I was influenced to write this post about my mother at this time by the upcoming college graduation of my great-niece, which will be a virtual commencement due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it has been 83 years since my mother graduated from college, it struck me that both she and my niece chose teaching careers, graduated with NY State teacher certification, experienced a pandemic, and had their graduation experiences altered by grave societal events. While my niece has her future career to experience, I wanted to understand my mother’s experience in regard to career and employment.
As I pieced together relevant events from her life, it became clear that social context greatly impacted her success. Ultimately, her various efforts to gain employment were thwarted by three factors: the Great Depression, World War II, and the dominance of traditional sex roles. This story describes her efforts and the end results.
Virginia Pauline Brown was born on July 22, 1917 in Ogdensburg, NY.[1] The influenza pandemic raged in her young life from January 1918 through December 1920. Just a month shy of her twelfth birthday, on June 23, 1929, she received her elementary diploma from Holy Family School in Watertown, NY.[2] A few months later, in August of 1929, the US stock market crashed, ushering in the Great Depression.
