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During the Great Depression, FDR elected and New Deal
Summary on FDR and the New Deal reform
After the explosion of radical mass movements against the economic crisis, elections were around the corner. The people decided to elect FDR in 1932 as their new president, who promised a New Deal and to lead the American people out of the Great Depression. The New Deal reforms put millions back to work and created social security, unemployment insurance, helped make it easier for people to join unions and other social programs that helped people through the Depression.
Ten years after the Nineteenth Amendment was passed, women began playing a new and more visible role in the political and social life of the country. This happened at the same time of the Great Depression and the big movements for economic rights.
In addition to Eleanor Roosevelt, women became some of the highest ranking and visible leaders of the Roosevelt administration. Labor secretary Frances Perkins became the first woman to become a cabinet member. Mary McLeod Bethune became the highest ranking African American woman in the Roosevelt administration.
Women also made an important contribution to the social sciences (anthropology especially). Ruth Benedict established with the study of cultures as the collection of personalities. Then another scholar, Margaret Mead searched and found for new ideas about sexuality and gender roles in the Pacific Islands.
Pearl S. Buck was among the female authors who became well-known.
Women were affected by FDR’s New Deal reforms while their families were fighting through the depression. Living in the West, women and their families were affected by the Dust Bowl; causing them to relocate and give up their farms.
The Fair Labor Standard Act did not benefit women, blacks or Mexican Americans because the law did not cover farm workers and domestic workers.
During the WWII before America enter the war, FDR adopted the lend-lease bill to lend equipment to other countries (mostly Britain) for helping in the war. Some women's organizations protested against the Bill because they feared that America’s involvement with the war would increase and sooner or later- men from their families would have to go to fight the war. This showed involvement against the war.