18. Women and the Great Depression

The Great Depression brought a new era of economic reform headed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Although these reforms mainly helped men who were dispositioned, leaving women to fight for themselves. Women entered new job forces and faced struggles men didn't have. They were expected to maintain their houses and families but also work in offices. While also not taking away from a mans chance to provide for his family.

Frances Perkins Library Of Congress

In the years between World War I and World War II, the entire world suffered through one of the greatest economic disasters of the 20th century: The Great Depression. In the United States, this period of uncertainty would prompt some of the greatest attempts on the part of the federal government to provide economic relief to its citizens. However, gender ideologies deeply impacted how that relief was carried out.

On October 29, 1929, later referred to as “Black Tuesday,” the Stock Market crashed. Within hours, billions of dollars of market value disappeared. The US, and the rest of the world, found itself in the midst of one of the greatest economic catastrophes in modern history. After Black Tuesday came years of hard times for the United States, but the country hit its low point between 1932 and 1933. Unemployment had reached 25%. President Hoover’s inaction and philosophy of pulling oneself up from their bootstraps, led to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s landslide victory in the 1932 election. Struggling Americans were about to see more federal action.

President Roosevelt did not have a plan to tackle the Depression when he was elected to office, but he filled his cabinet with a variety of progressives--also known as FDR’s “Brain Trust”--who he believed would help shape an effective policy--including the first woman ever to serve in a presidential cabinet: Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor. It’s extremely likely people were confused by her title and she was probably mistaken for a typing secretary at least once, but progress is progress.

Perkins was a labor rights activist who had previously volunteered at Chicago’s Hull House and served as head of the New York office of the National Consumers’ League. The Depression’s impact on Americans’ everyday lives cannot be overstated. Because of the ultra-high unemployment rates, most Americans found themselves out of work or underemployed. But for women? The Depression’s effects were compounded by existing gender ideologies. That sounds familiar, doesn’t it? A cultural problem that’s generally harder on women because of sexism?

Women Working, Living New Deal

Here’s the scoop: most women felt increased family pressures as they tried to make due with reduced income, plus most women still had their childrearing household obligations, and many of the opportunities that the federal government offered to aid American citizens were closed off to them. Regardless, many women’s ability to earn a wage--in whatever capacity they could--was often essential to helping their families get through this challenging time.

In his first 100 days in office, FDR’s priority was to confront the banking crisis. Decent start, but his actions weren’t enough. Congress had to pass laws and create agencies to stimulate the economy, build up infrastructure, put Americans to work, and boost morale. His critics were scathing in their reviews.

Most Americans are familiar with some of these “Alphabet Agencies,” like the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps), the PWA (Public Works Administration), and the WPA (Works Progress Administration). These agencies were A-OK. But, for real, super helpful agencies! They were critically important to stabilizing the economy! Their downside? Many explicitly excluded women.

The CCC, one of the most well-known, and well-studied agencies of the New Deal, only hired young men between the ages of 17 and 23. The Civil Works Administration (CWA) was a little more lax--but they still almost exclusively hired men. Because of existing gender ideologies, women’s roles were mostly limited to those of housewife and mother. Consequently, those in positions of power didn’t really consider women in an economic recovery package, and many of the New Deal programs were not initially directed at them.

FERA Camp, History.com

Some women did get to take advantage of New Deal programs--mostly via the Works Progress Administration. Some of the best-known WPA projects were federal artistic projects like theater, music, dance, murals, and historical or tourist guidebooks. However, even at the program’s peak, women only represented about 14% of WPA employees.

Generally, women were limited to jobs that fit within existing gender ideologies. They were considered unsuitable for physically-demanding jobs like heavy construction. In Federal Emergency Relief Administration (or FERA) Camps, women’s work included canning foods, sewing, producing clothes and mattresses, or working as housekeeping aides for families in need of additional help. Of course, these gender limitations on women were compounded with racial stereotypes. For example, most of the FERA employees who worked as housekeeping aides were African American women.

It’s difficult to measure the New Deal’s impact on women, when--essentially--the New Deal wasn’t written for them, or with them in mind. Between 1932 and 1937, there were laws against more than one person per married couple working for the federal civil service. Meaning if both parties of a couple were earning that sweet sweet New Deal cash, they’d have to decide who would quit their job between them. Since the National Recovery Administration set lower minimum wages for women than men performing the same jobs it rarely made sense for women to keep their jobs over their husbands’ higher paying work.

