Great Depression Effects On Women

“Just fire women, who should not be working, and hire hard working men!”( “Women and The Great Depression”). This is what employers and businesses used to say to women, even though they eventually had to hire women because it was inexpensive to pay them. This caused large amounts of chaos in the working industry as a whole because of the thought women were there to steal the job opportunities of more ‘deserving men’. Women, single and married, fought the hardships of The Depression. Even if some of their lives didn’t differ from being a housewife. Suddenly things just got a lot more arduous. Money, and work, and for the first time in history, women were the laborers of the household, and men were being laid off from their jobs. Women often
The fact of work for women was contradictory since businesses desired women to work for them to make money they were losing, and they knew women could not refuse. Some men were so ashamed of their non-existent jobs that they abandoned their wives and families. A 1940 survey revealed that 1.5 million women had been abandoned after their husbands lost their jobs to The Depression (Gervase). Men were so afraid of losing their authority in the household that they felt it was women to blame, however, it could not be further from the truth. The public media drilled the view into people that women were somehow at fault for wanting work in hard times to support their families. Men saying it was irresponsible for leaving their duties at home for something as ‘ridiculous’ as working. More than half of all employed women in the 1930s worked more than fifty hours a week and one-fifth of those worked over fifty-five hours. (“Working Women” ) Even with this extreme work environment, and hours, a woman’s annual pay was only $525 to a man's $1027, and yet people still said that women were undeserving of work and steal their money (“Working Women” ). Women were constrained into taking the low wage even if it did not meet their home expenses. During the Depression women’s wages dropped lower than ever, and businesses took advantage of
The Depression pushed women into the workforce more than ever. A poll in 1936, only 15% of respondents said married women should not have a full time job. 48% disapproved completely and the remaining 37% said there were conditional requirements they had to justify women working ( “Working Women” ). It was a very well-known stereotype of the time that a woman’s only place of work was inside the household caring for the family. Men were hard workers, so when The Depression hit, men were somewhat lost on what to do because their lives had been turned upside down. So then during the Depression when men lost their jobs because businesses did not want to pay them, they were outraged when women stepped up to the plate instead. Even the WPA (Works Progress Administration) said women with physically able husbands could not qualify for a relief job(“Working Woman”). Since the view of men was that they were considered heads of households, even if they were unable to find a job and provide an income for the family. This continued to push the stereotype that women were always the insignificant role, no matter how much effort they put into keeping the family afloat in unfortunate times. Married woman may have had some of the liberties of not changing much of their lifestyle when The Depression hit.any women had been pushed back,because