To begin, the Great Depression caused many societal changes within families. During the Roaring Twenties, males were considered as the “breadwinners” of the family. They provided the family a stable income. However, after the 1929 Stock Market Crash, many businesses lost investments, ceasing production and manufacturing. Without profit and consumers, many men lost their jobs, along with their dignity (“Suffering America”). Men were humiliated and felt like failures by not being able to support their families. In efforts to adjust to this economic crisis, some married women began to work outside home, providing the sole source of income. Many soon recognized “that working-class women played a key role as decision-makers in their families” and …show more content…
Furthermore, some men were not able to cope with the humiliation of applying for relief and standing in breadlines, which caused men to abandon their families and even committed suicide. In addition, divorce rates decreased because it was too expensive and some couples wanted to stay together because it was “easier to qualify for relief if there was a family to support” ("Making Do: Family Life in the Depression"). The Great Depression also had a profound effect on African Americans. During this period, the unemployment rates among African Americans were thirty to fifty percent higher than among whites. Discrimination was undoubtedly evident during the Great Depression shown when African American workers were being laid off to accommodate white workers (Trotter). Living conditions worsened as African Americans had a more difficult time finding a job. Thus, the effects of the Great Depression placed great strains on the social standards within American families, such as challenges of gender roles, decline in marriages and
May argues that “the depression thus paved way for two different family forms: one with two breadwinners who shared tasks and the other with spouses whose roles were sharply differentiated.” In the latter form the father would have earned a “family wage” while his wife would have been responsible the children and their home, only working if it was necessary to supplement her husband’s income. This trend was caused mainly by two factors. During the financial strain of the depression, marriage and birth rates were much lower than they had been in the previous decade while the divorce rate was much higher. Young men of the time were afraid that they would not be able to provide for their new families and chose not to get married. While young women on the other hand, encountered an employment boom that allowed them to gain a sense of economic freedom that allowed them to not feel compelled to marry. This new single woman was glamorized by Hollywood during the 1930s. However, families tended toward choosing a life with the husband earning a “family wage” with the wife at home. Why? May concludes, "for all its affirmation of the emancipation of women, Hollywood fell short of pointing the way toward a restructured family that would incorporate independent women." Films from the 1930s like Gone with the Wind and His Girl Friday portrayed strong female leads that had to choose between their independent working life and domestic happiness, as it seemed that both could not coexist in their lives. Another cause for this were the programs implemented during the New Deal Era. Such programs aimed to raise male employment levels and often did nothing for female employment. Men had become embittered during the depression when women
The Great Depression, beginning in the last few months of 1929, impacted the vast majority of people nationwide and worldwide. With millions of Americans unemployed and many in danger of losing their homes, they could no longer support their families. Children, if they were lucky, wore torn up ragged clothing to school and those who were not lucky remained without clothes. The food supply was scarce, and bread was the most that families could afford. Households would receive very limited rations of food, or small amounts of money to buy food. This led to the starvation of families, including children. African-americans faced tougher challenges than most during the Depression due to discrimination. The classes hit hardest were middle-class
Dating back to the early 20th century, women’s roles in the United States were very limited. In regards to family life, women were expected to cook, clean, and take care of their homes. Men, on the other hand, were in charge of working and providing for the family. Together, these designated roles helped men and women build off of each other to ultimately keep their families in check. As the years progressed, society began to make a greater push to increase women’s rights. As women started receiving greater equality and freedom, their roles began to shift. More women had to opportunity to leave the house and join the workforce. The norm for a married couple slowly began to change as men were no longer expected to individually provide for their
Sharecroppers and farm workers always lived in the midst of strife; they were never able to make a decent living. The boll weevil, soil erosion, and foreign competition had destroyed the cotton crop in the early Twenties. Life was difficult. No profits were being made, and although many southern blacks believed that life in the north was better, it was not much different. Black Americans working in the northern industries were living in poverty even before the stock market crash because they had been laid off; they were often replaced with white workers. When the Depression occurred, "more black workers than white lost their jobs. In 1931, about one out of every three Blacks was jobless, and one out of four whites" (Meltzer 210).
Family pressure during the great depression was unlike any the U.S. has ever seen. Everything about families changed in the 1930s. Couples during the depression delayed marriage, and at the same time the divorce rates dropped because people could not afford to pay for two households. Birthrates also dropped and for the first time in American history below the replacement level. Income was closed to none in all families; regular income had dropped by 35% just in the years Hoover was in office. Families had a lot of stress; some pulled together and made do with what they had others pushed away. People turned to who ever they had, family, friends, and after all else the government. Although there were rich people in the depression as well that the depression did not effect at all who were oblivious to the people suffering around them. By Franklin Roosevelt’s inauguration the unemployment rate was up to 25% only increasing till the 1940s. Within families the role played changed as well. Women and children were now working to put bread on the table. Fathers would despise sons for becoming the main source of income for a family. Unemployed men had a deep lack of self respect. That often led them to running away from there families forever. Because many men ran out or stopped caring the women’s role was enhanced and became working women. Black women found it easier to find work a servants, clerks, textiles, workers, ect. Work made all women’s status go up in their homes. Most mi...
However, as the industrial era drew in the domestication of women became a luxury a significant proportion of American families could no longer afford. Industrialization had a massive effect on the construct of family due to the economical slump. Working class families were living at the marginal economic standards. Stable jobs were rarities and families could not settle down permanently in a community. Ideals of “self-made man” and a “true woman” became fantasies to this working class families. Women found jobs outside of the home in factories, but the most prominent method women made money was “outwork”, which involved chores like embroidery or sewing for other people in order to generate more income for the family.
