Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Fall/105/Section059/Ramsey

Overview

Ramsey was a widow and mother to two children during the Great Depression. She was interviewed on February 21, 1939 when she was 43 years old.

Biography

Ramsey was born in Georgia, where her mother and father met. She was very close to her mother who is from Pennsylvania. Her father was married previously with several children, but his ex-wife and some of their children died. She didn’t know her father well because he died when she was young. After her father died, Ramsey and her mother lived in boarding houses throughout Pennsylvania until after a few years when they settled in New Jersey.

Ramsey met her husband in New Jersey; their marriage was short and violent. Her husband controlled when she could see her mother, which was very rare since he did not like her. They had a divorce after she began to accuse her husband of being interested in other women and she began having nervous breakdowns around this time. Together they had two children, Helen in 1917 and Alice in 1933. Ramsey’s husband later died of suicide as a result of losing his job after their divorce. Ramsey was a very particular person as she was unable to relax or just sit around easily. Ramsey was also nervous and showed signs of anxiety. At 43, she was living with her daughter Helen in the North. She was very attached to Helen just as her mother was with her.

Social Issues

Economic Challenges

In the early 1900s, banks were unregulated and uninsured. The government didn’t offer insurance or compensation for the unemployed so when people stopped earning, they stopped spending. The Great Depression also occurred during this period which further increased economic challenges. In fact, “[l]ong-term unemployment was perhaps the most pressing problem facing policymakers during the Great Depression.” (Mathy 2018, 2). For most Americans, once they lost their job, they were essentially hopeless to find a new one. This explains the finding, “that a higher rate of bank suspensions was significantly associated with higher suicide rates...” (Stuckler 2012, 1). Without a stable income you couldn’t afford anything necessary to survive. Living a frugal lifestyle was common for many during the Great Depression which was a significant change from the extravagant lifestyle many lived during the 1920’s, better known as the Roaring Twenties (BBC Bitesize, 1). This complete change in spending caused challenges for many with the fall of the country’s economy as well as challenges with mental health for many Americans.

Women in the Early 1900’s

The early 1900’s portrayed a period of change for women as they were seen gaining more rights and independence in society. Despite women having more job opportunities the education necessary to obtain those jobs was unavailable as there was little change in sex segregation seen in most of these education programs. This was seen especially in the education necessary for women to obtain a job where they would receive a salary similar to their male counterparts since it was common that the positions women could take were paid much less than they would for men (Meece 1993, 4). During this period there were important wins for women in society, but “the reality was that most women were poorly paid and were employed in roles such as cleaners or waitresses.” (BBC Bitesize, 1). Discrimination against women stayed apparent in society and most women continued to stay at home, taking care of the household and the children. Due to these circumstances many women found themselves settling for a spouse solely because of his stable job which could provide for a family. Additionally, with mothers staying home many developed an attachment with their children. Attachment issues were common among women during this time since society was structured so that women could not do much on their own or provide enough to live independently, forcing them to rely on others to live whether that was their husband, children, etc. This inability to provide for oneself likely caused many women to develop anxiety and stress issues as well. Overall, despite the portrayal of women gaining rights in the early 1900’s, this period was likely one of the most difficult for women in the United States.

Families in the Early 1900’s

At the beginning of the century average family size was at its highest, but the decline began slowly around 1920 (Livni 2017, 1). This decline correlated with the economic decline also occurring in the United States. As money became an issue for many families during the Great Depression, children became less of an advantage for families as they only took away from the household income. This was also around the time that women began entering the workforce, so they had less time to dedicate to raising several children as women previously did. Moreover, even if women did not have a job and were devoted to only raising children and taking care of the household, that prevented the family from having another source of income which could be detrimental to families during that time of great economic suffering.

References

BBC Bitesize. “The 1920s Overview - The Roaring Twenties - GCSE History Revision.” Accessed September 29, 2020. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zt8ftyc/revision/1.

Carter, Douglas. “Neurotic.” Federal Writers Project Papers. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, February 21, 2020. https://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/03709/id/686.

Livni, Ephrat, and Dan Kopf. “The Decline of the Large US Family, in Charts.” Quartz. October 12, 2017. https://qz.com/1099800/average-size-of-a-us-family-from-1850-to-the-present/.

Mathy, Gabriel P. "Hysteresis and Persistent Long-Term Unemployment: The American Beveridge Curve of the Great Depression and World War II." Cliometrica 12, no. 1 (01, 2018): 127-152. doi: http://dx.doi.org.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/10.1007/s11698-016-0158-1. https://www-proquest-com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/docview/1992964997?accountid=14244.

Meece, Judith L., and Jacquelynne S. Eccles. “Introduction: Recent Trends in Research on Gender and Education.” Educational Psychologist 28, no. 4 (December 1993): 313–19. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15326985ep2804_2.

Stuckler, David, Christopher Meissner, Price Fishback, Sanjay Basu, and Martin McKee. “Banking Crises and Mortality during the Great Depression: Evidence from US Urban Populations, 1929–1937.” J Epidemiol Community Health 66, no. 5 (May 1, 2012): 410–19. https://jech.bmj.com/content/66/5/410.