Part 8 Woman’s Rights
We have already visited the gutsy, wild and fun loving 1920 flapper girls. However that bubble was soon to bust. October 29, 1929 the infamous Black Friday, the day money ceased to flow, the day the well ran dry, and the day stock market crashed. Millions of families lost their life savings and one out of every three workers were unemployed, or on part time wages. It was the day that America fell to her knees and doom and gloom set in. Americans were starving in the cities while crops were rotting in the fields. “Thousands of shoe workers were laid off, while people walked the streets in cardboard shoes."
Even President Roosevelt’s efforts could not turn the economy around. The great depression lasted until World War II, and in the meantime everyone had to adapt to the fast and furious economic disaster. One of the changes that occurred in the 1930’s was the role of women in society.
Adaptability, Compassion and Strength
Women withstood the challenges and held their lives and homes together with tremendous strength and endurance. Families looked out for each other sharing what little they had. Women forced to work took whatever work they could get. Even middle class women took work deemed well below their station. Women on the verge of destitution began to work in nontraditional and innovative jobs. Some became entrepreneurs and were able to become self-employed.
Shortage of Work and the Impact upon Women – Because of the shortage of work most employers refused to hire women who were married, justifying their stance with the fact that women would be taking away the jobs of the men who were the true breadwinners. Nevertheless twenty-five percent of the work force was made up of women, though their work was very unstable or seasonal at best. There was still the culture bias that “women didn’t work” making it harder for those that had to work to obtain gainful employment. Women were supposed to be the homemakers waiting for their husband’s to come home from work and not the other way around. However, what happened to women whose husband’s did not work, or single, divorced, separated or widowed women? No one seemed to care about that and that made the plight of these women even harder.
Thankfully as we have seen in the Jane Addams article that there were women who were concerned with the plight of women especially immigrant women and children who needed help.
While the US was reluctant to accept the reality of “working women” they were more reluctant to accept the plight of the women of colour or ethnic women. As they say some things never chance and sexual and racial stereotyping ran rampant in those days just as they do in ours.
Over 49 percent of Black women were unemployed in the northern states as compared to 23 percent of their Caucasian counterparts (1937 census report). However in the southern states the unemployment rate for Caucasian and black women were roughly the same (26%). Because the jobs were given to men over women, the male unemployment rate of course was lower everywhere in the country.
Economically depressed areas in the North such as New York’s Harlem hit the black workers even harder with massive layoffs than other northern areas at the time. White women would take work like waitressing, even domestic work, cooking, nursing, cleaning (laundry) which they did not do before the depression for lower wages in order to survive, and that cut out the work that used to be available to black women. According to Kathy McMahon, Psy.D, it was almost impossible for black single women to find any work.
McMahon, states that even middle class Black women were reduced to working for whatever they could get. She states there were what was called “slave market” street corners where the black women would wait on these corners for wealthier white women to come by and pick and choose which black domestic they wanted for the lowest bid they could get away with. Once hired the domestic was on call 24 hours a day and was subject to anything that her employer expected of her.
All women had to adapt to the work that was available, namely waitressing, domestic work, and factory work especially in the garment sweatshops.
It was during this time that an interesting occupation serviced mainly for Black women. Black women became beauticians and hairdressers. The occupation of hairdressing and barbering was a protective black occupation because white hairdressers and barbers did not know how to cut, treat and style black people’s hair. These black women became self-employed, to be able to make a living and thus starting a new working model known in that time as “survivalist entrepreneurs.”
Furthermore beyond the beauty aspect, it was stressed by black organizations that newly black newcomers from the South would have to groom themselves appropriately if they expected to find jobs in the North. They would have to have their hair styled and have clean nails and clothes and they were not to wear head coverings known as “head rags” or “dust caps.” Black women expecting any white collar jobs such as secretarial had to be light skinned and have their hair straightened. Incredible as it sounds for the poor economic times, because of the necessity to find decent work these beauticians and hairdressers had a thriving business.
The Great Migration 1915 – 1930 – Black people from the south flocked to big northern cities to find work during this era and this in turn would provide an income for a black northern innkeeper who needed a job to feed her own family. Many of these women had so many borders in their own home to help pay their rent that it was to the point that their homes could be considered hotels. Many of these women not only co-coordinated lodgings, meals etc in the boarding houses but worked making flower arrangements and lampshades to further supplement their income.
Black women also opened stores and restaurants usually out of their own homes to make an income, which was referred to as “depression businesses. Black women had no choice but to be innovative in their ways of seeking an income. Many traditional businesses during the depression era had a “whites only policy” which they openly advertised when posting a job. The Philadelphia Employment bureau processed 68% of these white only jobs adverts between 1932 and 1933. No one really knew the exact number of homeless black women because the society concentrated on the need of the white population. What is known is that the black community, churches, and organizations were overwhelmed with the demand.
The demand for a shelter or bed for women in general rose by 270% in 1930.
Ageism was also rampant. Employers were looking for young women, especially young white stenographers and secretaries no more than 25 years old.