Change and hardship go hand in hand, because when hard times emerge society is forced to change. During the Great Depression the idea of gender roles stirred up a great deal of controversy but it also opened the door for change. It gave society a push into a new direction. In order to survive, a number of people had to move away from their traditional way of living in order to take care of their household (Goutour, November 5, 2013). It was now more acceptable and easier for women to find work, while men on the other hand had feelings of emasculation and hostility due to not being able to fulfill their role as the breadwinner (Hollingsworth & Tyyska, 3). This paper will argue that the Great Depression had a major impact on gender roles by examining the shift of dominance within the workforce, the traditional aspects that still remained present within the home and the new meaning that was placed on marriage for both male and females during that time.
Society has always had the distinctions between men and women. Society view men as being the dominant one over the household, work force, and women being the caretaker. “Traditional conceptions of gender roles prevailed during the 1930s; accordingly, men were expected to be the breadwinners of their families” (Bryson). Men are known for being the provider and protector of the family. Meclvaine, a historian, believed that the real definition of a “real man” is the one who has authority, one who is in charge and who made all the decisions in the households. Whereas, women are known as being subordinate and have no input in the household’s decisions making except taking care of children, and domestic house work. “At the beginning of the century, the typical female laborer still toiled in th...
Married women from a blue collar family would make clothing, artificial flowers, and other goods in their homes. These activities soon began to be known as homework (Diner, p.69). In this line of work, mothers were able to keep an eye on their children as they worked together to make goods to sell. While working, they were able to have other mothers over and socialize with them while both mothers earned an income by working. More commonly, married women in working-class families earned extra money by taking in “boarders from their own nationality” (Dinner, p.70).The boarders helped the family economically and enabled mothers to watch over their children at home. The force of women working in blue collar middle class families did not play a major factor in the role of men because working class people depended upon their family for economic security. This was a common aspect of blue collar families in which the wife had to do an extra job for money, and in even some cases the children had to work too for economic
The unemployment rate in the United States of America is on average 5%. According to that statistic, most American adults have paying jobs, not depending on race or gender. Today, everyone has an equal chance for every job. This was not the way it always was, though. During the Great Depression, unemployment rates were at an all-time low for white Americans, but were even worse for minorities. The Great Depression was a long and severe recession in the economy during the 1930s in America. Minorities had to face racism and sexism from whites in addition to a jobless and non-income life. The Great Depression had different effects on minorities such as Black Americans, Mexican Americans, Women, and American Indians.
A traditional woman’s normal tasks consisted of raising the children, cleaning the home, and preparing each meal (Ciulla 508). Many husbands would not have tolerated their wives getting a job during the depression, but patriotic duty during the war provided the justification for temporarily transcending these traditional roles (Gluck 156). When the war came along the men went to war leaving behind many jobs on US soil that needed to be filled. This necessitated a dramatic reassessment of a woman’s role in American life (Honey 1).
Huge decreases in demand and credit along with loss of trade, lead to widespread unemployment and poverty. Over 11 million people were out looking for work. Many families were forced to spread out their children among relatives because they could not afford to feed them. Parents giving up their custodial right increased by 50% during the depression. The divorce rate lowered, believed to have been caused by insufficient funds for the separation fees. Children were malnourished and uneducated, especially the lower class families prior to the depression. Older youths left school and fled their homes, looking for work and a better life. Many families were forced to double up in shacks, so they could effort their rent. Those that could not afford a home moved to Hoovervilles, were they slept in tents or under make shift homes. Americans turned to the government for help and when it was not provided they turned on President Hoover. Shantytowns usually located on the outskirts of bigger cities were named “Hoovervilles”. The employment rate for married women was on the rise during the depression, which left many men feeling like inadequate providers. Majority of men turned to alcohol and others left their families all together. African Americans suffered severely because they were not favored when it came to employment. Income fell from $2,300 to $1,500 per year for lower class
In America in the nineteen fifty feminism played a huge role in woman's home and work life. The schooling for girls are way different than for boys. During the nineteen fifty middle-class women were “...encouraged to go to college, but they were not encouraged to be scholars”(McCann 15). With the society encouraging the woman to not excel they are expected to have a family and set your career dreams aside. With the city expectations the baby boom came about when the men came back from war, due to this “...there were 24.3 million children between 5 and 14 years in the 1950s”(Lamb 8). The middle-class white women had a choice between working or staying home, black middle-class woman worked outside
In the 1930s, mothers have an “even more monumental weight on their shoulders,” especially single mothers such as the narrator (“Tillie Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing””). Families changed dramatically: the divorce’s rate dropped significantly because of the high cost of the legal procedures, nonetheless, the rate of abandonments increased. The traditional gender roles established men as the “head of the family,” so they were responsible for providing for the family, an immense pressure for many which induced them to abandon their families. The roles in families evolved as a result of the depression since several women had the necessity to find a job to support their families, and the only ones available for females were low-paying
1. One of the most significant changes taking place in the past few decades, the one that has had a pronounced effect on millions of families, causing considerable concern, has been the movement of women into the workplace. This change has had momentous effects on women, on children, on men, on marital relations- on families. Since 1970s, according to the demand for low-paying “pink-collar”, women moved into those pink-collar jobs and into other jobs as well. The number of hiring women has steadily increased, so in 1960, 32 percent of married women in the labor force. By 1985, this figure had climbed to 54 percent, and in 2005, it stood at 61 percent. Work allows women to become independent, to develop a career, and terminate unsatisfactory marriages, and it gives them greater both outside the family and within it. When parents’ jobs are less secure due to economic recession, parents spend more time on working and cannot have less time to spend with their children. Consequently, today’s families are more isolated from their parents and get along with less support to one another than families of the past.