Abstract
Franklin Delano Roosevelt had launched as early as 1944 a new pledge to implement a new economic Bill of Rights ("New Deal") for all Americans. Another new trend appeared under Truman with the fate of the "Full Employment Act". The new president delayed submitting his own version of the Bill. It eventually represented a vague statement of principles rather than a plan of action. Liberals felt betrayed by the president. A journalist, Howard Smith, wrote "the effective locus of government seems to have shifted from Washington to some place equidistant between Wall Street and West Point". In the autumn of 1946, the Republicans won control of the representatives and senators (Nixon, McCarthy). Women had participated in the WWII in the WACs (Women Army Corps) and VES (Voluntary Emergency Service) in the Navy, and in ammunition plants, and this had strengthened the image of self reliant women. The Women Advisory Committee urged the establishment of the Family Assistant Program and Child Care Facilities to help women workers.
