USA HISTORY

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM(1890 1919)

END OF WWI

[SOURCES]
How did the end of WWI affect the economic opportunities available to women and African Americans?

(A) it had little effect on either group

(B) women gained jobs, but African Americans lost them

(C) ** It spelled the end of many economic opportunities for both groups

(D) Both groups enjoyed increased opportunities after the war

EXPLANATIONS BELOW

Concept note-1: -Stock prices collapsed first, by the end of 1919. The downturn in wholesale prices came 6 months later. By the autumn of 1920 a severe industrial depression had developed. Factory employment dropped 30 percent from March 1920 to July 1921.

Concept note-2: -When America entered the Great War, the number of women in the workforce increased. Their employment opportunities expanded beyond traditional women’s professions, such as teaching and domestic work, and women were now employed in clerical positions, sales, and garment and textile factories.

Concept note-3: -The economic consequences of the War. The declaration of war brought considerable economic disruption to Africa. Generally there followed a depression in the prices paid for Africa’s primary products, while knowledge that henceforth imported goods would be in short supply led to a rise in their prices.

Concept note-4: -Most notably, the aftermath of the war witnessed women gaining voting rights in many nations for the first time. Yet women’s full participation in political life remained limited, and some states did not enfranchise their female inhabitants until much later (1944 in France).