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Essay: Exploring the Impact of the Great Depression and WWII on Women: African American Struggles for Equality

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  • Subject area(s): Sample essays
  • Reading time: 4 minutes
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  • Published: 1 April 2019*
  • Last Modified: 23 July 2024
  • File format: Text
  • Words: 1,093 (approx)
  • Number of pages: 5 (approx)
  • Tags: World War II

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ay in hOn October 29th, 1929 the stock prices in the New York Stock Exchange completely collapsed, and the United States lost billions of dollars. This collapse was one of the causes of the Great Depression, a time of immense unemployment and the failure of banks. Many Americans struggled during this time.  However, it was not just Americans that were suffering from economic troubles. Throughout the 1930’s, there was high amount of political instability throughout the world. For example, Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany and throughout the militaries of Japan. The attack of the U.S. naval base, Pearl Harbor, started the United States’ involvement in World War II. This time period, 1929-1945, significantly altered women’s lives because of the economic conditions of the United States demanded that women enter the workforce and expanded their responsibilities beyond the caretaker of the home. Progress for the equality of women during 1929 through 1945 was hindered and gender roles were unable to be refashioned because African American women struggled during the early 1930’s with racial and sexual discrimination and white women suffered from sex segregation in their new vocational opportunities during wartime.

The issues of the Great Depression affected all Americans, however African American women particularly struggled through this period because of “racial and sexual discrimination deprived of a living wage no matter how hard they labored” (Harder Times, Jones 512).  Throughout the early 1930’s, it was necessary that both men and women were working in order to support their families. However, it was extremely difficult for minority women to become employed.  The Great Depression shaped African American’s lives because of the inequality that transpired. Black women would be easily dropped in order for white women to obtain jobs. They “endured a degree and type of workplace exploitation for which the mere fact of having a job could not compensate” (Harder Times, Jones 512).  Black men struggled to find employment, and therefore their wives would have to “cling more desperately to the positions they already had, despite declining wages and deteriorating working conditions” (Harder Times, Jones 512). African American women were encouraged and motivated by their families to bring money into their homes. The economy during the depression was categorized by “sex-type” work, meaning that certain workers as more suitable for each gender. For example, men typically were employed in manufacturing while women worked in service industries. The government was pushing for minimum wage and maximum hour provisions, but these did not apply to domestic or farm workers. Around 65% of domestic servants were black. (Harder Times, Jones 512). They were severely underpaid.  90% of black domestic or agricultural workers did not derive any benefit from the new deferral polices. One black woman was described as wearing shabby men’s clothes, and was standing  “on a street corner offering her housecleaning services for 10 cents per hour" (Harder Times, Jones 513).  Since it was so difficult for women to obtain jobs, a slave market in the Great Depression emerged. Women of all ages would stand on sidewalks and wait for white woman to offer them jobs for the day. If they were hired, they would be subject to anything that the wealthier white woman would demand of her. These women were extremely taken advantage of, and “earned radically depressed wages: lunch and 35 cents for six hours of work, or $1.87 for an eight-hour day’ (Harder Times, Jones 513).  Due to the economic conditions of the Great Depression, African American women could be exploited because of how desperate they were for jobs. They experienced racism because many African Americans would be fired if a white woman needed a job.  

Many women worked to keep their families financially stable in the Great Depression, but during World War II women worked in a destroyed workplace in order to fill the roles of the men. Wartime caused women’s lives to change is several different ways. Similar to the Great Depression, women’s responsibilities increased. However, now there were more opportunities for all women to enter the workforce in many different jobs not just in the service, domestic, or agricultural industries. During wartime, women would “experience new vocational opportunities; a lessening of discrimination based on martial status, age, and race; and public praise for their wartime contributions as workers.” (Milkman, Gender at Work, 536). Even though women were moving outside their traditional roles, women continued to lack social and economic status in American society. The government told managers of all industries that they needed to hire women workers during World War II. The government “made no effort whatsoever to influence their placement within industry once management complied.” (Milkman, Gender at Work, 537). Prior to the need for women to enter this sector, women were not in the workforce because they were thought to be best suited for housework. Women “were hired into specific classifications that management deemed “suitable” for women and were excluded from other jobs.” (Milkman, Gender at Work, 537). Although jobs opened up for women, there were also several jobs that were closed off to women because society believed that only men should be able to do them. In many of the industries that women joined, managers found women successful because, “she as a woman, had the capacity to withstand the monotony of even more simplified reparative operations requiring high digital dexterity” (Milkman, Gender at Work, 540). The reason that these jobs were sex segregated was to ensure that women would prioritize their femininity, and then thinks of themselves as workers (Milkman, Gender at Work, 540). Therefore, the government found in necessary to use propaganda in order to push women to join these unfamiliar roles. Although the government encouraged women to join the workforce, women still were not seen as equal. They received far lower wages then men.  The opening of the workforce for women provided a huge opportunity for women to reform their traditional gender roles in order to stray away from the caretaker of the household, however the opportunity was not capitalized on. Women were only expected to stay in the work force for a temporary amount of time. Even if they wanted to continue working, they forced to conform to their traditional domestic duties. Management always held the belief that their was no alternative aside from women leaving their jobs when men returned from war, even if the women preformed better. Society encouraged that “women would happily exchange industrial tools for the broom and mop or new vacuum cleaner and the baby bottle” (Milkman, Gender at Work, 537). Men believed that they were the rightful owners of their jobs, an expected that women would easily leave their roles.

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