M6

Women, the New Deal, and Works Progress Administration

Veda Bigley

Department of History, Pueblo Community College

Pueblo Community College

A paper submitted in partial fulfillment

of HIS 122: History Since Civil War

 Summer 2021

After America had endured a long battle in World War I, and the “Roaring 20’s” had almost ended, the Stock Market crashed in August of 1929, which started the Great Depression. Americans were at a loss economically. Homelessness, unemployment, and deflation skyrocketed. Lyndon B. Johnson had previously been the President and Americans had lost hope in him and blamed him for most of the issues. Johnson reran for President and lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt. After becoming President, Franklin D. Roosevelt was doing everything in his power to find a solution to end the Great Depression. He proposed the New Deal. With his New Deal Program, came over 60 newly founded federal assistance programs. These programs offered jobs to the unemployed, which eventually helped Americans gain some financial security. They also paved the way for some of the federal assistance programs that are in existence today. One specific program that created jobs for Americans was the Works Progress Administration. While the Works Progress Administration helped a lot of Americans, their jobs and tasks were specifically geared towards men. During this era, women were excluded and not seen as equal.

During World War I, the men were across the world fighting in battles, and women were in the United States, helping keep everything in order. Thousands of women worked on the Home Front to help with supplies for the war, which included producing food on farms. [footnoteRef:1] Women also had the role of managing the household and keeping spirits up while the fathers of the household were away. Many women volunteered during World War I, to help wounded soldiers, and to transmit telephone messages.[footnoteRef:2] One poster published by the New York Lithographic Company in 1918 shows a woman tending to some land with a picture of a man in front of her. [footnoteRef:3] The man is in front of her because it shows that women were keeping order to America while the men had left them behind. It also encouraged other Americans that were not fighting in the war to support the working women. Many Americans were set in their ways, and seeing women working in the fields and tending to jobs that men usually completed caused a bit of discomfort. Women kept America functioning during World War I. Women were also gaining some new rights that men had privilege to for years before them, like the right to vote. Women proved that they were just as capable as men, even though not everyone saw them that way. [1: Get behind the girl he left behind him Join the land army / / Guenther. United States, ca. 1918. N.Y.: The American Lithographic Co. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/00652171/. ] [2: Inscription on the Liberty Memorial Tower in Downtown Kansas City. “Women in WWI.” National WWI Museum and Memorial, January 3, 2020. https://www.theworldwar.org/learn/women.  ] [3: Get behind]

In 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed programs that would help America financially recover, which was known as “The New Deal.” The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was one of the programs that was established under this program in 1935. [footnoteRef:4] The Works Progress Administration’s goal was to provide jobs to those who were unemployed and provide income to millions of Americans. It was the largest New Deal Program that employed millions of Americans. The projects that the Works Progress Administration created, were for skilled and unskilled workers, but not geared towards women, or African Americans. Most of these projects included building parks, bridges, roads, and schools.[footnoteRef:5] The tasks were very labor intensive, things that women were not thought to be able to do. The projects were also spread throughout the different cities and states in America. In a poster that was advertising the work that could be done for the Works Progress Administration, created by Harry Herzog, the words “forging ahead” are written with a strong man pictured. [footnoteRef:6] This poster encouraged American men to continue to find employment opportunities, so they could find some financial security and move forward from the Great Depression. While this poster was encouraging to men, it was discouraging to women because it did not show that they were included in these opportunities. How could a woman see herself as equal to a man if she were not as strong as the one pictured? How could she think she was capable of supporting a household and having to work at the same time, if she did not have the skills to perform manual labor? These advertisements were geared towards men and the jobs were geared towards men, giving women no hope, even though they had already made progress and proved themselves during World War I. [4: Ron Elving, “In the 1930s, Works Program Spelled HOPE for Millions Of Jobless Americans.” Last modified April 4, 2020. https://www.npr.org/2020/04/04/826909516/in-the-1930s-works-program-spelled-hope-for-millions-of-jobless-americans ] [5: Ibid.] [6: Harry Herzog, Forging Ahead Works Progress Administration. [New York]: Federal Art Project, [between 1936 and 1941]. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/98518700/ ]

While the Works Progress Administration aided Americans, many Americans were confused about how to apply, or how what was expected of them. The Works Progress Administration was offering positions to people, mostly men, and not women. One newspaper article from the Pittsburg Press, provided a description of how the public should get involved in becoming a part of the workforce again. It also gave some guidelines about how only one family member per household could be assisted by this program. [footnoteRef:7] With women being expected to stay home and manage the household, they were not the first choices for these positions. This would have been a difficult time for single women or single mothers who had potentially just lost their spouses in the war. Not only was this occurring in Pittsburg where Works Progress Administration projects were in place, but all over the United States. People and families were having to travel and work long and hard hours to try and recover economically. Another issue with the Works Progress Administration projects were that some were far away from where people were living and had established their residency. This caused havoc for women having to move households or be alone while the men were away working. [7: “Jobs For All Needy If Works Rows End.” Pittsburg Press. (Pittsburg, PA), Aug. 11, 1935. https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/147195339/ ]

During the Great Depression, America was struggling with finances, unemployment, and homelessness. Men had returned from World War I and came back to not having a job. Women were used to working while the men were away, and now had to find a way to make a living. The expectation for women was to stay at home and take care of the household. The men were the ones who were primarily responsible for making the income and providing for their family. Many men had been set in these ways for so long, that they did not want to accept the change and let women be a part of the workforce. In a picture from the Works Progress Administration, it shows two men working in a sewing shop, a job that could have easily been handed to a woman. [footnoteRef:8] Instead of women obtaining this job, because they were not seen as capable, two men, who were probably worse at sewing, obtained it. As a woman this would have been infuriating, knowing that men were getting paid a job that they had been learning and completing for practically their whole lives. Men were constantly the ones who had an advantage in the American society, women were always being put down, and the government was allowing it. [8: Works Progress Administration (30 Photographs). [193-]. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/resource/musftpnegatives.12380302.0/?sp=15&r=-0.191,- 0.07,1.155,0.898,0 ]

While Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program offered economic relief to Americans, it did not include everyone. Women were still discriminated against even though they had proved themselves as equal to men and were constantly oppressed. The Works Progress Administration offered many physical jobs that men were able to partake in, excluding women who might have been better suited for the position. While the Works Progress Administration did help contribute to the recovery of America from the Great Depression, women still had a long fight ahead of them to be seen and treated as equal to men.

Bibliography