Title Making choices, making do : survival strategies of Black and White working-class women during the Great Depression / Lois Rita Helmbold

Published New Brunswick : Rutgers University Press, [2022] ©2022

Click on the following:
JSTOR eBooks
EBSCO eBooks

Copies

Description 1 online resource (xii, 247 pages) : illustrations Contents Preface : My history and positionality -- Introduction -- Urban working-class daily lives and work in the 1920s -- Job deterioration and unemployment : "You just can't depend on a steady job at all" -- Employment strategies and their consequences -- The family economy : Daily survival and management of resources -- Interrupted expectations : Loyalty and conflict in the family economy -- Outside the family economy : "Most times I'd go to a friend" -- Relief : "I never thought I would come to this. I am so willing and anxious to work" -- Conclusion : Working-class women's class and race consciousness -- Appendix A: Interview sources -- Appendix B: Social scientists at the Women's Bureau -- Appendix C: The U.S. census -- Appendix D: Tables Summary "Making Choices, Making Do is a comparative study of Black and White working class women's survival strategies during the Great Depression. Based primarily on analysis of employment histories and Depression-era interviews of 1,340 women in Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and South Bend, Lois Helmbold discovered that while going through the Depression, both Black and White women lost work fairly equally, but the benefits that White women accrued because of structural racism meant that they avoided utter destitution that more commonly swallowed their Black peers. For example, when let go from a job, a White woman was more successful in securing a less prestigious job, which allowed her continuous employment, while Black women, especially older Black women, were pushed out of the labor force entirely. Helmbold found other ways that Black and White working class women's lives intertwined, sometimes positively, sometimes not. She found that overall, working class women were less racially segregated than men in their jobs. Making Choices, Making Do strives to fill the gap in the labor history of women, both Black and White, during the Depression. The book will challenge the limits of segregated histories and encourage more comparative analysis"-- Provided by publisher Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Lois Rita Helmbold is an independent American historian and women's studies scholar. She was a professor and chair of the women's studies department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas until she retired. She is now an anti-racism social activist in Oakland, California Print version record Subject Working class women -- United States -- History -- 20th century Discrimination in employment -- United States -- History -- 20th century African American women -- Employment -- History -- 20th century Women immigrants -- Employment -- United States -- History -- 20th century Women, White -- Employment -- United States -- History -- 20th century HISTORY / General. Working class women Economic history Discrimination in employment African American women -- Employment SUBJECT United States -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1945. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140023 Subject United States Genre/Form Electronic books History Form Electronic book LC no. 2022007962 ISBN 9781978826458 1978826451 9781978826472 1978826478

  Permalink