Great Depression Effect on Women’s Participation in The Workforce in the Early 1930s: Analytical Essay

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There has been a drastic change in society, technology, and social media from the 1930s until the 2000s. The 1930s was a catapult for entertainment, technology, and womens rights in the United States; The Great Depression was going on during this time but that is one of the primary reasons that women’s rights and entertainment saw a big increase.

Radio was one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the 1930s. millions of children turned to the radio to listen to The Lone Ranger, Featuring one of popular cultures most enduring Western Heros.( Charles Coletta) Many children loved listening to radio shows because during the Depression there weren’t many sources of entertainment but most families had a radio to listen to. Social workers observed that some poor families would give up their icebox before giving up their radios.(Beatniks Bowling), Another top-rated radio show was Amos n Andy. Amos and Andy were two poor blacks who had left the South for a better life in the North. Amos was the honest, humble, and intelligent owner of the Fresh-Air Taxicab Company. Andrew Hog Brown was a lazy, shiftless, dim-witted schemer.(Charles Coletta) Amos n Andy was a very controversial radio show. Most people felt it was very racist, others thought that it helped by portraying black people in high power like lawyers and officers.

Science was also a large part of this time, there were many technological advances that allowed people to be able to do the things they did. Sigmund Freud was a very large part of science and psychoanalysis in the 30s. Freud introduced-such as the role of the unconscious,

the effect of childhood experiences on adult behavior, and the operation of defense mechanisms- continue to be a source of both controversy and inspiration.(World of Health) Thomas Edison was an inventor in the late 1800s. He is best known for his invention, the light bulb. In 1928 he received the Congressional Gold Medal for development and application of inventions that have revolutionized civilization in the last century. Thomas Edison was recognized for some of his major achievements with this award.

Women’s rights were a major topic. Many people started questioning whether married women should work and what their roles were as a woman. A 1936 poll in Fortune magazine asked, Do you believe that married women should have a job outside the home? Only 15 percent of the respondents approved, while 48 percent disapproved, with the remaining 37 percent giving it conditional approval. (Judith S. Baughman) Many people believed that women who were married should not work, they believed that their role was at home with the children.

A major woman was Amelia Earhart, she was a pilot and the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. During the 1930s she decided she wanted to fly around the world, on or near the equator. She announced her trip at a press conference in New York in February 1937 and then left from San Francisco in the early morning of March 17.(Judith S. Baughman) Her first attempt failed due to her plane crashing on take off but she was not going to give up. She decided to try it again, They took off on 1 June 1937 from Miami, Florida, and headed for Brazil. They flew across the Atlantic to Africa and then across the Red Sea to Arabia and on to

Karachi, Pakistan, Calcutta, and Burma.(Judith S. Baughman). Earhart then disappeared before she finished her trip and to this day has not been found.

The 1930s was a time of women’s rights, technological advances, and radio and movies. Women were very determined to get the right and respect to work if they felt like they wanted to or if they had to. Another large part of this era was science and technology, the technological advances allowed movies and radio to become a very important aspect of everyone’s lives. Though it was during the depression people made the most of what they had.

In the 2000s Hip-hop and Rap became a big thing including artists such as Kanye, Eminem, The Black eyed peas, etc…especially as Ipods and Iphones were coming out. Watching Tv shows also became a big form of entertainment and tv shows such as Friends and Vampire Diaries became very popular. The 2000s was a time when entertainment and technology started to advance and grow, and as for womens rights, they came a long way since the 1930s.

Technology continued to advance throughout time and as iPhones came out, people were able to take pictures on their cell phones and use social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, which became very popular. People were also able to watch movies on Blu-ray Discs and read books on Amazon Kindle.

Womens Rights have grown tremendously since the 1930s. In the past women had very little respect and were not allowed to work, their only role was to stay at home and take care of the children and do regular house duties. Over time if women were to work, they would work in factories and do things such as sewing, cooking, and cleaning but even then women would still earn less than men. In 2000, The Millennium Development Goals are developed and included a goal to promote gender equality. In 2006, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf becomes president of Liberia, the first female elected head of state in Africa. In 2007, The first all-female UN peacekeeping unit is deployed. In 2014, Malala Yousafzai became the youngest person to be awarded a Nobel Prize. All these accomplishments occurring in the 2000s helped women to gain more respect and to protect women against any kind of violence. It helped women to expand their work options and do what they enjoyed doing.

Although people went through The Great Depression in the 1930s and women had very little to no rights, it really contributed to women fighting for and gaining their rights.

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