Woman And The Great Depression

Starting in 1929 and ending in 1930 the great depression was the worst economic decline in the history of the United States. The crash of the stock market in October 1929 started the great depression. Most banks had gone out of business, many even lost their life’s savings and a large percentage of Americans lost their jobs leaving people in fear. Franklin Roosevelt became president on November 1932. Roosevelt introduced the New Deal, He wanted to help as many Americans as he could by giving food to shelters and improving the parks and streets. Even though the New deal didn’t end the great depression it sure was a big help since it gave a lot of people hope.

Americans households were severely affected by this problem since the men were the ones who provided for the family, having no job put them in a very difficult state. Families found themselves stressed out since their income dropped severely they couldn’t provide for their families. For men getting new jobs at factories became a really difficult thing to do. Women had to rise to the occasion since now finding a job would be easier for them. More and more women had to go out and get a job in order to provide for their families when their husbands couldn’t.

The great depression helped women become more independent since they couldn’t rely on their husbands to provide for their families anymore since most Americans lost their jobs during the great depression due to the 1929 stock market crash. This terrible crisis actually benefited women since the rate of a working woman actually went up by twenty four percent. This gave woman at the time a sense of freedom and allowed them to fight for their rights. The percentage of single women also went up and they had to provide for themselves. Women were able to acquire “Woman’s work” in those industries where they were least affected by the stock market. While jobs were available they were paid poorly, many women worked as librarians, teachers, secretaries, nurses, etc.

Single women were interested in pursuing a higher education since before the great depression the chances of doing this were really slim. During this drastic economic change women realised they had to take things into their own hands since they had to provide for themselves now. Men without a job were unfit for marriage since they couldn’t support women financially. They started to attend college in order to prepare for future careers.