How were women treated in the 1930s?

Question

were they allowed to get normal jobs and have boys as friends?

Answer 1

Yes, they had jobs.  Single women then as now had to earn a living, and some married women needed to work as well.  There was a lot of opposition to married women working as it was thought that they didn't need the money. In 'America's women' Gail Collins wrote:

"The issue of whether married women should work was chewed over constantly in the newspapers and magazines, with the consensus coming down on the side of not.  A federal law, passed during the Depression, prohibited the employment of "married persons" whose spouses also worked for the government.  of the people forced to quit, three-quarters were women. (Eleanor Roosevelt called the law "a very bad and foolish thing" - government salaries, she argued, were so low, a family needed two incomes just to get along.)  Legislators in twenty-six states introduced laws completely banning the hiring of married women, although only Louisiana actually passed a law, and it was quickly declared unconstitutional.  More than three-quarters of the nation's public school districts refused to hire married teachers - unless they were male.

Despit all this, the number of married women who worked continued to increase throughout the decade.  Although most of these women struggled to keep poor families above water, a number were middle class and were attempting to preserve the good things they had gotten used to since World War I - like electric lights and gas stoves, and the ability to keep their children in school.  And for all the endless debating about whether or not it was good for society, the issue was resolved not by social theorists but by the wives themselves, determined that they and their families would not only survivive but also move up.

Replacing female workers with men also turned out to be harder than people imagined.  The world was too clearly divided between male and female jobs.  No man would work as a housekeeper or a private duty nurse, just as no woman could get a job as a construction worker or airline pilot.  Men did take jobs as teachers and librarians and social workers, reducing the number of women in those professions.  And with so many qualified applicants for almost every job, employers set any arbitrary standard they wanted.  One hospital rejected an applicant for nursing school because her teeth were crooked.  The New York City board of education rejected Rose Freistater for a teaching job because she weighed 182 pounds - arguing that she might have trouble moving fast in a fire drill.'

Girls in those days could certainly have boy friends, they would go out dancing or to the movies, if they could afford it.  if they were very hard up then perhaps they would just go for a walk in the park or something.

Answer 2

In the US, in the 1930's there was an economic depression.   There were no jobs for women and precious few for men.

My grandparents took in boarders to help pay for the roof over their heads. Grandma took care of her 2 children and three additional residents of the boarding house.  And my grandparents were considered "well off" because my grandfather remained employed with the railroad throughout the depression.

Answer 3

Yes, women have always been allowed to have "normal' jobs and boys as friends. If you think differently it is because the feminist brain washing is working.

Answer 4

In the 30's the world was having "the great DEPRESSSION"

people were very horribly poor

and they didnt have tv and technology back then

women were traditional women, they cooked cleaned sewed mothered

and no one was much worried about things like equality (feminism)     -((there was a lapse of interest between the gaining of the right to vote in 1920 , and the 1960's when it became an interest again))

by the 30's women had gained some acceptance with practicing birth control (due to the efforts of___________sorry, forgot her name Margret? ...)

and also there was less Victorian type stringeance about needing a chaperone for a date and such, by then (google the effects of cars and flappers, for that)

thats all I got!