Answer 1
Answer: The ideal answer should include:
1. The effect on women varied. Some programs excluded women and others paid them less.
2. Women were also helped. A minimum wage helped women more than men when they qualified (they were sometimes excluded based on occupation). Women did start to participate more in the political process: Frances Perkins was the first female cabinet secretary.
3. African Americans were paid less by some programs,
4. However, on a national level, officials defended them for the first time and more African Americans participated at higher levels of government than ever before.
5. Indians were helped out by John Collier (commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs), who ended the Dawes Act. The CCC also greatly helped Native Americans. Ultimately, more than 80,000 Native Americans received training in agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry, along with basic academic subjects.
6. Although it could have accomplished more, the New Deal paved the way for the civil rights struggle that would come later.
Answer 2
Answer: The ideal answer should include:
1. The critics on the left included communists and socialists, along with people like William Lemke.
2. Those on the left argued that the government needed to do more to help laborers and farmers who had lost their land and those who had been ignored, like African Americans.
3. On the right there were groups like the Liberty League who said the New Deal had gone too far.
4. Those on the right said that the government was spending too much.
5. There were also those who said that the wrong people were being targeted (these critics included Charles Coughlin) and those who said that a more radical approach was needed (these included Francis Townsend and Huey Long).
Answer 3
Answer: The ideal answer should include:
1. The two programs picked here are: the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Public Works Administration (PWA).
2. The CCC aimed to provide money to areas but also to improve conservation.
3. It was involved in tree planting and work in the national forests.
4. The PWA aimed to build public works, including things like schools and courthouses.
5. It also took on more traditional public works like bridges.