New Deal Accomplishment: 4 million jobs for women

Above: Historian Bonnie Fox Schwartz notes that 300,000 women were employed in the New Deal's Civil Works Administration (CWA) by the spring of 1934. However, this was a small percentage of total CWA employment (about 4 million) and led CWA chief Harry Hopkins to remark, "We haven't been particularly successful in work for women" (Schwartz, The Civil Works Administration, 1933-1934 (1984), p. 179). Photo from: Henry G. Alsberg, America Fights the Depression: A Photographic Record of the Civil Works Administration, New York: Coward-McCann Publishers, 1934, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: In February 1935, more than 200,000 women were employed in the CWA's successor agency, the Work Division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). This was a smaller raw number, but a higher percentage of total jobs (about 11.8%, compared to the CWA's 7.5%). Statistics and photo from the Work Division's final report, pp. 85 and 119-121.

Above: These WPA workers are making wax plants for a biological museum exhibit in Jackson, Mississippi, June 1938. Between 1935 and 1943, the WPA employed about 8.5 million different people, and employment of women was typically around 15%. Thus, we can roughly estimate the number of different women employed in the WPA at about 1,275,000. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: WPA packhorse librarians, January 11, 1938. These librarians delivered reading material to rural Americans in remote areas of Kentucky. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: A WPA sewing project in Talbot County, Maryland, between 1935 and 1943. Photo from the University of Maryland College Park Archives.

Above: Women in the New Deal's National Youth Administration (NYA) training and working as nursing assistants in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, ca. 1940. Between 1935 and 1943, the NYA was likely the largest single employer of women in the United States--at least before America's full participation in World War II--with about 1,209,000 different women employed in its out-of-school work program (out of a total of 2,677,000) and about 1,000,000 or more different women employed in its in-school work program (out of a total of 2,134,000). The number of women in the NYA programs sometimes surpassed the number of men. For example, in June 1937 the NYA's out-of-school work program was providing jobs for 81,853 men and 88,645 women (for all the statistics listed in this caption, see the NYA's final report, pp. 54-55, 109-110, and 253). Photo above from the National Archives.

Above: One of several NYA workers helping to operate a school lunch program in Azusa, California, 1937. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: Though the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) is remembered as an all-male organization, plenty of women held jobs that supported the smooth and successful operation of the CCC, such as in budget, supply, and healthcare. This photo of civilian workers--probably employed by the U.S. Army--comes from: Civilian Conservation Corps, Official Annual 1936, Tyler District [Texas], 8th Corps Area (Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Direct Advertising Co., 1936). Image used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: This graph comes from Susan Ware's book, Beyond Suffrage: Women in the New Deal (Harvard University Press, 1981), and shows a sharp uptick in women being appointed to federal positions during the early years of the New Deal. Ware argues that the subsequent drop can be attributed to (a) fewer new programs being established after the initial New Deal years, and (b) the general trend of higher female employment during times of emergency, followed by a drop-off as the emergency subsides (p. 61). Image used for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: This table comes from the U.S. Department of Labor bulletin, Employment of Women in the Federal Government, 1923 to 1939 (1941) p. 25, and shows the value of several New Deal agencies to the employment of women (note: the WPA figure is for regular federal employment, not work-relief jobs - the latter of which, for women, ranged from 251,000 to 391,000 in 1939).

Above: A WPA poster highlighting occupations for women, "Millinery, Dress Maker, Factory Worker, Saleslady, Child Care, Housewife, Hotel Maid." The majority of New Deal work-relief jobs also reflected traditional gender roles, e.g., food service, care of children, nursing, sewing, and housekeeping assistance, but there were also a significant number of jobs in other areas, such as art, music, science, historic preservation and, during the latter years of the New Deal, national defense work (especially in the NYA). Image from the Library of Congress.

Above: The New Deal also welcomed an increasing role for women in high-level government administration. Here, we see Josephine Roche in 1934, the year FDR appointed her Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. Other prominent women administrators included Frances Perkins, Mary McLeod Bethune, Ellen Woodward, Florence Kerr, Hallie Flanagan, and Clara Beyer. New Dealer Molly Dewson recalled, "At last women had their foot inside the door. We had the opportunity to demonstrate our ability to see what was needed and to get the job done while working harmoniously with men. The opportunities given women by Roosevelt in the thirties changed our status." Harris & Ewing photo, provided courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Above: Many women certainly maintained jobs or found new jobs as work-relief money entered communities across America, and also as the greater New Deal stimulus effect began to reduce unemployment rates. Photo from the National Archives.

Jobs for Women

Using the work-relief numbers highlighted above, and considering the fact that the New Deal provided a boost to the overall employment of women in the federal government, we can estimate that the New Deal provided direct employment--or provided the funds for direct employment--for about 4 million women. Adjusted for population growth, that would be about 10 million women today.

It's important to remember that women who needed employment, but did not receive jobs of the types described here, still had New Deal help in other areas, such as: food aid; CCC boys sending money home to their families (as required by law); free education and job training; greatly improved and often free healthcare; and thousands of recreation activities.

The New Deal did not solve every social concern, especially those that progressives are so focused on today. Women and men were, for the most part, steered in particular directions, and given job opportunities, based upon the gender, breadwinner, and family expectations of the day. Still, it cannot be disputed that the New Deal assisted millions of women who needed jobs and opened up many new and interesting opportunities.