Society and Culture

19th Amendment

• 1920

• Women gained the right to vote

• due to their contribution in WW1, protests and some states had already given them the right

how many women did vote after gaining the right

• only around ¼

19th Amendment

• 1920

• Women gained the right to vote

• due to their contribution in WW1, protests and some states had already given them the right

how many women did vote after gaining the right

• only around ¼

what demographic of women voted and who didn’t

• mainly white, upper class women

• often voted the same way as their husbands

• many poor and non-white women didn’t vote

League of Women Voters

• set up in 1920

• encouraged women to vote

what % of girls in Middletown said they would like to work but not when they are married

• 89%

• 1920s

what % of women at Vassar College said they felt unprepared for unemployment

• 90%

• 1920s

Flappers

• wore short dresses, short hair and silk stockings

• would smoke and drink in public

• go to male dominated sporting events without a male escort

• would go to jazz clubs and speakeasys

what was work like for women after WW1

• married women who had worked were obliged to work at home for very low wages

• educated women steered towards caring jobs such as teaching or nursing

• most working women were from immigrant, black and rural communities and had low-paid unskilled jobs

how many states banned married women working as teachers in the 1920s

24

Women’s Bureau of Labor

• set up in 1920

• to improve women’s working conditions

• campaigned for the wider employment of women

how did the % of working women change between 1910 and 1940

• 8.3% of women worked in 1910

• 9.8% worked in 1940

how many hours a week did homemakers spend on tasks in the 1920s

50 on average

Margaret Sanger

• advocated for contraception

• founded planned parenthood in 1916

what did a 1932 report by the Women’s Bureau of Labor find

• found 97% of women working in slaughtering and meat packing were working to supplement the families income, or they were the only earner

Muller V Oregon 1908

• women’s working hours should be no more than 10 hours a day

why were the Women’s Bureau of labor criticized in the 1930s

• they supported Muller v Oregon which limited working hours- often meant women had to break the rules or lose their jobs

• they wanted legislation for a minimum wage when men had no minimum wage

Temporary Emergency Relief Admin

• 1931

• New York state

• gave $324 million in aid to families

Aid for Families with Dependent Children

• part of New Deal

• provided benefits for poorest families

Eleanor Roosevelt help in the New Deal

• set up help for jobless women

• Camp Tera- 1933- was first privately funded

• in April 1934 she held a While House Conference for Unemployed Women- after this the camps were federally funded

• wrote a daily newspaper column form 1936

• held regular white House press conferences for female correspondents

how many women took part in New Deal Camps a year

• by 1936, 5000

• was only for a few months and provided no wages

what did women earn for every man’s $ in the 1930s

• white women- 61 cents

• black women- 23 cents

Fannie Peck

• set up a series of Housewives leagues in Detroit in 1930

• encouraged women to shop in black-owned shops and help those in need

• these spread to other towns

Francis Perkins

• first woman to serve as a cabinet minister

• was FDR’s Secretary of Labor

• before working for the federal government, she played a significant role as New York’s industrial commissioner- she oversaw the whole state labor department

successes of Francis Perkins

• helped implement the Civilian Conservation Corps

• Federal Emergency Relief Administration

• National Industrial Recover Act

• WPA- gave $3.3 billion for public works

• Social Security Act

Aims of Francis Perkins

• 40 hour work week

• minimum wage

• unemployment compensation

• abolition of child labor

• direct federal aid for unemployment relief

• social security

• health insurance

failures of Francis Perkins

• the only thing she did not achieve was universal healthcare

Eleanor Roosevelt

• first lady 1933-1945

• was husbands eyes and ears

• advocated for liberal causes- child welfare, housing reform, equality of rights and racial minority groups

• after FDR’s death, she was a delegate for the UN and helped form the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

• In 1961, JFK appointed her the chair of the Commission of the Status of Women

how did Eleanor Roosevelt show her stance on racism

• resigned from the DAR in 1939 after they refused to let black singer Marian Anderson perform

• she would bring a folding chair and sit in the centre aisle of a segregated audience

Selective Training and Service Act

• 1940

• prepared to draft men into military service and train women to fill their places

how did the % of married women in the workforce change from 1940 to 1944

16% to 23%

Lanhams Childcare Act

• 1940

• allocated $20 million for universal childcare, particularly for working mothers