Frances Perkins, Library of Congress

Now hang on--what about our cabinet queen Frances Perkins?! Remember, she was the Secretary of Labor. How did the first female presidential cabinet member feel about this?

Well, it’s complicated. Surprisingly, Perkins shared some of the same anti-work for women views as many of her male colleagues--particularly for married women. At one point, she even said:

“the woman ‘pin-money worker’ who competes with the necessity worker is a menace to society, a selfish, shortsighted creature, who ought to be ashamed of herself.”

“Menace?” “Creature?” Are you describing some nice lady named Deborah trying to make ends meet with a part time job or a demonic woodland goblin? While Perkins’ statement might sound like an indictment against women workers, she was mostly opposed to married women who held jobs. Perkins also said:

“I am not willing to encourage those who are under no economic necessities to compete with their charm and education, their superior advantages, against the working girl who has only her two hands.”

Basically Perkins believed if women were married, ideally, they wouldn’t need to work. Their husbands should provide for them. However, if women were alone, they needed the ability to earn a decent living to protect themselves.

Perkins certainly wasn’t the only one displeased with working women. The targeting of women workers was broad scapegoating. Traditionally “women’s jobs” were less connected to the stock market, and less affected by its crash, than, say: coal mining or manufacturing. So while many men were losing their jobs, women in some “women’s industries” simply weren’t! This point was lost on many, though. Journalist Norman Cousins once wrote, “Simply fire the women, who shouldn’t be working anyway, and hire the men. Presto! No unemployment. No relief rolls. No Depression.” Cousins’ short-sighted comment ignored that a coal miner or steel worker couldn’t (or wouldn’t) exactly fit the job requirements of a clerical worker or nurse.

Eleanor Roosevelt, Library of Congress

The New Deal’s effect on women cannot just be determined by job quotas or gendered minimum wages. The Social Security Act--one of the landmark pieces of New Deal legislation--and the Fair Labor Standards Act did not initially even cover sectors of employment where women were disproportionately represented: agricultural work and domestic service. Furthermore, women who were not dependent on men got fewer Social Security benefits. This weird program structure seemed to suggest women deserved economic rights only in relation to men. They were often forced to take on more central roles within their homes and families--playing unrecognized roles in helping the country through the Great Depression. Or, they were working for less money than male peers and possibly being despised just for having jobs at all. Although the Depression was a time for many strong women to step up to the plate in their homes and workplaces, ultimately, the Depression did not subvert traditional gender roles--it reinforced them.

However, in 1933, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote It’s Up to the Women. This was really the first time a first lady took action to speak on a current crisis. Women were rarely in positions of power to speak out, so Eleanor Roosevelt’s actions were quite modern and reshaped our expectations for White House First Ladies.

In It’s Up to the Women, Roosevelt provided a handbook for women during the Great Depression. It was inspirational at times, but mostly, it was practical. It provided inexpensive meal plans, recipes, instructions, and most importantly put forward the idea that women did have power to shape their homes and their destinies. She believed these trying times would just help women forge strong characters. She wrote, “The women know that life must go on and that the needs of life must be met and it is their courage and determination which, time and again, have pulled us through worse crises than the present one.”

Translation? “Ladies, we’ve been through some stuff. If we made it through that, we can make it through this depression.” That said, it’s important to remember, as we’ve already touched on, women’s experiences of this hard time varied greatly based on my factors. Women’s age, marital status, geographic location, race, and ethnicity all affected how complicated a woman’s chance at surviving difficult Depression circumstances were. For example, an urban housewife with electricity and running water might have been struggling, but she arguably still had an easier time than a similarly struggling rural woman...who also had to deal with the lack of these conveniences.

Charlotta Bass, Wikimedia Commons

The typical married woman in the 1930s had a husband who was still employed, but who likely took a pay cut or reduced hours to keep his job. If he had lost his job, often the family had enough resources to survive without going on relief or losing all their possessions. Nearly every woman, rich or poor, faced a reduction in income.

For some women, though, this reduction of income and the effects of the Depression were more extreme than others. Many Black Americans obviously experienced the Depression differently than white people. Many of them were already struggling under the yoke of discrimination and prejudice. Even before Black Tuesday, Black Americans had way fewer job options than white people. Times were already hard, but then they became harder.

