Women’s rights 1865-1992

Hypothesis
• ‘The combination of socio-economic change and the ‘new’ feminism represent a
turning point in the pursuit of rights and opportunities for women.’
Context
• Separate spheres concept remained.
• Reinforced by media post war.
• Polarised opinion amongst US women about their roles.
• Contribution made by women to war effort = important BUT did nothing to
encourage recognition of the right of married women to go out to work.
• HOWEVER, ‘new feminism’ and civil rights movement = important agents of change
for women by 1960s: CAUSE.
• 1969: women achieved important rights and women’s issues = influencing politicians
and policies.

1940’s turning point (WW2)

Positive Economic turning point
• Huge demands on manufacturing, as for WW1: not met by male workforce.
• Women: replaced them in workplace.
• Entered every area of work by 1945, 5 million more working women than 1940.
• Many = married women.
• 350 000 women joined armed forces, unlike WW1.

Positive Social turning point during WW2

• By 1945: evidence that women’s attitude to work = changing.

• In contrast to WW1.

• Horizons broadened by WW2.

• In 1919, most women happy to return to domestic role.

• In 1945, 75% wanted to remain in paid employment.

• Married women: showed could work and take care of homes.

• Jobs in service economy continued to expand: also open to black women and immigrant
women.
 • Federal grants for day care centres for working mothers in the armaments industry were
awarded under the Lanham Act

Negative Social turning point

• Contribution portrayed by media as short-term extension of domestic role.
• Only small proportion of people sampled during WW2 agreed with idea of women
working.

Negative political turning point

• Only 3 states continued to fund childcare.

• Lanham Act, - grants were gradually withdrawn between 1942 and 1946 until only three
states continued to fund child care.

• Goesaert v. Cleary (1948) held that states could prohibit women from being bartenders.

Negative social turning point following WW2 (separate spheres)

• Post war: large numbers of women = laid off.
• Separate spheres concept remained.
• Media played key role enforcing this message.
• Countless magazines elevated idea of ideal family.
• Dr Spock in 1946, ‘Common Sense Book of Baby and Childcare’, emphasising
role of mothers; became bible for child rearing; 23 million copies sold in next
30 years.
• Divorce rate rose to 18.2% in 1946 from 10.2% in 1940, and juvenile
delinquency rate rose: blamed on women for deserting traditional roles.

Negative economic turning point after WW2

• Opportunities to enter professional occupations = reduced.
• 1944 Servicemen’s Re-adjustment Act, or GI Bill of Rights: established right of ex-
servicemen to access higher education; provided funding to happen whereas women
were not
• Massive increase in numbers of men entering colleges and universities after war.
• Annual enrolment of University of Indiana from 4500 students to 10 300 students in
mid 1940s.
• Growth replicated across other universities.
 • More women were entering higher education, but men at faster rate due to GI Bill
of Rights.
• Knock-on effect on professions.
• Number of men in professions increased by 40%.
• Even social work, traditional preserve of middle class women = taken over by male
university students.

1930’s turning point (NEW DEAL)

Point - Some women benefitted from New Deal policies that were intended to address wider
economic issues, however most policies were biased in favour of male breadwinners.

Positive economic turning point

 The WPA hired 372,000 of the country’s 3 million unemployed women.
 The WPA employed 200,000 unskilled women to make mattresses, clothes and blankets for
the needy. It also hired skilled women to teach both children and adults and staff libraries.
 Unemployed female creatives were hired to give lessons and produced WPA travel guides.
 Eleanor Roosevelt convinced the CCC to allow women to enter where they were paid a
months allowance and received training in housework and hygiene.
 The National Labor Relations act of 1935 established the right for both sexes to join unions
allowing women to access higher wages and better working conditions. By the late 1930
800,000 women were in labour unions which was a 300% increase since the new deal.
 Aid to dependent children 1935: Helped women who were unable to work and there was
no male head of the household. These benefits were largely given to white women who had
to undergo a fairly humiliating process in order to recieve it.
 The Fair Labour Standards act 1938: Set new minimum wage levels although women still
earned less than men doing the same job.

Positive Social turning point

 Mary Mcleod Bethune targeting projects in the National Youth Association to keep women
in school.
 Social security act 1935: Giving to introduce welfare benefits for poor families which
benefitted married women.
 Aid to dependent children 1935: Helped women who were unable to work and there was no
male head of the household. These benefits were largely given to white women who had to
undergo a fairly humiliating process in order to receive it.
 In 1935, 89 legal abortions were reported in the USA, which increased to 675 by 1949.
 Prohibition was ended in 1933 (21st Amendment).
 The Comstock Laws (1873) were ended in 1938 when the federal ban on birth control was
lifted, however states enforced their own laws on birth control.
 Female pressure groups were influential in ending prohibition in 1933 (21st Amendment),
such as the Women’s Organisation for National Prohibition Reform (est. 1929).
 During the 1930s, the female membership of unions increased from 265,000 to 800,000.

