Question

Consider the broad effects of President Regan’s economic policies.

1) How were women affected, particularly in terms of working outside the home?

2) How were unions affected?

Answer 1

President Reagan period is marked as very difficult period for women in United States as he was the person with the view the view that responsibility of running a house is on men and women are made for household activities and taking care of children. This was evident from his second marriage as his wife left working and took care of home after knowing his thoughts.

For US was going through the great depression during his presidential tenure, he made various economic policies to cut on the government interference and spending on public welfare, reduce government regulation and tighten the money supply. This brought overwhelming poverty in the country and increase in unemployment. The security and welfare of society reduced and which majorly affected women. There was 25% cut in the funds for the social services grant like services to elderly(mostly women), childcare facilities to working mother and victims of domestic violence.

The working women faced much more challenges as there was no security and safety measures for them. The childcare facility was reduced making it more difficult for them to go outside of home to work. There was also inequality in wages which Reagan justified saying that it was because men have more experience and they put in more working hours, take up extra work and do overtime. Even though the reason was gender disparity, he never acknowledged and take measures to improve it. He was also against abortion. He was reconsidering regulations governing sexual harassment in the workplace and guarantee equal opportunity for women in college athletics. He pledged to appoint a significant number of women at administrative posts but only 42 out of 367 administrative appointments were women. Also no women sits in the Cabinet.

He appointed inexpert individuals to head Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and the equal employment opportunity commission to implement laws barring discrimination against women. His tenure was a black period for women and most unsafe to work outside because there were no laws protecting them against inequality and providing workplace safety. There was no steps to improve the conditions of women and provide them equal opportunity to rise and shine. They occupied secondary place in the society.

The union strength declined as result Reagan's policies because the policies favored affluent and not lower groups. The gap between rich and poor increased and inequalities were at peak. The labor and servant groups suffered because of cut on government expenditure whereas cut in tax rate favored rich and wealthy. The company owners were at a better position to negotiate labor costs with the suffering labor class which in turn made these people poorer and company owners richer. The Reaganomics resulted in rich getting richer and poor getting poorer.