Since the myth still prevailed that women didn’t work, the focus was on the men and their problems finding jobs. Photographs often showed the men in the breadlines and selling apples on the street. It was considered a male problem. The women who needed to work to sustain themselves were often hidden from view. No one, not even the journalists wanted to accept this “woman’s reality.” Government agencies were ill prepared for the amount of women who needed help during this time. A true account of how many women there were seeking beds or relief of any kind is not correctly recorded because many were turned away because they were not white and protestant.
Many women didn’t have a permanent address at all. In order a place to sleep, they
rode the 5 cent train all night, or they slept in the park. They ate from “penny kitchens.” Many women were proud and had to be practically starving before they would accept charity or hand outs of any kind.
Birth Rate – Because of the depression fewer women were having babies that they knew they could not afford to feed. We visited the “race suicide” idea of the early 1900’s suggested by President Roosevelt and later dealt with by the Comstock Laws. Yet in that time the women were having an average of 4 children per family, now in the Great Depression it was down to 2.2. The new deal helped the man in these terrible times but did very little for destitute women. What woman in these circumstances, who could hardly provide for herself, would want to bring children into this world to starve along with her? It is evident that the male prospective could not get further way from reality than this.
Women in Politics
On the other hand, Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the United Nations Commission on Human Rights drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She was the champion of the human rights, the champion of the underprivileged and as President Truman later said, she was the first lady of the world. She worked with her husband President Franklin Roosevelt on the New Deal to improve working conditions and social relief programs. She continued to enhance the status of workingwomen after his death.
Sources:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_6_33/ai_75434979/pg_2/
http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/31390.html
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Invisible-Women-of-the-Great-Depression&id=1888970
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Comments: 39
My parents graduated from high school in 1929 and 1931. My mother attended college but being the daughter of a small town preacher had no support from her parents (who harvested nuts and berries in the woods to supplement their garden by necessity). She worked as a housekeeper and baby sitter 8 hours a day while attending college. (She also got one meal a day for that work.) After graduation she worked as a waitress (mostly). (English major.) After marriage she did sewing and took in laundry. Her sister did sewing and baking to increase her family's income. These women were college graduates at a time when only a small percentage of men attended college. Perhaps you can understand from this why I have such a high opinion of the strength and courage of women.
absolutely these are the great women of the depression all of them, they did what they had to do to survive and care for their families, god bless them all
Interesting, but my Great Grandmother took in laundry and received no special privileges during the period 1904-1910. She was a widow with children and there was no insurance. Actually the truth which of course I have is that those who had fought for the confederacy, in MOST cases weren't even allowed to work and had to leave and give up their home take their families and non-stop do whatever it took to support and feed their families they were not allowed to work in Virginia, during the reconstruction-THIS is what is never emphasized.
And still my Grandmother's mother and her children found time to walk the streets and give what they could, when they obtained jobs, in my Grandmother's case with the Federal Government. DC let confederates and their families in some cases, those who were lucky work.
After listening to them when young, I believe no lies about the plight of whites and I know they were often FORCED into prostitution and died young and forgotten.
Good article, though the Great Depression stays in my mind so because of hearing about it and the conditions that my ancestors lived with during that period.
White only signs, yes maybe so but not so for the families of many Confederates and not so for people who had no money nor the right clothes, which all had to try anyway they could to get.
of course if you read the article all women had to work hard that is the whole point, but the stats show that more blacks were out of work than whites because of the all white, the only ones really who got a bit of a break in a time when employment was so high were the young stenographers but if you were white and old you didn't get any better a break than blacks, this article is not separating women, it is showing the plight of women all women and the situation each group faced during the depression, also I did right about the victorian women there are 8 articles in this series to day, this was the last one posted. This is the first one that I really wrote anything about the blacks, and I felt it was necessity to right away, as women we are all sisters.
Also, those who fought for the confederacy, their children and widows were denied pensions from previous wars, even one's who served honorably another forgotten white truth, nobody notices these important matters of life and death and no one seems to care.
About white/Caucasians hair they often got caught in the machinery and were ripped off their heads, being long and hanging down in those sweat "hell's". Often they got "no care and eventually died as a result of that long loose hair.
L. H, read my series, there are 8 articles, I cannot possibily mention every thing that happened, I am not writing an encylopedia, but in 8 articles I have done a pretty good job, I didn't concentrate on the confederate war or I would of course have mentioned a lot more including slavery, but I did not feel i needed to go there because most people now about that history or at least enough of it to appreciate how very hard it was for women, I am trying to do it more globally because there is really just too much to cover, please read my series from the beginning, and I think you will like my sweatshop article. even my workhouse article, in brings up some of the points you are talking about, but this article this one and this only is on the great depression.
I didn't mean to detract from your writings, also I did read that one and it was very good.
Sweat shops
I'm old enough to remember one before any unions, I'd rather not say the company- but it was all woman and conditions were like you said in your article-That one was closed down and moved away from that area.
I also, had to handle a lot of coal miners claims from 60's and before, you know what they were.
