The connections between the 1930s and today are striking, especially in how economic crises have unfairly affected minorities. The Great Depression revealed deep inequalities, and while the New Deal brought sweeping reforms, its benefits were often unequally distributed. Many of the struggles from that era were around race, gender, class, and heritage are echoed in the present day.
One throughline is how economic instability hits the most vulnerable first. Dorothea Lange’s caption notes from her travels in Depression-era California offer firsthand insight: “They’ll sleep in the row (to hold a place in the field) to earn sixty cents a day” This shows the desperation among migrant laborers that parallels current issues around wage insecurity and housing for essential workers, particularly immigrants.
Gendered inequality also shaped people’s experience of the New Deal. One of the reading states, “The public also tended to approve of the practice of paying men higher wages for the same jobs” . Women were often excluded from government job programs and forced into lower paid, domestic roles. Today’s gender wage gap and the underrepresentation of women in leadership reflect how much of that imbalance remains.
Despite its flaws, the New Deal aimed to expand inclusion. As the Living New Deal project notes, “The New Deal did a great deal of good in overcoming the mistreatment of neglected, excluded and marginalized people in American life”. Programs made strides toward addressing systemic issues though not without reinforcing many of them as well.
Finally, the New Deal redefined the federal government’s role in supporting citizens, but it also revealed how identity-race, gender, heritage and class, shaped one’s access to that support. Today, we continue to grapple with those same questions of equity, justice, and inclusion.
sources
Taylor, Tess. “Following Dorothea Lange’s Notebooks“. New york times. Feb,29. 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/29/opinion/dorothea-lange-photos.html
Section 7.2 “Last Hired, First Fired: Women and Minorities in the Great Depression”
https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_a-history-of-the-united-states-vol-2/s10-02-last-hired-first-fired-women-a.html
“A new deal for many”https://livingnewdeal.org/racism-and-beyond/new-deal-inclusion/
One throughline is how economic instability hits the most vulnerable first. Dorothea Lange’s caption notes from her travels in Depression-era California offer firsthand insight: “They’ll sleep in the row (to hold a place in the field) to earn sixty cents a day” This shows the desperation among migrant laborers that parallels current issues around wage insecurity and housing for essential workers, particularly immigrants.
Gendered inequality also shaped people’s experience of the New Deal. One of the reading states, “The public also tended to approve of the practice of paying men higher wages for the same jobs” . Women were often excluded from government job programs and forced into lower paid, domestic roles. Today’s gender wage gap and the underrepresentation of women in leadership reflect how much of that imbalance remains.
Despite its flaws, the New Deal aimed to expand inclusion. As the Living New Deal project notes, “The New Deal did a great deal of good in overcoming the mistreatment of neglected, excluded and marginalized people in American life”. Programs made strides toward addressing systemic issues though not without reinforcing many of them as well.
Finally, the New Deal redefined the federal government’s role in supporting citizens, but it also revealed how identity-race, gender, heritage and class, shaped one’s access to that support. Today, we continue to grapple with those same questions of equity, justice, and inclusion.
sources
Taylor, Tess. “Following Dorothea Lange’s Notebooks“. New york times. Feb,29. 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/29/opinion/dorothea-lange-photos.html
Section 7.2 “Last Hired, First Fired: Women and Minorities in the Great Depression”
https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_a-history-of-the-united-states-vol-2/s10-02-last-hired-first-fired-women-a.html
“A new deal for many”https://livingnewdeal.org/racism-and-beyond/new-deal-inclusion/