How did family life change during the Great Depression?
From one perspective, the story emerging from the Great Depression can be described as one of family "disorganization" and deprivation. Marriage rates declined, although they started to rise in 1934, and the trend toward decreasing birthrates, already underway, accelerated during the 1930s.
How did the Great Depression affect the lives of young people?
Many young people also developed emotional and psychological problems as a result of living in constant uncertainty and of seeing their families in hardship. The difficult working conditions of this period meant that many children were orphaned, too, and orphans were often left to fend for themselves, even at very young ages.
How did the Great Depression affect working-class families?
Unable to make mortgage or rent payments, many were deprived of their homes or were evicted from their apartments. Both working-class and middle-class families were drastically affected by the Depression. From one perspective, the story emerging from the Great Depression can be described as one of family "disorganization" and deprivation.
What happened to the middle class during the Great Depression?
Even upper-middle class professionals, such as doctors and lawyers, saw their incomes drop by as much as 40 percent. Families who had previously enjoyed economic security suddenly faced financial instability or, in some cases, ruin. The average American family lived by the Depression-era motto: “Use it up, wear it out, make do or do without.”
What happened to families in the Great Depression?
The Depression had a powerful impact on family life. It forced couples to delay marriage and drove the birthrate below the replacement level for the first time in American history. The divorce rate fell, for the simple reason that many couples could not afford to maintain separate households or pay legal fees.
Why did many families lose their homes during the Great Depression?
Homeowners lost their property when they could not pay mortgages or pay taxes. Renters fell behind and faced eviction. By 1932 millions of Americans were living outside the normal rent-paying housing market. Many squeezed in with relatives.
What were families like during the Great Depression?
Millions of families lost their savings as numerous banks collapsed in the early 1930s. Unable to make mortgage or rent payments, many were deprived of their homes or were evicted from their apartments. Both working-class and middle-class families were drastically affected by the Depression.
How did the Great Depression affect poor families?
The Great Depression of the 1930s affected virtually every New Yorker. Middle-class families were forced to live paycheck to paycheck, heads of working-class families struggled to find work and pay the bills, and the already poor often fell into destitution and homelessness.
Did people sell their kids in the Great Depression?
Many people bought and sold these children, not as family, but to work almost like slaves with horrible living conditions and treatment.
Who suffered the most during the Great Depression?
The country's most vulnerable populations, such as children, the elderly, and those subject to discrimination, like African Americans, were the hardest hit. Most white Americans felt entitled to what few jobs were available, leaving African Americans unable to find work, even in the jobs once considered their domain.
How were children treated during the Great Depression?
Very few families were unaffected by the Great Depression . The children of the Great Depression learned of necessity to be resourceful, wearing hand-me-down clothing, going without luxuries of any kind and, at times, going without meals.
How did the Great Depression affect families quizlet?
The Great Depression affected the daily lives of average Americans by causing them to be unemployed. People who had homes or apartments became homeless because they had no money to pay rent. Families fell apart when the husbands would leave to go search for jobs. Many suffered depression and committed suicide.
How did the Great Depression affect different people?
More important was the impact that it had on people's lives: the Depression brought hardship, homelessness, and hunger to millions. THE DEPRESSION IN THE CITIES In cities across the country, people lost their jobs, were evicted from their homes and ended up in the streets.
How did the Great Depression affect marriage?
In the long run, the Great Depression had little impact on marriage rates; however, it did affect the quality of matches. Marriage rates fell at the onset of the Depression but recovered quickly when the economy rebounded. The result was that marriages were delayed rather than denied.
What did teens do during the Great Depression?
Between 1929 and 1941, 4,000,000 Americans desperate for food and lodging roamed the land. Of this number, 250,000 were teenagers who rode the rails and grew up fast in speeding boxcars, living in hobo jungles, begging on the streets and running from the police and club-wielding railroad police.
How did the Great Depression affect the American family in the 1930s quizlet?
How did the Great Depression affect the American family in the 1930s? It created resentment among men, who lost their jobs more often than women did. The depression created resentment and a loss of self-esteem among men, who lost their jobs much more frequently than lower-paid women did.
How were people's lives affected by the Great Depression?
As stocks continued to fall during the early 1930s, businesses failed, and unemployment rose dramatically. By 1932, one of every four workers was unemployed. Banks failed and life savings were lost, leaving many Americans destitute. With no job and no savings, thousands of Americans lost their homes.
What happens to the housing market in a Depression?
Recessions typically depress prices in most markets, including real estate markets. Bad economic conditions could mean there are fewer homebuyers with disposable income. As demand decreases, home prices fall, and real estate income stagnates.
How did the Great Depression affect families quizlet?