• helped over 550,000 children

• was extended in 1944

• federal funding stopped in 1946

how many women worked in agriculture by 1943

• 3 million

how did the number of black women on nursing courses change due to the war

• was 1108 in 1939

• was 2600 in 1945

• still faced discrimination from lawyers

how did attitudes of Americans about married working change due to the war

• in the 1930s 80% opposed married women having jobs

• by 1942 60% favoured their working in wartime industries

what % of women aged 45-54 were in the workforce in 1945 compared to 1950

• 1940- 10.1%

• 1950- 22.5%

how were women portrayed in 1950s media

• adverts emphasized how a product could be used to catch a man

• moved rarely showed women with careers

• sitcoms showed white, middle class suburban families with stay-at- home moms

what activities did 1950s housewives participate in

• their children, volunteering, carpooling and entertaining

how many new homes were built between 1948 and 1958

• 11 million

what % Americans were suburbanites by 1960

• 33%

how many Levitt brothers homes were built in 1947 in Hempstead, Long Island

• 17,000

• 80,000 residents

what was the impact of suburban life of POC

• often excluded from the communities

• as many wealthy, white families left inner cities, tax money went with them, leaving ghettos to develop

what did HUAC fear in the 1950s

• frustrated spinsters would turn communist and corrupt their pupils

what were some examples of inequality by the 1960s

• women constituted 10% principals but 80% teachers

• 18 states refused to allow female jurors

• six said women could not enter financial agreements without a male co-signatory

• schools could expel pregnant students

what did the 1963 Commission of the Status of Women find

• the Equal Pay Act (1963) needed to be enforced more

• girls were given sexist career advice

Education Act 1958

• school had to have councilors

• there were only 12,000 for all states

Betty Friedman

• published "The Feminine Mystique” in 1963

• outlined the constraints of suburban life and the problems of white, educated, married women

• inspired many women’s rights movements

• was a founding member of the National Organisation for Women in 1966

how were female members of SNCC and SDS treated

• faced sexual harassment and discrimination

• in 1964- 33% SPS members were women but they were only 6% of leadership

• SDS approved a pro-women’s rights resolution but it was ridiculed by men

aims and methods of NOW

• aimed to “break through the silken curtain of prejudice and discrimination against women”

• wanted the Equal Rights Act

• litigation, protests, campaigns

successes of NOW

• 1967- Exec Order 11375 banned gender discrimination by federal contractors

• 1968- PA Supreme court overthrew Muncy Act- sentenced women to have longer sentences for the same crime that a man wood

• abortion was federally legalized in 1973

how did membership of NOW change between 1967 and 1974

• 1967- 1000

• 1974- 40,000

opposition and limitation to NOW

• more radical groups began to emerge

• Phyllis Schlafly promoted STOP ERA

• ERA still hasn’t been passed

how did the number of immigrants change between 1776

• around 170,000 entered the country each year on average fir the first 100 years

• in 1823 it was 650,000

• in 1907 1.2 million

where were immigrants coming from in the 20th century

• while previously they came mainly from North/Western Europe, they began to come South/eastern Europe

• they generally lived in cities

The Dillingham Commission

• investigated impact of immigration on USA from 1907, published in 1911

• said immigration posed a serious threat

• said Southern and Eastern Europeans were not adapting, despite having less time to adapt- seen as racially inferior

• was used to justify Immigration Acts

Immigration Restriction League

• anti immigration group

• set up in 1894

• wrote books and pamphlets

• 1896- congress passed a bill that included a literacy test and a list of desirable immigrants

• presidents kept rejecting the bill but after Wilson’s third veto congress overruled and the law was passed

why was legislation for immigration introduced

• isolationism

• Dillingham Report

• Red Scare

• Spike in unemployment after WW1

• WASPs wanted people to blame

public reaction to immigrants in the 1920s

• lead to a revival of KKK

• tests by army claim immigrants are unintelligent- they had a lower level of English

• immigrants were willing to take lower pay and not strike- made things worse for old immigrants

• immigrants were blamed for crime, disease and corrupt political machines

Sacco and Vanzetti

• tried for 1920 murder

• judge was biased- they were convicted due to their immigrant background and radical beliefs

• many believe they were innocent and wrongfully convicted

• they were executed in 1927

Literacy Test Act

• 1917

• immigrants had to prove they could read a 40 word before being allowed in the USA

• excluded gay people, insane people and criminals

1918 Immigration Act

• excluded immigration who advocated revolution, assassination or the seizure of public property

1921 Emergency Quota Act

• cut overall immigration to 350,000

• specifically aimed to decrease the number of southern and eastern Europeans- 3% of that country

Johnson- Reed Immigration Act

• 1924

• cut total immigrants to 150,000 per annum

• totally excluded Japanese people

• reduced number of south/east Europeans but continued to allow those from north/west

1929 Immigration Act

• further legislation to favour north/west Europeans

• bans all other Asian immigrants

• immigration from northern hemisphere is unlimited because Californian farmers wanted to keep cheap Mexican labour- they were accustomed to their poor lifestyle and encouraged their employers to treat them as inferior

how did the number of foreign language newspapers change between 1914 and the 1960s

