While New Deal legislation, in theory, provided support for both male and female workers, unemployed women were often discriminated against. For instance, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) employed 4 million unemployed people during the winter of 1934, however many of the projects were deemed unsuitable for women and in total the CWA only employed 300,00 women . Similarly, although the WPA had projects for women, many women experienced difficulties accessing such schemes. In order to …show more content…
The expansion of social welfare services, a field dominated by professional women, led to the appointment of women to important roles within the federal government. For example, Frances Perkins became the Secretary of Labour and the first female cabinet minister and Ruth Bryan Owen became the first female ambassador. This period also saw the first woman director of the mint and the first woman judge of the Court of Appeals. This advance in women’s influence within government, whilst short lived (it would not be matched again until the 1990s) played a significant role in increasing the number of women getting involved in politics, particularly within the Democratic Party, who in 2016 nominated their first woman candidate for US