Women Working During the Depression Era

Women benefited from Roosevelt's labor reforms.

Following the stock market crash in 1929, America was thrust into a deep depression lasting until the onset of the second world war. Men found themselves unemployed while women took up the financial reins as breadwinners, hence changing their roles within society.

Background

Fifteen million men were unemployed by 1933 when Roosevelt took over a declining economy from President Hoover. The new president implemented federal reform, creating the New Deal, which introduced a Social Security Act to provide financial relief to the unemployed. Together with the Labor Relations and Fair Labor Standards Acts these programs set fairer employment laws such as introducing a minimum wage, a 40 hour week and equal opportunities to include women and minority groups.

Effects

After men fell into despair at not being able to fulfil their role as providers to support their families, Eleanor Roosevelt said, 'It's up to the women' and so women took up that call and found employment in domestic roles, as office workers or within textile factories. (See Reference 1 & 2)

Benefits

Women got their families through the Great Depression and it was stated, 'We didn't go hungry, but we lived lean'. Many men abandoned their families unable to cope with the financial burden leaving their wives to take on the responsibility to provide for their children. Women found work or the means to survive and this silent reserve of women eased the effects of the Depression. Despite the hardship, the Depression presented women the opportunity to break away from their traditional roles as wives and mothers to enter the world of work. This increased their confidence in their own abilities and enhanced their status within society, setting the stage for a large-scale demographics change as women entered into factory work during WWII.

References

• Eyewitness to History:The Great Depression
• The Gilder Lehman Institute of American History:Women and the Great Depression
• Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic site:The Great Depression (1929-1939)
• "AQA History: USA, 1890-1945;Chris Rowe;2008"
• "A Companion To 20th Century America;Stephen J Whitfield;2007"