The changing position of women, 1917–80 Flashcards
(37 cards)
When was the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote ratified?
August 1920
When was the League of Women Voters setup?
What did it do?
1920.
Encouraged women to register to vote.
When was the Women’s Bureau of Labor setup?
What did it do?
Growth of Women working between 1910-40 in %?
1920.
Tried to improve working conditions/ wider employment of women
Around 8 - 10% of population.
What were flappers?
Impact?
Young women who wore short dresses/ hair, smoked and drank in public: behaved like young men.
Shifted perceptions of women, but were only a small % of female population… many adopted more traditional roles once married.
When was the Muller vs Oregon ruling that limited the the number of working hours for women to less that 10 per day?
Impact of this on women?
1908.
A lot of poorer women who needed to work, required over 10 hours a day in factories like meat packing.
What legislation did the Women’s Bureau of Labor push for?
Why was this seen by some as hindering women’s progress?
A women’s minimum wage.
At that point, not even men had a minimum wage.
In a 1932 report from the Women’s Bureau of Labor, what percentage of the women working in slaughtering and meat packing were only working because they needed, not wanted to?
97%
What was setup by Eleanor Roosevelt, and by 1936, how many people could this program reach per year?
What did it do?
Camp Tera, 5,000.
Similar to CCC of FDR; intially privately but then federally funded: provided SOME forestry work for women.
Fannie Peck setup which organisation in Detroit during 1930?
Why/ what did it do?
Housewives League
Encouraged people to shop in black run stores and to organise local help for those in need.
Compared to each dollar earned by an average white American, what was the average Black woman and White woman earning in comparison during the New Deal?
23 cents and 61 cents
Which act was passed in 1940 for Women regarding mobilisation before the USA went to war?
What did it do?
The Selective Training and Service Act.
Prepared to draft men into the military and train women to fill their places.
When was the Lanham Act passed?
How many children were in day care by 1944 as a result of the Lanham Act?
Why?
1941.
130,000 children.
It enabled more women to work.
The percentage of married women in work rose by how much during the Second World War?
15% to 23%
How many women were approximately working in agriculture by June 1943?
3 million
Number of Black women on nursing training courses at the start of and by the end of WW2?
1,100 to 2,600
What happened to women in jobs after the war?
Many weren’t reemployed, Half the women who worked during the war had left (choice, social pressures or lack of federal day cares by 1946.)
Percentage of people who thought married women should not work in 1938, 1942 and 1978?
Why did attitudes change?
1938=78%, 1942=13%, 1978=38%
Women had proven to themselves they were able to work: they had acquired skills.
Restrictions lifted during the war were barely reinstated.
How many more people lived in the suburbs in the 1960s compared to the 1950s?
What often happened to women who worked in the suburbs?
19 million.
They were excluded from friendship groups of those who did not, or didn’t conform with values such as: nap time, grass cutting or fences.
Which TV show was made that portrayed and publicised the life of suburban women?
How did it portray life in the suburbs for women?
I Love Lucy.
The American Dream.
Which city had the first large out-of-town shopping mall in 1954?
How did this impact rural communities?
Impact of suburbs on urban life?
Detroit
Greater variety of goods, at a better price than local stores.
Due to people leaving inner cities, only the poorest were left; ghettos grew, education/ job opportunities lacked.
When did Kennedy setup a Commission of Enquiry On the Status of Women?
When did Kennedy’s Commission of Enquiry On the Status of Women publish its findings?
What were the two conclusions of the Commission of Enquiry on the Status of Women?
1961
1963
The Equal Pay Act was praised but needed enforcing, and wider job opportunities for women
When was the Equal Pay act?
What were its drawbacks?
1963
Needed more enforcing, min wage regulations didn’t apply to low paid jobs many women were doing: hotel, domestic.
When was the Civil Rights Act?
What did it do for women?
1964.
Included sexual equality as well as racial.
When was the Economic Opportunity Act?
1964
