Discrimination Against Women in New Deal Work Programs

Abstract

This article presents a historical perspective on the "feminization of poverty" by examining policies that affected women in the governmental work programs during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Although the programs created problems for capital, they remained consistent with patriarchy, as well as with divisions based on race and class. That is, they limited women's participation to one-sixth of the participants; paid women less than they did men; and permitted women to do only "women's work. "