Following the Photographers of the Great Depression II: Central United States

Figure 4: Wife of Falls City farmsteader. Nebraska.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/fsaall:@FILREQ(@FIELD(DOCID+@LIT(fsa1998019222/PP))+@FIELD(COLLID+fsa))

Figure 5: Off to a new start. Marion Hills and wife, rehabilitation clients, in garden of their farm. Center County, Iowa.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?fsaall:1:./temp/~ammem_Y6gQ::

Figure 6: Line waiting to register for sugar rationing books. Detroit, Michigan.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?fsaall:1:./temp/~ammem_WJLV::

Migrating to Central United States, the focus of the photographs become more rural, and the subjects deal more with agriculture. However, instead of dealing with class, these next photographs picture a brighter side of America. Through the photos provided by the FSA photographers, the spotlight also shined upon women and their contributions.

Gender roles in the Great Depression were greatly divided. Men had a “strong sense of individual responsibility and determination to provide for [their] family” (Abelson 108). When homes and jobs were lost, they believed it to be their responsibilities to bring everything back together. Women in this era failed to become recognized “as permanent members of the labor force,” and unfortunately “defined themselves as ‘homemakers’” (117). In Figure 4, the image pictures the wife of a farmstead farmer working at home, fulfilling her “domestic roles.” The angle of this shot, captured by Arthur Rothstein, gives a widespread shot of the room in the house. In the center, the woman stands with body in the movement of ironing shirts; however, the most peculiar aspect is her fixed gaze upon the audience. Her eyes focused away from the work she is doing almost says that it has become habitual. In fact, her eyes seem to convince the audience that she is present, that she is actually there. In other words, she should not be simply neglected in the house as doing a simple chore. Every little work she accomplishes gives the family more stability and comfort in the home—the safest place to be when the world outside becomes a living hell from poverty.

Contrary to social beliefs that a man in a traditional family assumes the role as breadwinner of the family, the woman in the next photo above is present with her husband, working in the same field alongside him. This photo by Carl Mydans (Figure 5) perfectly portrays the ideal setting, where the wife is actually seen with the husband, working together. She is recognized as an equal contributor to the family and to the welfare of the farm. Both the wife and the husband are working on equal shares of the plot, accomplishing the same goal available. “Women have been bound to the home by ideology, moral structures, and idealized notions about motherhood and the family” (106). They have always been there, working their backs for the betterment of the current situation so that the rest of the family may be comfortable. Therefore, it is only right to recognize them, to give them equal praise as men have when it comes to responsibilities.

Figure 6 perfectly exemplifies the real truths about these unrecognized women. As a ration board is about to open up in Michigan, the first people present at the location are none other than those faithful women. Arthur Siegel, the photographer at the site, captured a timely photo that depicts the genuine faces of these mothers and wives who seem to be worried and pensive about the outcomes as they lean over to the side to take a look at the front of the line, for it drastically affects the outcome of her family. Luckily, Siegel provides the perfect evidence of the real “social reality” (112). These women are much of contributors to the welfare of their homes as are men.

As Abelson states, “People did not see these women because they did not expect to see them; they had not learned to see them, and in complicated ways they did not want to see them” (117). The ignorance of many people to not notice these hardworking figures completely causes a social divide. These divides are the real causes of why the incoordination of the United States did quite the opposite of benefiting the nation.