How did the Great Depression affect the women in the US?

Running Head : GREAT DEPRESSION

How did the Great Depression affect the women in the US

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Introduction

The Great Depression (1929-32 ) is considered the worst recession in world history , which was triggered off in the USA , then by far the most important economy in the world . In part , US prosperity in the 1920s had been very fragile , as 5 per cent of the population received a third of all income , whereas over 70 per cent of

the population received an annual wage which was less than was considered necessary to live in decent comfort . Hence , the large rises in consumption were effected by only a very small section of the population , and this became problematic as soon as its demands for consumer goods (such as cars , radios , etc were satisfied . In addition , the banking system was structurally weak and very badly regulated , with a large number of small banks (over 30 ,000 ) in the 1920s . Finally , high US tariffs on imports led to a huge imbalance between exports and imports , so that foreign countries could only afford to buy US exports with the help of US loans . The combination of these factors led to the Wall Street Crash , but they also explain the severe depression that followed . Banks collapsed , domestic consumption collapsed , and because US investors needed to recall their foreign assets quickly US exports also collapsed

In addition , the depression led to a sharp increase in tariffs and hence to a substantial reduction in international trade , so that during the 1930s the trade in manufactured products between Germany , France , and the UK declined to half of the level of 1913 . Unemployment reached record levels of around 20 per cent worldwide , but declined thereafter to around 10 per cent in 1937 , a figure still considerably higher than in 1928 . In the US , the depression led to greater economic involvement of the state , through Roosevelt 's New Deal . Most importantly , in the countries worst hit by the recession (in central Europe and in South America ) the ensuing hardship and misery provided a receptive and fertile ground for the aggressive , chauvinistic , romantic authoritarian rhetoric of far right movements

How did the Great Depression affect the women in the US

During the great depression , the culture of the United States returned to more traditional gender values . As a result in contrast to the twenties , the thirties became a period that emphasizes the importance of domesticity for women , which created a cultural anxiety regarding women in the workforce . Therefore , to the disappointed of feminists who had been encouraged by the great strides made by working women during the first decades of the twentieth century , the depression era was a time during which the majority of women workers were increasingly undervalued as compared to their male counterparts

Women 's Suffrage Movement . The campaign to establish political economic , and social equality between the sexes made a steady advance throughout the great depression period . Woman 's...