Will 2010 be the year of the women? We asked prominent thinkers to discuss women’s changing roles in the economy. How has the crisis affected them? Are women the key to reform? What economic impact will they have going forward? We’ll explore all this and more in a special ND20 12-part series. Roosevelt historian David Woolner explores how the New Deal advanced women's rights and equality.

Earlier this year, the National Organization for Women reported that it was pleased with the way Congress and the Obama administration had approached the need to ensure that women workers benefited from the federal stimulus program. NOW played an important behind-the-scenes role in making sure that the federal dollars not only went to "shovel ready" infrastructure projects (like roads, bridges and other construction work), but also to our nation's "human infrastructure," especially those occupations -- such as nursing, teaching, and social work -- that are frequently held by women.

Looking back more than 70 years, we can see that the precedent for making sure that working women benefit from such federal programs as unemployment insurance came from the New Deal. In fact, the New Deal laid the groundwork for many of the later gains made by women, but as was the case in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, the task of securing those rights was not easy and did come without a struggle.

The principal advocate for women's economic and social rights within the context of the New Deal was Eleanor Roosevelt. From the thousands of letters that poured across her desk from ordinary Americans, ER knew that women too were suffering as a consequence of Great Depression. This was especially true of working women. It is estimated that more than 2 million women were unemployed at the start of 1933, many of whom represented the sole support for their families. Thanks to the traditional view of a "worker" as a white male breadwinner, however, these women went largely unrecognized, not only by government officials, but also by the public at large.

ER was determined to change this and from the start of the Roosevelt Administration, she began to lobby those in charge of the federal employment relief programs to make sure that opportunities for work were made available to women. As a consequence of her efforts, FDR's relief czar, Harry Hopkins, not only agreed to create a special woman's division within the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (the first major New Deal relief program and the precursor to the later CWA and WPA), but also to appoint a woman to head it. Hopkins asked Ellen Woodward to do so. Under her direction, the whole approach to the problem of unemployed women was completely revamped. Woodward refused to tolerate that ad hoc part-time approach that had heretofore been used by both state and federal officials within the FERA structure to deal with the needs of unemployed women. With Hopkins' backing, each state was now required to appoint a qualified woman to devote herself full-time to the woman's program.

Not content with this move alone, ER also hosted a special "White House Conference on the Emergency Needs of Women" in November 1933 to draw further attention to the plight of working women in the midst of the Depression. Still, progress was slow. Only seven per cent of the jobs created by the FERA-backed Civilian Works Administration went to women, for example, and roughly 25% of the National Recovery Administration's wage codes set minimum wages for women at a rate lower than men for the same work.

Fortunately, the employment benefits extended to women improved dramatically with the establishment of the Works Projects Administration in 1935. Also headed by Hopkins, with Ellen Woodward once again leading the women's division, the WPA employed 460,000 women at its peak in 1936.

As was the case with male workers, women also benefited from the major reforms of the New Deal, such as the Fair Labor Relations Act (which guaranteed workers rights to organize and led to more than 800,000 women joining unions by the end of the 1930s) and the Fair Labor Standards Act, which set maximum hour and minimum wages, although some major categories of women's employment, such as domestic workers and retail clerks, were left outside the reach of the law.

These gains, though somewhat modest within the overall scope of the New Deal relief, nevertheless established the precedent that the plight of working women must be taken into consideration in any state or national effort to provide relief to the unemployed. Equally important, the opportunities provided by the New Deal for professional women such as Ellen Woodward to work in the upper echelons of the federal government was also unprecedented. Indeed, the New Deal's record in placing women in positions of responsibility within government -- which includes, among others, Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor, the first female cabinet minister in American history; Josephine Roche, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury; Hilda Smith, the Director of Workers Education within the WPA; Clara Beyer, Associate Director of the Division of Labor Standards; and Mary McLeod Bethune as head of the Division of Negro Affairs in the National Youth Administration -- would not be matched again until the 1960s.

Thanks to the efforts of Eleanor Roosevelt and others, then, the New Deal-though not perfect -- broke new ground for women in America.

David Woolner is a Senior Fellow and Hyde Park Resident Historian for the Roosevelt Institute.

Roosevelt historian David Woolner shines a light on today’s issues with lessons from the past.

Earlier this week, the International Herald Tribune noted the seventy-fifth anniversary of a story the New York Times ran on November 20, 1934, about an alleged plot to overthrow the United State Government. Frequently referred to as the "Business Plot," the alleged plan was disclosed to Congress by Major General Smedley D. Butler, U.S.M.C. retired, in testimony he offered before a House committee investigating un-American activities. According to Butler, a group of wealthy individuals, many of whom worked on Wall Street, had asked him to lead a 500,000 strong march of ex-servicemen on Washington with the intent of bringing down FDR and establishing a fascist regime.

Although Congress concluded there was some credibility to Butler's story, and the news of the alleged conspiracy generated a brief sensation in the press, most historians have dismissed the plot as little more than what the late Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., called a "wild scheme."Still, the anniversary serves as a reminder of the degree to which the wealthy elite hated FDR and the New Deal. Nor should we forget the opposition the New Deal generated among hard core conservatives -- in both parties.

A few months before the "business plot" came to light, for example, a group of prominent public officials and wealthy businessmen (including former Democratic Party Presidential nominee Al Smith) formed an organization called the American Liberty League. Billed as a research and opinion organization, the Liberty League's primary focus was to attack FDR and the New Deal. Accusing the president and his recovery programs of being -- at various times -- fascistic, socialistic or communistic, the real goal of the League was to return the country to the rule of unfettered and unregulated free enterprise à la the 1920s.

Some of the most prominent names in American business helped finance this effort, including Edward Hutton of General Foods, Alfred Sloane of General Motors and the members of the Du Pont family.

As the New Deal took hold, and as FDR prepared to run for re-election in 1936, the Liberty League launched a major effort to unseat him. In the end, however, the wealth behind the Liberty League sealed its fate. Never one to shy away from "a good fight", FDR took on the forces wealth behind the Liberty League and other like-minded groups in a devastating full frontal attack. Characterizing the League as a tool of what he called "selfish big business," FDR would go on to remind the public that the wealthy interests behind such groups tended "to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs." Indeed, based on the experience of the late 20s and early 30s, he continued, we "know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob." He then fully acknowledged their contempt, when he famously said:

Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me-and I welcome their hatred.

I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master.

FDR won the 1936 election in an unprecedented landslide, taking 46 states and more than 60% of the popular vote. The American Liberty League never recovered; and as for fascism, the United States would go on to destroy it, not only through the military might we unleashed during the Second World War, but also through the effective regulation of capitalism that was established in the New Deal.

David Woolner is a Senior Fellow and Hyde Park Resident Historian for the Roosevelt Institute.