Neil Chacko 1/20/17 Premisler Pd. 2 The role of women in the workforce during the Great Depression and its impact on the economy and feminism. Throughout U.S. history up until around the mid 1850s, almost all women had the role of being a housewife and mother, nothing else. Their main role was in their households as America was a more male dominated society and most of the workforce consisted of men. Then as the Women’s Suffrage movement began in the 1848, many significant Women’s Rights leaders spoke out and inspired women to fight for their equality. As a result, more women started to work outside of their homes. But still a majority …show more content…
Girls ages 5-12 went to school and girls ages 12 to 18 started to learn how to do work at home. Women were subservient to men, did not have any rights and were thought of as less intelligent, less significant to society, not able to support themselves. This stayed the same until around mid 1800s when the Seneca falls convention took place in 1848. In this convention, very famous leaders such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton started the Women’s Suffrage Movement. This movement seeked changes in property laws, equality in rights with their husband’s and equality to all men, and also the right to vote. This movement in turn lead many women to leave their homes and children to join the workforce. In the short time between 1880 and 1910, the number of women in the workforce increased significantly from 2.6 million to 7.8 million. This increase clearly illustrates the impact of the Women’s Suffrage Movement on the roles of women. The majority of these women who started to work outside their homes worked in textile mills, garment shops, certain types of nursing, and factory …show more content…
When the stock market crashed, stocks lost billions of dollars of value. Many businesses laid off their employees and millions of people became unemployed. People couldn’t support their families without jobs and many went out seeking new jobs. Since the number of women in the workforce increased tremendously in the previous decade, many laws were passed discriminating against married women in the workplace. Although they weren’t passed, large number of state legislatures proposed dismissing wives from state government if their husbands earned a “living wage.” However section 213 in the Federal Act of 1932 prohibited married people from working in the federal government if their spouse also had job in the government and this bill was signed by President Herbert Hoover although he didn’t fully agree with it. There was even people proposing new ideas such as firing all the women who held jobs so that more men could obtain a place in the workforce. One writer named Norman Cousins famously offered simple solution to the great