Well, in this time period, because the boys didn't let hazel play baseball with them, I could probably say that at this time, women did really have too many rights. This was probably also the reason why everyone was astonished because the Chattanooga lookouts included a girl in their team.
Well, it was obviously the Great Depression. During this story, her father lost his job which was really bad, because everyone was broke and couldn't afford anything. So He had to leave them, so that he could get another job.