America 1917-1980 - Society and Culture

Topic 3

19th Ammendement

Passed in 1920 allowing women the right to vote - league of Women’s voters set up encouraging women to vote

Women and the war

1 million women joined the workforce; munition factories, meat packing, typing, phone operators - nursing became a profession

1920s; Women’s jobs

1920; Women's bureau of labour set up to improve working conditions for women - 1910-1940; working female population increased from 7,440,000 to 13,007,000 - increased prosperity led to widespread electricisation and mass production

1920s Sexual Revolution

1920s; Manuals began to circulate on pregnancy prevention - 1900-1993; birth rate dropped from 3.5 to 3.2 and divorce rate doubled - 96% of STD epidemic in WW1 soldiers found to be contracted prior to war (critique of taboo)

Flappers

Embraced sexuality like ‘young men’ - shock of conservative groups

Effect of Depression on women

1932; Women's Bureau of Labour reported that 97% of women meat packers were the sole wage earner in the family, by 1940; 1/3 of white American women were working in clerical sector, number of married women working doubled

Impact of New Deal on women

New Deal’s Aid for families with dependent children provided benefits for poorest families, for every dollar a white man earned, a white woman earned 61 cents and a black woman earned 23 cents

Fannie Peck 1930

Set up Housewives Leagues in Detroit encouraging women to shop in black-run stores

WW2 and women

Rosie the Riveter showed women were capable of work. 1941 Lanham act ended childcare provision so women could work

Opinions of women working ww2

1938; 78% of people thought married women shouldn't work - by 1942 it was 13%, over 350,000 women volunteered for military service

Women and military service

July 1942; Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service - November; Semper Paratus Always ready - February 1943; US Marine Corps Women's Reserve

WW2 and marriage

1940-1943; 6.579,000 marriages took place

Rise in suburban life

1960; 19 million more people lived in surburbs than in 1950 - 1954; first shopping mall built in Detroit

Suburbs and women

‘Susy homemaker’ promoted a sense of femininity and achievement in the role of housewife - 1950s; 2/3 of people disapproved of married women working

Emergence of women’s liberation movement

1963; JFK signed equal pay act - found to be badly needed due to wage discrimination

Kate Millet

Believed undoing traditional family was key to sexual revolution - 1966; named 1st chair of Education Committee of NOW

National Women’s Political Caucus 1970

1971; conference attended by 320 women in 26 states - 1976; major women’s rights campaign at DNC to help pass ERA

Gloria Steinem

1963; went undercover as a playboy bunny to expose sexism - 1969; New York Magainze speak-out about abortion

1972; ‘Ms’ Magazine

Tackled issues of domestic violence, same-sex marriage, FGM, abortion and rape - sold out 300,000 prints within the first 8 days of publication

1972 ‘Eisenstadt v baird’

Allowed married and unmarried women access to contraception

ERA

March 1972; passed as an ammendemne to the constitution - by 1983 15 states were refusing to ratify it

1970s and women

rise of conservatism with STOP ERA - anti-feminist movement part of Reagan

Immigration hostility up to 1920s

1875; Asian exclusion act - pre-1914 US had ‘open-door’ policy allowing 20 million migrant from Europe

Dillingham commission

Suggested immigration from ‘new’ countries was beginning to pose a serious threat - immigration increasingly from Southern Europe; 13% vs 81%

1917 Immigration Act

Lists a number of undesirable immigrants to be excluded including homosexuals, insane persons and criminals - imposed literacy test for anyone over the age of 16 (all immigrants had to prove they could read a 40-word document)

1921 Emergency Quota Act

Restricted yearly number of immigrants to 3£ of total population of country living in the USA in 1910 - cut overall immigration to 350,000

1924 Johnson-Reed Immigration Act

Changed quota system to 2%

1929 National origins

Confirmed 150,000 limit on migrants and banned Asian immigration

WW1 and immigration

Immigration reduced to 110,618 people in 1918, German languages stopped being taught, immigration services faced with further duties due to internet and passport inspection (1918 Presidential Proclamation)

100% Americanism

‘nativists’ called for increased restrictions based on pseudoscientific racism

Red Scare and immigration

Moral panic after Bolshevik revolution in Russia; Eastern and Southern Europeans blamed for causing strikes

Urban segregated sections

‘little Italy’ or Chinatown - allowed for new migrants to access connections and links to culture while assimilating