Charlotta Bass was born in Sumter, South Carolina in 1874. In 1910, she moved to Los Angeles, California where she became the owner of the California Eagle, a Los Angeles-based newspaper for L.A.’s growing African American community. She became a prominent figure in the community and organized a campaign to promote Black employment. By urging her readers to only shop at places that hire Black employees, she sought to reinvigorate the insular Black economy in Los Angeles!

Her efforts were mirrored in other communities with large African American populations. These movements did make change, but overall, Black Americans still had an unemployment rate that was twice that of white Americans, while simultaneously benefiting less from government relief and public works projects than their white counterparts.

Meanwhile, President Roosevelt was at least attempting to improve Black rights in the US. He himself hired Black Americans and placed critics of segregation, disenfranchisement, and lynching in key positions in his administration. One of these additions was Mary McLeoud Bethune. Bethune was born in South Carolina to former enslaved persons and eventually became one of the most well known educators and civil rights leaders of the 20th century. Bethune may have been Roosevelt’s advisor on minority affairs, but her appointment was a major step for Black women.

The Migrant Mother, Library of Congress

Farm families also struggled beyond the typical American family with declining agricultural prices, foreclosures, and drought. Their plight became visible to the rest of Americans through photographer Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother”. In 1936, Lange was hired by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) to photograph migrant workers to raise awareness and urge the federal government to provide them with aid. Lange went to Nipomo, California where she encountered Florence Owens Thompson, the subject of the notorious photograph.

While Roosevelt envisioned the New Deal as a broad support package to help as many Americans as possible, there were limits. Ultimately, cultural norms about race and gender shaped legislation. The ideal of a male-headed household certainly shaped policy and resulted in few women being covered by things like Social Security on their own.

However, the New Deal brought some progress to women. More women earned government positions than in any previous administration, and the First Lady used her power to push for reform in civil rights and labor laws. But on the flip side, there was no organized feminist movement in the 1930s, and the many calls for women--particularly married women--to exit the work force did not pass the feminist agenda.

Men in a Breadline, SWHP

Aside from Lange’s “Migrant Mother”, another iconic image from the Depression is the newly unemployed, downwardly mobile, breadline-waiting “Forgotten Man.” In hindsight it’s difficult to understand how most folks could look at this photo and feel empathy, but many would look at a photo of a woman in the same situation, desperately looking for work, and find her greedy or entitled. Nevertheless, women’s wages were crucial to families’ survival during the Depression, so the realities of the economy continued to pressure women to find paid work whenever, and wherever, they could. Once again, the Depression proved, despite cultural stereotypes, women work.

[Setting up the Inquiry] By the end of this era, so much remained in question. How did gender roles ultimately shape public policy? How did racial ideologies impact the roll out of the New Deal? What did the federal government’s neglect of women say about their status as citizens? While social factors were demanding that married women leave the workforce, economic factors were compelling them to work.How did federal programs fail to see the role that women played in the economy?

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Bibliography

Collins, Gail, America's Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines. New York, William Morrow, 2003.

DuBois, Ellen Carol, 1947-. Through Women's Eyes : an American History with Documents. Boston :Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005.Indians Editors. “NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN.” Indians. N.D. http://indians.org/articles/Native-american-women.html.

Ware, Susan. American Women’s History: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Primary AUTHOR:

Dr. Alicia Guitierrez-Romine

Primary Reviewer:

Dr. Barbara Tischler

Consulting Team

Editors

Kelsie Brook Eckert, Project Director
Coordinator of Social Studies Education at Plymouth State University

Dr. Barbara Tischler, Consultant
Professor of History Hunter College and Columbia University

Dr. Alicia Guitierrez-Romine, Consultant
Assistant Professor of History at La Sierra University

Jacqui Nelson, Consultant
Teaching Lecturer of Military History at Plymouth State University

Dr. Deanna Beachley
Professor of History and Women's Studies at College of Southern Nevada

Alice Stanley

Reviewers

18th Century
Dr. Margaret Huettl
Hannah Dutton
Dr. John Krueckeberg

19th Century
Dr. Rebecca Noel
Michelle Stonis, MA
Annabelle L. Blevins Pifer, MA
Cony Marquez, PhD Candidate

20th Century
Dr. Tanya Roth
Dr. Jessica Frazier
Mary Bezbatchenko, MA