How do Feminism and civil rights develop without WW2?

It could get extremely ugly on the civil rights front I think. Competition with the USSR, along with industrialization and mechanization of the South, all made civil rights concessions an obvious thing to do. Otherwise you could see the Troubles in the US.
 
So, if you know what doesn't occur, what's the status of women and other minorities by the 21st century. I mean without the Holocaust, eugenics wouldn't have had a (well deserved) backlash and Racism would possibly be more acceptable as there wouldn't be an example of Racism's symptoms when people let it go out of hand. I also hear that the experience of women working in the ammunition factories really helped the feminist movement since it showed that women could more than just house wives.

To be perfectly honest with you, there's some truth here, but I'd like to clear up some things.

1.)For one, the popularity of eugenics peaking in the '20s & '30s IOTL was more of a perfect storm than anything else; it easily could have not become quite as prominent.

2.)The actions of the Nazis no doubt exposed the horrors of the most extreme kinds of racism, true, but as others have pointed out, the Civil Rights Era was actually really boosted by public exposure, particularly thru the medium of television.

3.)As @Carl Schwamberger pointed out, the idea of independent women wasn't exactly new in the '50s-indeed, a trend towards independence had developed earlier on.
 
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3.)As @Carl Schwamberger pointed out, the idea of independent women wasn't exactly new in the '50s-indeed, a trend towards independence had developed earlier on.

Somewhere on my shelf is a translation of a letter from a German Bishiop written circa 1300 or 1400 CE. He asks some local noble/province ruler for a company of soldiers. It seemed a group of Nuns had ejected their priest, refused to pay their contributions to the Bishophric, barricaded the convent, and were accused of collecting weapons and practising with them.

Closer to home in the 19th Century US a suprising number of pioneer and post pioneer farms were headed by women. A lack of suitable mates or a lack of interest & other circumstances prevented many women from remarrying when the husband died, or deserted. A anthropology professor @ Purdue University told me the same phenom applied with female business owners in the new urban centers. Many did not imeadiatly remarry and hand over their property to a new husband. The stereotype or archtype of the widow or deserted wife struggling on as the family leader seems to have been more common than thought these days.

Ann Douglas in her 'Feminazation of American Culture' describes how the 18th Century wife was usually a partner in or owner of the business/farm. The growth of the middle class 'housewife' occured in part because of the growth of middle class income making a larger leisure class possible.
 
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