A Letter on Employment of Married Women

Historical Background

With the passage of the National Recovery Act in June 1933, there was considerable public optimism that this New Deal program would help to alleviate the nation’s unemployment. Through the National Recovery Administration (NRA), each industry established its own guidelines (codes) to promote cooperation among businesses, to reduce unfair competition, and to improve working standards. Individual businesses voluntarily signed the codes and displayed the "blue eagle" to symbolize their support for the government’s efforts.

Many citizens wrote to President Roosevelt or to General Hugh Johnson, NRA chief, describing their financial struggles and offering suggestions for implementing the NRA codes. Domestic workers, labor leaders, business persons and others wrote to lesser government officials to suggest industrial standards, encourage collective bargaining, and point to NRA code violators. Several citizens even composed music to rally public sentiment for this New Deal program.

Miss Kubicki’s letter typifies several hundred letters sent to the NRA that complain about the employment of married women whose husbands are also employed. Writers, like Miss Kubicki, used adjectives such as "greedy" to describe married women who "cheat" their single sisters and drain the lean job market.

Miss Kubicki is typical of working women of her time because single women (divorced and widowed) were 71 percent of the female labor force, although women were only 21 percent of the total labor force in 1930. At 37, she is also in the most employed age group of women in 1930; 64 percent of working women were between the ages of 20 and 44 years. While some statistics on working women have changed, one pattern is unchanged: 61 percent of working women today are still between the ages of 20 and 44 years. However, women are now 42 percent of the total labor force. Of this group, there are more married working women (55 percent) than single working women (44 percent).

Although Miss Kubicki wrote to President Roosevelt, her letter was referred to the correspondence branch of the NRA for reply. That reply was sympathetic, but not altogether reassuring. It urged her to write members of Congress and suggested that increased public criticism on the subject of working/married women might result in "some action" in the current session of Congress; yet it informed her firmly that "…the authority vested in this administration by the National Industrial Recovery Act does not permit us to intervene in matters of this type and the government cannot say just whom a certain firm shall or shall not employ."

The reply also addressed the issue of technological unemployment, which Miss Kubicki had brought to the attention of the NRA. It indicated that the government proposed to "…offset this problem by shortening the number of working hours…"and suggested that "…a satisfactory solution [to unemployment] is forthcoming as the result of the working of the NRA." Such optimism is predictable from an administration committed to innovative programs to solve the nation’s widening depression.

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While we are uncertain about Miss Kubicki’s employment future, we do know that, as a federal policy, the government never ruled against hiring married women, although some state regulations and popular sentiment were generally opposed to married women working at that time.

The letter reproduced here is in file 622, drawer 3017, Classified General Files, 1933-35, Records of the National Recovery Administration, Record Group 9.

Teaching Suggestions

Skills Activities

1. Identifying the main ideas. Number each paragraph in the letter from 1 to 6. Direct students to number their papers from 1-6. Ask them to write next to each number a sentence that describes the main idea of each of the six paragraphs. For example, paragraph 1—Miss Kubicki expresses her admiration for the President. When students have identified the main ideas, compare their answers. Consider: Do you think Miss Kubicki has written a persuasive letter to the President? Why or why not?

2. Reading for understanding. After students have read the letter, ask them if Miss Kubicki would agree or disagree with the following statements. You may wish to reproduce this as a worksheet.

As a culminating assignment, ask students to write a paragraph explaining why they agree or disagree with Miss Kubicki’s idea about giving unemployed men and single women job priority.

Discussion Ideas

1. Discuss the following generalization with students: In times of economic depression, married women should give their jobs to unemployed men or single women. Ask students if they agree or disagree with Miss Kubicki’s arguments.

2. Miss Kubicki complains that machines are contributing to unemployment. Ask students to consider: Do you think the government should protect workers from being replaced by machines? Why or why not? Note the government’s response to Miss Kubicki on this issue in the background essay.

3. Ask students to imagine themselves as a "typical" woman living in 1930 and answer the following questions. Direct them to answer also the questions as they would be answered today.

After students have answered the questions, provide them with the statistical information on working women in the background essay to check their answers against. Discuss the changes with students.

4. Consider with students: How should the government have replied to Miss Kubicki’s requests? Do you think that the government should have power to regulate private industries? Share with students relevant information from the NRA’s response to Miss Kubicki, which is included in the background essay.