The Empowerment of American Women during the Great Depression in Comparative Perspective
Abstract
Maria Luz Arroyo Vázquez
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Spain
This paper examines the significant progress that women made during the Great Depression and will focus its attention on the Roosevelt era, a period in which women not only reached key posts in the administration but also managed to acquire a new dignity and social status. Besides, it will try to explore the echo that some of these significant women had across other countries, giving as an example the Spanish case. Roosevelt’s four terms in office (1933–1945) were a clear example of a time when women participated actively in public life. Women were appointed to relevant government positions and played key roles in the development of the Roosevelt Administration. Roosevelt himself and his federal government fostered these expanded roles for women who worked as heads of Federal agencies, as political advisers, in the New Deal’s relief programs, etc. Behind these appointments, we have to highlight the support and compromise of relevant women such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Frances Perkins, Mary Bethune and Molly Dewson, just to mention some of the most inspiring figures during this era. Women worked in two main areas: Democratic Party politics and social welfare. As Susan Ware points out, there was “a network of professional contact and personal friendship that linked the women in top New Deal positions”. In summary, this paper tries to acknowledge and pay tribute to those women, who proved their talent and self-worth and to the ones who were deeply committed with the defence of social reforms and participated actively in politics and social welfare legislation during the Roosevelt era.
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Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Spain Spain
María Luz Arroyo is currently a Lecturer at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia of Spain (UNED) in Madrid. She has published extensively in Spanish on twentieth- century U.S. history, with particular research interests in the New Deal, American Women, and diplomatic and cultural relations between the United States and Spain. English publications include “European Views of the New Deal: the Case of Spain, “Journal of Transatlantic Studies 3.2 (2005) and “The Long Silencing of the Spanish Memoirs of U.S. Ambassador Claude G. Bowers: A Case of Forbearance or Political Repression? in Political Repression in U.S. History edited by Cornelis A. van Minnen and Sylvia L. Hilton, Vu University Press, Amsterdam, 2009. Her current research areas include: U.S.-Spanish relations, U.S. foreign policy and American Women History.
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