Positive Political turning point

  Social security act 1935: Giving to introduce welfare benefits for poor families which
benefitted married women.
 FDR appointed 22 women to senior administrative positions. This also proved that women
were capable and able to hold positions of importance elsewhere. It also meant that women
were better supported by the government as there were more women who were aware of
their problems such as Mary Mcleod Bethune targeting projects in the National Youth
Association to keep women in school.
 This was significant because during the depression, 26 states introduced laws which banned
married women from working.
 In 1932, Hattie Caraway was the first women to be elected to the federal government Senate
 Female workers benefitted from the opportunity to join the Congress of Industrial
Organisations (est. 1937).

Negative turning point (Economic / Social)

Point - Men increasingly dominated social work during and after the New Deal.

 Men were still preferred for the rolls such as the CCC having 2.5 million men and only 8.5
thousand women.
 The CIO disagreed with the idea that unemployed men should be supported by women.
 26 states passed laws that banned women from the workforce. This was only 9 prior to the
great depression
 In 1936 a poll in fortune magazine found that only 15% of men thought women should be
working.
 13 out of the 126 WPA projects only hired men.
 Minimum wage for women was lower than the minimum wage for men.
 Many people including women viewed politics as too dishonest and disreputable an activity
for women leading to the number of women in politics increasing very slowly throughout
the first half of the 20th century.
 Wages of female workers remained low compared to male workers.
 In 1939, a female teacher earned 20% less than her male counterpart.
 Female white collar workers were paid less than male factory workers
 In 1936, a Gallup poll suggested that 82% of Americans were opposed to women working.
 Some anti-feminists formed an auxiliary branch of the Ku Klux Klan to oppose the campaign
for an Equal Rights Amendment
 The most overt opposition to the ERA came from right wing anti-feminist groups who
portrayed feminists as spinsters and lesbians. Some even formed an anti feminist branch of
the KKK
 By 1939, only nine women had entered federal politics.

1910’s - 1920’s turning point (WW1)

Positive turning point Socially
 By 1918, 20 states had given women the right to vote in state elections.
 The 19th Amendment (1920) gave women the right to vote.
 A Women’s Bureau was established in the Department of Labour in 1920 with the aim of
improving working conditions
 The Shepherd-Towner Act (1921) made funds available for maternity and infant health education,
however the medical profession resisted free medical care and funding was terminated in 1929.
 Female pressure groups were influential in starting prohibition in 1920 (18th Amendment), such as
the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (est. in 1874).
 In 1921, Margaret Sanger established the American Birth Control League and in 1923 she
established the first legal birth control clinic with financial backing from John D. Rockefeller.
However, by 1924 the American Birth Control League had only ten branches in cities across just
eight states.
 In 1921, Martha Carey Thomas, an African American women, founded the Bryn Mawr Summer
School for working-class women.
 In the 1920s, the “flappers” threw off the standards and norms of women by having bobbed hair,
short clothes and promiscuous behaviour, but they did not unite more than a small number of
women, so they didn’t have a lasting effect on the position of women.
 Female pressure groups were influential in ending prohibition in 1933 (21st Amendment), such as
the Women’s Organisation for National Prohibition Reform (est. 1929)
 The Congressional Union of Women’s Suffrage (est. 1913), which became the National Women’s
Party in 1917, campaigned for the vote more militantly.
 Public sympathy was increased by the treatment of suffragettes in prison.
 The National League of Women Voters (est. 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt) worked to help women
take a larger role in public affairs.
 Female leaders, such as Jane Addams, campaigned for legislation to regulate working hour and
conditions for women.
 Feminists began the campaign for an Equal Rights Amendment in 1923 to give women equal
economic rights
 The National League of Women Voters (est. 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt) worked to help women
take a larger role in public affairs.
 Most men remained opposed to women being in positions of influence.
 In 1916, Jeannette Rankin was the first woman to be elected to the federal government House of
Representatives.
 In 1932, Hattie Caraway was the first women to be elected to the federal government Senate.
 Women had a role model in Eleanor Roosevelt, who combined the role of wife and mother with
active support for women’s rights, civil rights and the New Deal.

Progress economic
 During the 1920s, the percentage of working class, married women in the workforce
increased from 22.8% to 28.8%.
  During the 1920s, the overall number of women entering the workforce increased by 2
million, but these opportunities were lost during the depression.

Negative turning point Socially

 Immigrant women who had not been naturalised remained disenfranchised.
 African American and Native American women in the south were prevented from voting by the
states
 The Shepherd-Towner Act - the medical profession resisted free medical care and funding was
terminated in 1929.
 Women’s Bureau in the Department of Labour - it was met with resistance from employers and
male labour unions, and achieved little