• 1914- 1300

• 1960s- 75

what were immigrant’s political views

• generally voted for FDR- they would benefit from the New Deal

• in areas with high concentration of immigrants, they would get more representation- Fiorello La Guardia served in congress 1916-1918, 1922-30 and as mayor of NYC 1934-45

how did the New Deal impact immigrants

• Americans citizens could only be hired in many cases

• many Mexicans were left out

what did a 1938 poll show about American opinion of Jewish people

• over 60% objected to them being in the country

• there were over 100,000 refugees

what % of foreign born residents were naturalized citizens in 1940

• 63% of the 11 million

how many Japanese people were shut up in interment camps during WW2

• 120,000

• 75% had US citizenship

how were immigrants treated in WW2

• those of Italian, German and Japanese nationality were treated as enemy aliens

• businesses with foreign sounding names were boycotted and attacked

• immigrants were asked not to fight for their home countries

• the Chinese Exclusion Act 1882 was overturned in 1943

how many war spouses were accepted as non-quota immigrants and where did they come from

• 100,000

• about 50% were from Britain, Germany and Italy

how many displaced people were accepted into the country between 1945- 1948

• 41,300

Immigration and Nationality Act 1952

• still used quotas

• limits immigrants to 150,000

• quota system did not apply to family, so Asian wives of US military were allowed

• did not account for refugees- meant new laws had to be introduced and the cold war progressed

how many Cubans fled to the USA

• 200,000

• the Cuban refugee program was set up

what was JFK’s stance on immigration

• opposed quotas and pressed congress to make changes

• 1958 book- ‘A nation of immigrants’

how did immigration from Asia change after the 1965 Act

• it quadrupled in the first 5 years

how many Vietnamese refugees did the USA take in after the fall of Saigon

• 130,000

how many illegal immigrants were estimated to enter the USA each year in the 1970s

• 60,000

• worked in California and Texas

how many jobs were created in the 1970s in LA county and how may were held by Mexicans

• 645,000

• 1/3

how many illegal immigrants were deported in 1980

• 1 million

how many illegal immigrants were estimated to be in the USA by the mid-70s and how many were deported each year

• around 7 million

• 600,000

1948 Displaced persons act

• welcomed those fleeing communism

• still made a quota system- Truman wanted refugees to be separate from quotas but congress did not pass this

• by 1952 over 400,000 had entered- mainly from eastern Europe

1965 Immigration and Nationality Act

• abolished quotas

• set limit to 170,000

• allowed for more Asian immigration

• immediate family of US citizens are allowed in outside the limit

what was public opinion of quotas in the 1960s

• 1/3 did not want to change the quota system

• 17% were indifferent

Cuban Adjustment Act 1966

• gave Cubans citizenship

• made up a large part of Florida’s population- got them representation in politics

how many immigrants arrived between 1965 and 1996

• 15.5 million

by 1920, how many Americans were going to the cinema annually, and how did this change by the 1930s

• 20 million

• increased to 100 million

what was the first talking film and what year?

What was the impact for the actors?

• The Jazz Singer

• 1927

• the actors looked good but didn’t sound good- they became unpopular and were replaced

what themes were in films of the 1920s

• romance, consumerism and social harmony

• provided an escape from war, flu and the Red Scare

how many fan magazines were there by the 1930s and what was their circulation

• around 20

• circulation of 200,000 to 1 million

what did movies influence workers to do and what response did J. Edgar Hoover take

• strike, join unions and radical movements

• the FBI monitored movie making radicals

how were women portrayed in flapper movies

• stars like Clara Bow portrayed independent and liberated women

what were concerns of movies in the 1920s

• they were a bad influence on the younger generation and would radicalise them

• Hollywood stars led scandalous lives

• movies became more conservative as the audience became more middle class

by 1926 how many cities and states had censorship boards

• 200 cities

• 8 states

• halted films showing strikes or those that criticized capitalism

Motion Picture Producers and Distributers

• 1922

The Hays Code

• 1930

• forbade films that might lower moral standards

• conservative church and women’s group thought it was effective

what was portrayed in 1930s films

• challenged American values- dangers of individualism and villainous businessmen

how were movies censored in the 1930s

• they were restricted by the production code administration

• was supported by the Supreme Court had ruled in 1915 that movies were not protected by free speech in the constitution

what was criticism of 1930s movies

• they acted as a state apparatus

• Hollywood was the voice of the ruling class

Gone with the Wind

• 1939

• the producer Selznick and the NAACP adapted from the novel as they saw its portrayal and language of black people damaging

• it it difficult to know how much impact this had on society’s views on race