USA- Theme 3 Flashcards
(20 cards)
When was the first Red Scare?
1919-1920
The impact of WW1 on women
Women could work during the war.
Women gained the vote on 18th August 1920.
League of Women Voters was set up in 1920, to encourage women to vote
Women were fired after the war.
Women were expected to resume their role as housewife.
Poorer women and black women didn’t vote.
What was the roaring twenties?
An economic boom in the 1920s, after the war.
Mass production made consumer goods cheaper.
Hire purchase made them easier to buy.
Road building meant cars could travel further, faster.
Widespread electrification gave more people electric appliances, making housework quicker.
There were more jobs for single women, such as the typing pool.
A Women’s Bureau of Labor was set up in 1920, to improve women’s working conditions. From 1910-1940, working women increased from 7.6 million to 13 million. Women were still paid less than men.
‘Last hired, first fired’
What were flappers?
They went against traditional women roles.
They worked, cut their hair short, wore short dresses, smoked, drank. Sexual freedom. They went to jazz clubs and speakeasies- a place people could buy alcohol illegally during prohibition (1920-33).
They shifted public perceptions of women.
The impact of the Great Depression
Unemployment, falling wages, falling prices.
Relief programmes.
Impact of the New Deal
New Deal Aid fro Families with Dependent Children provided some benefits for the poorest families.
Alphabet Agencies- Civilian Conservation Corps (1933-42), TVA, AAA, NRA.
Eleanor Roosevelt set up Camp Tera, for unemployed women in 1933. By 1936, there were 36 camps, taking 5,000 women a year. Only provided work for 2-3 months.
Alphabet agencies were only a short-term solution.
What were the alphabet agencies
Civilian Conservation Corps (1933-42) found work for young men aged 17-23. Replanting forests, digging reservoirs. Employed 2.5 million men.
Agricultural Adjustment Administration (1933) reduced agricultural production by paying farmers subsides not to plant on part of their land and kill off excess livestock.
Tennessee Valley Authority (1933) to provide navigation, flood control, electricity, and economic development to Tennessee Valley.
Alphabet agencies were only a short-term solution.
Impact of WW2
It rescued the USA from the Depression.
Women took over male jobs.
1940 Selective Training and Service Act prepared to draft men into the military and to train women to fill their places, e.g. shipbuilding, aircraft assembly.
The percentage of married women in the workforce rose from 15-23%.
The Women’s Land Army of America re-formed to provide farm workers countrywide.
Worker shortages meant that black women could train for profession they were previously rejected. Black women on nursing courses rose from 1,100 in 1939, to 2,600 in 1945.
Some employers still refused black women.
Post-war changes
Many women were not re-employed by factories that changed from making war goods to other goods (electrical appliances).
Some women left their war jobs out of choice, social pressure or problems with day-care, as federally funded ones closed down in 1946.
After a dip, female employment rose again. More job opportunities for married women.
The war changes the attitudes of husbands and society to married women working.
Women were still paid less than men.
Women’s work remained mainly clerical, domestic or shop work. Some women went into office work, e.g. advertising or insurance.
What changes did suburban living make, 1941-1960?
Offered middle and upper-class Americans home ownership.
Own social networks and social life.
Separate black and white suburbs.
Suburbs grew rapidly.
They had schools, leisure facilities and shops.
Women’s role in suburbs was something to aspire to, as portrayed in the media.
Those left in cities couldn’t afford to move out. Inner cities became locked into a downward spiral, poverty. Non-white ghettos grew.
Development of large out-of-town shopping centres/malls. They provided a wider range of goods at better prices. The first was built in 1954 in Detroit.
The Impact of the women’s liberation movement, 1961-1980 - The politics of equality
In 1961, JFK set up a Commission of Enquiry on the Status of Women. In 1963, it published its results, praising the Equal Pay Act (1963) and the wider job opportunities for women in federal government.
The Equal Pay Act needed to be enforced.
Women’s wages were lower. Insufficient child care facilities. Non-white women were in a worse position.
1958 Education Act had said schools should have job counsellors to work with students. But this didn’t happen in practice.
In 1964, the Civil Rights Act included sexual equality.
The Impact of the women’s liberation movement, 1961-1980 - Betty Friedan
She was a psychologist and journalist. She published her book ‘The Feminist Mystique’ in 1963.
The National Organisation for Women (NOW) was set up in 1966. It aimed to work within the political system to get equality and better enforcement of the Civil Rights Act and Equal Pay Act. They held meetings, collected petitions and data, demonstrated and lobbied politicians for change.
The Impact of the women’s liberation movement, 1961-1980 - Young radicals
Under 30, white, middle-class and college educated. They wanted immediate change. Drew parallels to black Americans.
Phyllis Schlafly
A conservative who opposed the ideas of the women’s liberation movement.
She set up STOP TERA to stop the Equal Rights Act being passed.
Opposition to women’s liberation movements
Opposition from men.
Conservatives, e.g. Phyllis Schafly.
The Impact of the women’s liberation movement, 1961-1980 - Gains
Equal Pay Act
Civil Rights Act, 1964
In 1967, LBJ called for affirmative action to improve employment conditions.
From 1970, a few states allowed abortions.
In 1972, the Supreme Court ruled on the Eisenstadt v Baird case, allowing access to contraception to unmarried and married women.
Abortion was federally legalised in 1973.
Equal Rights Act was passed in 1972.
The Impact of the women’s liberation movement, 1961-1980 - Limits to advancement
Equal Rights Act was passed in 1972. 15 states were still refusing to ratify it in 1982. There still isn’t an Equal Rights Act.
The USA did not sign up to the 1979 United Nations policy of introducing non-discrimination against women in all aspects of life.
Difficulty enforcing legislation.
The Women’s liberation movement disintegrated.
What was the Dillingham Commission?
It investigated the impact of immigration on the USA from 1907 and made its report in 1911.
It said immigration was beginning to pose a serious threat to American society and culture.
‘Old’ immigrants from Ireland, England and Germany, who adapted to American life.
‘New’ immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, who were ‘racially inferior’ and did not adapt.
The findings were used to justify the Immigration Acts in the 1920s, e.g. Emergency Quota Act of 1921.
What was the Immigration Restriction League
Set up in 1894 to campaign to restrict immigration.
Immigration legislation of the 1920s
1917 Immigration Act- Listed ‘undesirable’ immigrants to be excluded, e.g. homosexuals, criminals. Imposed literacy qualification for those over 16.
1921 Emergency Quota Act- Restricted yearly number of immigrants.
1924 Johnson-Reed Immigration Act- Changed the quota system to 2% of people from the country of origin.
1929 National Origins Formula- Confirmed the 150,000 limit and bans Asian immigrants altogether.
