The Great Depression's Impact on Women and Families in America

This report analyzes the impact of the Great Depression (1929-1939) on American women and their families. The economic downturn led to widespread job losses among men, compelling women to become breadwinners and altering family dynamics. Marriage rates declined as women faced increased economic responsibilities. The report highlights the rise of a sense of equality as women entered the workforce. It includes an annotated bibliography of relevant sources, discussing the economic impact on the nation, the rise of female laborers, the impact on homeless mothers, cash transfers to families, the role of rural women, and the effects on children's psychological and social development. The sources also explore financial frictions, cognitive disparities, and the role of the state during the Great Depression. This report aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted consequences of this pivotal historical period.

Running head: IMPACT OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION
Impact of Great Depression:
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1IMPACT OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION
The Great Depression in America happened during 1929-39 and it had laid a huge impact
over the American women and their families. Due to this great economic recession a huge
number of male members of the families lost their jobs which drove the women of the families to
earn their living. There had also been a sharp decline in the marriage rates as the number of
single women in America had been increasing because they had to support themselves and there
had been an urgent need for them to be the breadwinners of the families.
Discussion of this topic is significant since The Great Depression of America gave rise to
the sense of equality since the women also came out of their home to start working. The
following is a list of sources which act as an annotated bibliography for the paper.
Temin, Peter. "Great Depression." In Banking Crises, pp. 144-153. Palgrave Macmillan,
London, 2016.
In the article the author talks about the impact of the Great Depression upon the entire
nation since the industrial production of the nation started to decline to a great extent. However it
is limited since there is no discussion about the impact of the same upon the families of America.
Ruggles, Steven. "Patriarchy, power, and pay: The transformation of American families,
1800–2015." Demography 52, no. 6 (2015): 1797-1823.
This article talks about the impact of the rise of the women laborers in the twentieth
century, and the consequences of it which were the decline in the economic opportunity for the
entire nation.

2IMPACT OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION
Bassuk, Ellen L., and William R. Beardslee. "Depression in homeless mothers: Addressing
an unrecognized public health issue." American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 84, no. 1 (2014):
73.
The article reviews the impact of the homeless mothers and the cases of depression and
medical issues among the women who are at low income.
Aizer, Anna, Shari Eli, Joseph Ferrie, and Adriana Lleras-Muney. "The long-run impact
of cash transfers to poor families." American Economic Review 106, no. 4 (2016): 935-71.
The article studies the impact of the of transfer of cash to the families for their nutritional
status and education, by analyzing the collected reports of the Mother’s Pension program
applicants and matching them with the death records between 1911-1935.
Deere, Carmen Diana, and Magdalena León. Rural women and state policy: Feminist
perspectives on Latin American agricultural development. Routledge, 2019.
This book deals with the efforts of the researchers belonging to North America, Europe
and Latin America, who have studied the position of the rural women in Latin America during
the Great economic depression of America.
Elder, Glen H. Children of the great depression. Routledge, 2018.
This book analyses the impact of the great depression over the children who were born in
the 1920s. studying the psychological and social history of almost 167 individuals, he writes
about the economic crisis of the people of the then times.

3IMPACT OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION
Zheng, Hui, and Dmitry Tumin. "Variation in the effects of family background and birth
region on adult obesity: results of a prospective cohort study of a Great Depression-era
American cohort." BMC public health 15, no. 1 (2015): 535.
This paper aims to investigate the potential reasons behind the weight status of the
children. It studies whether the family background or the birth region of a person is responsible
for their obesity and whether it varies through different genders.
Drinot, Paulo, and Alan Knight, eds. The Great Depression in Latin America. Duke
University Press, 2014.
The book explores the consequences of the Great depression of the America, in terms of
the roole of the state and other social or political movements.
Hale, Jo Mhairi. "Cognitive Disparities: The Impact of the Great Depression and
Cumulative Inequality on Later-Life Cognitive Function." Demography 54, no. 6 (2017):
2125-2158.
The paper uses the Growth Curve model to study whether the exposure of the children to
the Great Depression is directly linked with their cognitive behavior.
Benmelech, Efraim, Carola Frydman, and Dimitris Papanikolaou. "Financial Frictions and
Employment during the Great Depression." Journal of Financial Economics (2016).
This article aims to study the friction between the male wage laborers and the female
daily earners during the time of the economic recession.