seemed to neglect unity and togetherness. Instead, they preferred to stay divided into multiple communities each competing for better conditions.
Works Cited
Beach, Justin. Limits to Women’s Rights in the 1930s. 2016. Web.
Moran, Mickey. 1930s, America – Feminist Void? n. d.
Ware, Susan. Women and the Great Depression. 2016. Web.