WW2 and Asian immigration

1943; Chinese and Filipino efforts against the Japanese in the war led congress to repeal the Chinese exclusion legislation of 1882 - Japanese migrants treated more harshly after Pearl harbour bomibng (120,000 interned)

Changing Migrant status - WW2

15 milion Americans internally migrated to urban areas for work, the government had to accept 100,000 war brides - 1945-1948; President Truman allowed in 41,300 displaced by the war outside of quotas

Southern American migration

1954; ‘Operation Wetback’ 400,000-1 million deported, 1959; Castro took power leading 200,000 Cubas to flee to USA

Impact of Vietnam on migration

1975; fall of Saigon - the USA passed additional legislation to deal with the 130,000 Vietnamese refugees

1940 Alien Registration Act

Required non-citizens o register with federal government - normalised 'green card’ system after the war

1948 Displaced Persons Act

Allowed for the immigration of 415,000 people displaced by the war over four years, but within the quota limit

1953 Refugee Relief Act

Extended 1948 act allowing fore 214,000 refugees from Europe outside the limit

1965 Immigration and Nationality act

Abolished quotas setting a limit of 170,000 immigrants a year

Economic benefit of cinema

1930s; Shirley Temple earned $5000 a week (average wage was $2000 a year) - 1930s; about 90% of global films were made in Hollywood - MGM made $500,000 deal with Coca-Cola

Film censorship

1929; Hays code meant all movies had to conform to harsh morality clauses - 1926; 200 cities and eight states had censorship boards - 1918; Hoover assigned agents to monitor radicals who made flam about class contact

Increase in films

1941; nearly 10,500,000 movie theatre seats - one for every 12.5 people

Rise in radio stations

November 1920; first commercial radio station KDKA - by 1924; over 600 commercial stations - radio act of 1927; federal licensing of radio stations

Marketing and radios

1929; Pepsodent toothpaste sponsored comedy Amos n Andy on NBC attracting 40 million listeners

1938 ‘war of the worlds’

100s evacuated homes out of fear of end times

Race relations and radios

1920s-30s Jazz swept music scene (considered morally lax), 1930; Father Coughlin (critique of KKK) had 40 million listeners, 1935 only 25 million ‘race record’ sales (drop from 150 million in 1929)

Politics and TV

1942; Eisenhower was ‘selling like toothapse’, CBS was ridiculed as Hillbilly network and shifted indentity, CBS aired three Kennedy-Nixon debates in 1960 to an audience of 70 million

Consumerism and TV

1955; ‘Daby Crockett’ sold $300 million of merchandise, ‘special offers’ relating to TV began to be used

Gender and TV

Series covering independent women became more popular - Mary Tyler Moore Show 1970-8

Race and TV

1963; first television advert featuring a Black American, Roots (1977) reflected Alex Haley;’s story of enslavement aired with 100 million viewers

Political critique of TV

1970s; M*A*S*H set during Korean War but relevant to Vietnam, Sesame Street (1969-) taught children tolerance, 1968-73 Rowan and Martin's Laugh satirised politicians in a sketch show format

Sexuality and TV

Pressure from groups such as the 'Gay Activist Alliance' forced more sympathetic portrayal of homosexuality - 'a question of love, 1978'

Impact of political landscape on TV

PBS set up in 1969 to be run nationally and not for profit and funded by the government. - 1981; conservative backswing meant PBS funding was withdrawn

Depression and News

Radio reports exacerbated fears - FDR settled panic through 28 fireside chats

Ed Murrow

Accompanied 20 bombing mission ad reported from frontlines creating a personal connection with the war

20th October 1953 ‘See it now’

Broadcasted a story of a young man who had lost his job due to communist sympathies - forced people to question witch-hunts

September 1957 - Little Rock

Pioneered ‘on the spot’ TV and Faubus gave first live interview to ABC News

1968l Walter Cronkite documentary on Vietnam

Shocked viewers - newsreaders seen as more trustworhty than politicians

1973; Watergate

All 250 hours of hearings played live - American people could ‘see everything and make their own judgements’

Jimmy Carter hat campaign

Backlash against marathon collapse (1979), brothers scandals with IRs and hostage situation led to drop in popularity (from 60%)

JUane Fonda

Nicknamed ‘Hanoi Jane’ after being photographed on seat of North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun