Women in the Great Depression

1271 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Arguments about depression in women

The Great Depression can be a tough subject for most people, but still inspiring to others. The Great Depression was a very difficult time for America as well as women. The women of the Great Depression struggled through many trials, as did many others in the United States, but they were able to get through it all. The women of the Great Depression worked their hardest to stay true to themselves, and their family, as well as, to keep a job, a stable household, and for some, a strong marriage.
Women primarily worked as teachers, nurses, and telephone workers, but when the Great Depression hit, women began to be fired from their jobs. Plus many men disagreed with women working during the Depression, especially if they were married to working spouse. Women who still had a job were often criticized for taking all the jobs away from the men who didn’t have a job; when in all actuality these women were working as nurses, salon managers, dental hygienists, and occupational therapists. Many states in the U.S. fired women who had a spouse working for the government, but as for many females who didn't have a spouse working in the government, were left with nothing. As a result an estimate of 140,000 women soon became homeless and 4 million were unemployed. Some homeless women in New York had the opportunity to live in a women's shelter as stated in an article written by Elaine S. Abelson saying, "...the number of "female beds" occupied in the women's division of the Municipal Lodging House in New York City between 1920 and 1932, the dramatic increase in the numbers of women given shelter is evident. Recording 3,039 female beds in 1920, 5,814 in 1929, 23,380 in 1931, and 56,808 in 1932..." (Ableson). The lack of jobs for women, caused many o...

... middle of paper ...

...ith the discrimination against women never gets easier. The women in this day still have a problem being equal with the men; but the women during the Great Depression helped the women now days by inspiring them to keep moving forward and make something good out of the bad.

Works Cited

Abelson, Elaine S. "'Women who have no men to work for them': gender and homelessness in the Great Depression, 1930-1934." Feminist Studies 29.1 (2003): 105+. U.S. History in Context. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
(Mrs.), E.L. "Woman's Letter to FDR During the Depression." Women in America. Woodbridge, CT: Primary Source Media, 1999. American Journey. U.S. History in Context. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
"Everyday Life 1929-1941." Historic Events for Students: The Great Depression. Ed. Richard C. Hanes and Sharon M. Hanes. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2002. 305-329. U.S. History in Context. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

Show More
Related

  • Bud Not Buddy Figurative Language

    555 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Great Depression is one of the worst time for America. Books, cartoons, and articles have been written about the people during the Depression and how they survived in that miserable period. For example, the book Bud not Buddy takes place in the time of the Great Depression. Bud is a ten year old orphan, who was on the run trying to find his dad. There are many feelings throughout the book like sadness and scarceness. There are many diverse tones in the book about what people were feeling at the time.

    Read More

  • Employment, Relief and the Breadwinner Ideal: A Historiography of the Great Depression in Canada

    1416 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hollingsworth and Tyyska discuss the employment of women in their article, both wage work and work performed outside of the “paid labour force.” (14). They also look at work discrimination of women based on gender and marital status. They argue that disapproval of married women working for wages during the Depression was expressed not only by those in position of power, such as politicians, but also by the general public and labour unions. They suggest that the number of women in the workforce increased as more young wives stayed working until the birth of their first child and older women entered the workforce in response to depression based deprivation. Hollingsworth and Tyyska also give examples of work that married women did that was an extension of their domestic duties such as babysitting for working mothers or taking in laundry. They also state that some women took in boarders, sold extra produce from gardens, or ran make-shift restaurant operations out of their homes.

    Read More

  • Jim Braddock and The Great Depression

    694 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Great Depression is a sad era in United States History. The Great Depression was a massive economic depression. It affected many people’s lives across the United States. People’s lifestyles changed dramatically going into the Great Depression. There were many factors that caused the Great Depression.

    Read More

  • The Great Depression and the Cinderella Man

    895 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers."The Great Depression." Teaching Eleanor Roosevelt, ed. by Allida Black, June Hopkins, et. al. (Hyde Park, New York: Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, 2003). http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/great-depression.htm [Accessed March 10, 2010].

    Read More

  • Digging In By Robert J. Hastings Essay

    563 Words  | 2 Pages

    The great depression was a very sad and hard time. This was a time where people had little money, no available jobs and just had a hard time with everything. Many people had nd any way to make money whether it was cutting kid’s hair in neighborhood, picking fruit, selling iron cords house to house or even painting a house for 5 dollars. Even though this was a very hard time some people still had hope that things would get better. This was a really bad time until Franklin Roosevelt who was for the government supporting the Americans and not the other way around became president.

    Read More

  • Eleanor Roosevelt and the Great Depression

    1237 Words  | 3 Pages

    Eleanor Roosevelt was a First Lady during the time of the Great Depression. She made huge differences in the lives of women, youth and minorities.

    Read More

  • Down And Out In The Great Depression

    1337 Words  | 3 Pages

    McElvaine, Robert S, ed. Down and Out in the Great Depression: Letters from the Forgotten Man. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1983.

    Read More

  • Book Review - The Great Depression

    1002 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Great Depression America 1929-1941 by Robert S. McElvaine covers many topics of American history during the "Great Depression" through 1941. The topic that I have selected to compare to the text of American, Past and Present, written by Robert A. Divine, T.H. Breen, George M. Frederickson and R. Hal Williams, is Herbert Hoover, the thirty-first president of the United States and America's president during the horrible "Great Depression".

    Read More

  • The All American Girls Professional Baseball League

    1386 Words  | 3 Pages

    The start of the war era came on the heels of a decade when women had seemingly taken a step backward in social and economic progress. The depression of the 1930's had devastated the American economy. Women, especially married women, had bore the largest share of the burden. To help male workers get back on the job, national leaders called for married women in two-income families to give up their jobs. Several states had passed laws barring women from holding state jobs.

    Read More

  • World War Two and Its Impact on the Role of American Women in Society

    1496 Words  | 3 Pages

    The 1940's brought innovative opportunities along with hardships to American society. After the Depression it looked as though there was no hope for the traditional role of women to be changing. Women had very few job opportunities, especially married women. In William Henry Chafe's book The American Woman, he explains:

    Read More

  • The Golden Era of Labor

    1530 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Depression Era was a period of major strife brought about by speculation and largely unregulated business practices. Almost everyone in the United States was affected, even many citizens of other countries around the world, but the working poor were disproportionately affected. Both Farmers and Workers experienced anti-union sentiment since before the turn of the century, and were subject to extremely hazardous working conditions, low wages, and in the case of farmers, many accumulated mass debt to decreasing prices of produce. While the Great Depression led to the unnecessary suffering of the working poor, it also led to many great successes by the work of the labor movement, which went on to benefit future generations and begin a legacy that continues today.

    Read More

  • The Effect of the Great Depression on National and Individual Morale

    1064 Words  | 3 Pages

    As with many disasters, the effect on individuals was varied, although with unemployment at 28% (not including eleven million struggling farm workers (Clements, page 74)), it is doubtful that anyone totally escaped the effects of the Depression. Amongst the worst affected were men who became known as Hoboes- migrants who travelled the USA frantically searching for work. According to a testimony by Louis Banks (Cements, page 74), many men were so in need they regularly risked their lives hitching on trains to try and find employment- if they didn’t fall, there was always the chance of being shot by the train police. This sense of mortal desperation is apparent in much of the evidence- “A man over forty might as well go out and shoot himself”

    Read More

  • Women's Fight to Reform their World in the Early 1900s

    1115 Words  | 3 Pages

    Moran, Mickey. “1930s, America- Feminist Void?” Loyno. Department of History, 1988. Web. 11 May. 2014.

    Read More

  • Women's Roles In The 1920s Essay

    895 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the Great War and the huge amount of men that were deployed created the need to employ women in hospitals, factories, and offices. When the war ended the women would return home or do more traditional jobs such as teaching or shop work. “Also in the 1920s the number of women working raised by fifty percent.” They usually didn’t work if they were married because they were still sticking to the role of being stay at home moms while the husband worked and took care of the family financially. But among the single women there was a huge increase in employment. “Women were still not getting payed near as equally as men and were expected to quit their jobs if they married or pregnant.” Although women were still not getting payed as equally it was still a huge change for the women's

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby and the Great Depression

    1140 Words  | 3 Pages

    "Great Depression in the United States."  Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2001.  CD-ROM.    2001 ed. Microsoft Corporation. 2001

    Read More

More about Women in the Great Depression

Open Document