Women, the Radical Left, and the Fight Against the Ravages of the Great Depression

Abstract

At the heart of Mary E. Triece' s monograph lies a burning desire to explore and analyze the reactions of working-class women to the problems that they encountered during the tumultuous decade of the Great Depression. Triece believes that the economic and social problems of this era gave greater emphasis to the paradoxical situation confronting females. The reality facing the large number of women who were part of the waged labor force was that not only were most of them confined to particular jobs but also to clearly defined female roles within them. Away from the workplace women had always provided unpaid domestic labor in the home and contributed largely unrecognized managerial skills, which were more than ever necessary to run households when the curse of unemployment devastated family income. However, when the public thought of who might perform the role of breadwinner, or considered the term head of household, or union organizer the presumption was that only men could perform these roles, and that manliness was the essential quality for a successful discharge of the responsibilities that were attached to each.