Thanks for reminding people of some of the tragedy of all this.
now that is a great topic coal miners, mostly men but important, mesothelioma a biggie today in lawsuits actually the biggest law suits in america are over mesothelioma cases, those poor men with black lung, the hard lives the work it is awful, now that is another good article, doesn't fit in with my women series but it is an article worth doing on it is own.
I used to take their claims for the US Government and some of the THUG bosses, didn't report their working (there were some obvious reasons too). Years ago, just asking one of the criminal type of mine owners for this info, brought on a threat, they'd just pick up and move out. I have been in the same doctor's offices with the one's who had "Black Lung" disease and so many used to smoke too, life was often short.
I would love that you wrote an article on it, or I could but I would need your expertise
I will try, though it can really get involved. Happy 4th of July, we were out today, and I've been editing some pictures.
To try and do that right, I'd have to sit down and take my time::)
thanks hon I hope you had a happy fourth of July I am in canada, our birthday was the lst of July
I did and he weather was pretty nice, thanks.
wonderful
Very interesting article, and thank you for posting it. I know no one who grew up in the great depression, being my family was small and from Europe. My father never spoke of this, nor my mother. I don't know, possibly they were embarrassed by it. My mother was a seamstress in a sweat shop for a long time, but we as children, never thought anything wrong with this. We lived in a poor neighborhood with blacks, in the same situation.
I do wonder if we are going through the same thing now? Not to the extent of people sleeping on streets, I guess though in some areas they are in this great country. I also wonder what will happen when the credit card companies don't get their monies back. Your article was interesting, but also food for thought, a little scary.
thank you and I think you would enjoy my sweatshop article posting just before this one, the last 8 articles is my women series and there is more to come.
Some of that is happening again. People are once again learning to rely on themselves and relatives. I see it in my own younger relatives.
They also are learning the truth about economy, and how they can help each other with little things like economy packages, and not making unnesicary purchases.
Some are also learning to pool their money together to buy the bigger ticket items.
yes we have to adapt to survive as a people there is no other people who don't adapt commit suicide etc, the rest of us have to do whatever we can in whatever situation in life that we find ourselves in.
Yes.
More interesting facts! I love this series.
thank you Angela for faithfully following the series from the begining, I am so happy you are enjoying it.
yes it is another 'les we forget!
I am going backwaed on my ancestry and right at 43 [going backwards]
My Mother was Inspecter at Goodyear Blimp !
cool Jule's I hope you read the whole series there are 8 articles posted so far this was the last of the 8 but there are more to come.
My mother was a single mother in the 1970's and supplemented her income with her artwork, which she sold to send me to summer camp, etc.
Her mother was a first grade teacher until she got too deaf to hear her students well any more, in her early 60's.
Hard-working women.
yep and I was single mother in the 1970's too, I know all about it.
Excellent article, Carol.
thanks again Kathryn and thanks for following the series
Oddly, my grandfather moved from the city where he paid $4.00 a month rent, bought a 40 acre farm, and moved his 7 children to the farm. He plowed the fields, and when the horse that pulled the plow died, my grandmother acted in the place of the workhorse, and pulled the plow, that grew the alphalpha for the cows he got.
They had chickens, a well, which my grandfather and sons dug, they built the house themselves, did all the rockwork, and when eventually put in indoor plumbing, and a bathroom.
He landed the job of postmaster, and held that job until he retired years later. He, grandma, and the kids sang in the honky tonks, and anywhere else, to make extra money. He was the only Catholic in the town, and it was extrememly tough. He was a city dweller, that moved his family way outside a little town that was not even on the map yet.
He had an 8th grade education, but learned how to do a vast number of things that helped him put his farm together.
People would come and knock on the door and beg for food, or to dig in their garden to find anything, like potatoes, left from the harvest, for something to eat.
I never got to hear stories as to how he got the money to buy that farm, though. I'd have liked to have know, but all in the family were very intelligent, willing to do what it took to do make it through the rough times. Some amazing stories.
wonderful man and your grandmother an amazing woman, god bless them both.
Excellent article. My grandmother lived through the great depression, although I don't think she experienced it to quite the extent as what you write. I know it affected her still later in life though, because she would use/wear something until it fell apart; and was a bit of a packrat.
yes the fear of not having enough was with her till she died, she experienced the depression, in full force, she may not have been out of the street with no home that of course is the worst case senario but she she was affected by it nevertheless.
You're on a roll, Carol. These articles are great.
thanks Nancy, I lost my steam last night and didn't post, lol, I am trying to get to the article today.
My mom was a child during this time. She came from a well to do family, but still they felt the pressure. My mom had some quirks that always annoyed me. One was she always saved food not eaten in the refrigerator, and it would grow 'hair'.. and still be in there. I'd throw it out with the container when it stunk really bad. Her excuse for 'saving' the food was that during the depression food was scarce. Thing is.. it never got eaten... she had other habits too that was passed on to her by her family during the depression. I am fortunate to have never lived in such times. I think it changes a person for life.
yes the depression was psycologically damaging that is for sure.
thank you for the article
you are welcome chas