Term Paper on “Beyond Suffrage:
Women In The New Deal” By Susan Ware
Susan
Ware had a purpose in writing ‘Beyond Suffrage’. It was time that historians
discarded the idea of the New Deal as the traditional boys club. Without the
idea and vigor of some strong women, the New Deal’s social welfare policies
would have collapsed. And without the combined experience of these women, they
could not have held such influence against so many powerful men. Twenty-eight
women of similar background, with a common agenda, formed a network in
Washington, D.C. from which they helped conduct the direction of the New Deal
and introduce the position of women in public life.
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Beyond Suffrage illustrates the attainments of a forgotten generation of
feminists. Susan Ware dare to affront the notion that feminism ended abruptly in
1920 with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. By charting a network of
friendship and cooperation among extraordinary women in the 1930s, Ware affirms
to the persistence of feminist activity far beyond suffrage accomplishment. She
discloses how women, enveloped within the folds of the New Deal bureaucracy,
made important contributions to the planning and management of the New Deal’s
social welfare programs and presumed greater roles within the Democratic Party.
Ware frames her book to define why a collaborative network matured among certain
exceptional women, to investigate how this network influenced party politics and
social welfare initiatives in the 1930s, and to probe how these developments
related to the broader contextual landscape of the New Deal era. Ware’s research
provides critical insight into the experiences of high-ranking women in public
life during the 1930s, a decade formerly regarded as a “gloomy era” for women, a
decade Ware depict, conversely, as a time in which many of women’s expectations
beyond suffrage ultimately found fulfillment.
“Many members of this New Deal network possessed agendas which extended beyond
the obvious goals of social feminism. Particularly interesting to political
historians and scholars of women’s' history is Ware's attention to Molly Dewson,
the head of the Women's Division of the Democratic National Committee from 1932
to 1937. Dewson's primary function in that first "critical" year of the New Deal
was to "secure patronage for women" within the network (p. 69). Once one woman
found a position, she could help find positions for others, and thus the cycle
of patronage continued. Unlike the political patronage associated with
Democratic "machine" politics of old, Dewson demanded from her followers support
for New Deal programs, rather than personal loyalty.” (Ware, Susan, 1981)
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Ware highlights the assistance well-placed women could offer their comrades,
together progressing a feminist agenda. It was Molly Dewson, head of the Women’s
Division of the Democratic Party, who lobbied for Frances Perkins’ appointment
to Franklin Roosevelt’s cabinet, overpowering both male discrepancy about public
women and Perkins’ own skepticism about taking the office. Once in place,
Perkins filled the Labor Department with like-minded women she thought efficient
and bright and sharp. Not surprisingly, the network finally was concentrated in
the Labor Department, particularly the Women’s and Children’s Bureaus. Together,
Dewson and Perkins also won appointments for the network to relief agencies,
primarily within the WPA, and the Democratic Party. Patronage was an effective
tool, but it, too, was not the sole realm of the network. The settlement
reformers had also filled their offices with friends and qualified women, though
their aspiration was more entirely feminist. Ware’s biography does connect the
network members as part of a special generation defined by common experience and
concerns. Most were college educated, had few children, had worked in suffrage
and war activities, came from families with political ties, and had knowledge in
social welfare work. This background prepared the network women for the demands
of New Deal policymaking. Further, certain conditions made easy the appointment
and control of the network within Roosevelt’s administration.
On the most elementary level, Ware overturning the tradition of the New Deal as
a male specialty is fantastic. In all justice, Ware’s intention is apparently
not to explore the overall fate of women during the New Deal. Ignoring for now
ordinary women whose relationship to the New Deal was passive; Ware neglects a
range of women who did act within the New Deal in official capacity, who made it
work beyond the policymaking committee. Ware makes the point that only the
Department of Agriculture had no women in important positions during the 1930s.
Yet, thousands of women, at federal behest, set up the New Deal into the context
of life in Depression America.
Work Cited
Ware, Susan, “Beyond Suffrage: Women in the New Deal”, Reviewed by Carey
Shellman, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981. http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/brundage/20thcentury_grad_course/Ware1_review.html
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