The Great Depression affected the daily lives of average Americans by causing them to be unemployed. People who had homes or apartments became homeless because they had no money to pay rent. Families fell apart when the husbands would leave to go search for jobs. Many suffered depression and committed suicide.
What happened to real estate in the Great Depression?
During the 1920s prices reached their highest level in the third quarter of 1929 before falling by 67% at the end of 1932 and hovering around that value for most of the Great Depression. The value of high-end properties strongly co-moved with the stock market between 1929 and 1932.
How did women enter the workforce during the Depression?
Women entered the workforce in increasing numbers. Some families maintained a middle-class income by adding an extra wage earner. Despite widespread unemployment during the Depression years, the number of married women in the workforce actually increased.
What did households do in their daily lives?
Households embraced a new level of frugality in daily life. They kept kitchen gardens, patched worn-out clothes and passed on trips to the movies as they privately struggled to retain ownership of a home or automobile.
What was the worst economic downturn in history?
The Great Depression, the worst economic downturn in modern history, profoundly affected the daily life of American families in ways large and small. The Great Depression (1929-1939) was the worst economic downturn in modern history. The preceding decade, known as the “ Roaring Twenties ,” was a time of relative affluence for many middle- ...
What were the foods that women ate during the Depression?
Favorites included chili, macaroni and cheese, soups, and chipped beef on toast.
What was the Roaring Twenties?
The preceding decade, known as the “ Roaring Twenties ,” was a time of relative affluence for many middle- and working-class families. As the economy boomed, new innovations allowed for more leisure time and the creation of a consumer society. But the economic depression that followed those boon years profoundly affected the daily life ...
How many people were unemployed in 1929?
Four years after 1929 stock market crash, during the bleakest point of the Great Depression, about a quarter of the U.S. workforce was unemployed. Those that were lucky enough to have steady employment often saw their wages cut or their hours reduced to part-time.
Why did churches organize potlucks?
Potlucks, often organized by churches, became a popular way to share food and a cheap form of social entertainment. Many families strived for self-sufficiency by keeping small kitchen gardens with vegetables and herbs.
How did the Great Depression affect families?
Impact of the Great Depression on Families and Children. The Great Depression impacted families in an emotional way. The Great Depression was the worst and longest reduction in the economy in the years 1929 until 1941. During this time most people experienced unemployment and money loss.
How did the Depression affect American families?
The started living with their relatives so they saved money and bought old bread that was cheap. So the Depression showed that families need each other. The Depression had a powerful impact on American families and their children. Then the children had to work because of the Depression.
How many children wandered the country as a result of the break-up of their families?
More than 200,000 vagrant children wandered the country as a result of the break-up of their families,” (The Human Toll). The Depression sometimes ruined families, but it also brought them closer. “Families had to devise strategies for getting through hard times because their survival depended on it,” (The Human Toll).
Why did the children have lacked love and affection?
Reason one is that children had lacked of love and affection from mostly their fathers but sometimes their mother too . Second, the economic decline made parents stressed and have anxiety which led unleash negativity on the children. Thirdly, unfair laws were created by corruption and greed of political leaders.
Why did children drop out of school during the Great Depression?
The Children couldn’t support themselves alone. Some children dropped out of school because they were embarrassed they couldn’t afford a different outfit every day. Now they created laws that children are unable to work under the age of 16, so that led to children staying in school.
Why did children turn to God during the Depression?
Children need good role models so they don’t turn out like parents were in the Depression. Children in the Depression started to quit school to work in factories to earn money for the family.
How many married women lived apart in 1940?
Instead of woman relying on her husband, the husband had to rely on the wives and children. “By 1940, there were 1.5 million married women living apart from their husbands.
Family Disorganization and Deprivation
- From one perspective, the story emerging from the Great Depressioncan be described as one of family "disorganization" and deprivation. Marriage rates declined, although they started to rise in 1934,and the trend toward decreasing birthrates, already underway, accelerated during the 1930s. Although divorce rates also declined, this seems to have bee...
Adapting to The Depression
- From a different perspective, another story of the family emerges—one that emphasizes the resilience and ability of the family to adapt in the face of adverse economic circumstances. Some families, of course, were not affected by major economic deprivation during the 1930s, but even among those that were, many were able to maintain relatively "normal" patterns of family life—wi…
The Legacy of The Depression
- The Depression era bequeathed a mixed legacy to American families and households. Perhaps the major positive aspect of this legacy was the idea that the economic security and welfare of the family should be a fundamental national goal. To be sure, this idea was imperfectly realized in the New Deal welfare state, which often discriminated against women wage-earners and relegated t…
Bibliography
- Cohen, Lizabeth. Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919–1939.1990. Denning, Michael. The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth-Century.1997. Elder, Glenn H., Jr. Children of the Great Depression: Social Change in Life Experience.1974. Evans, Sara. Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America,2nd edition. 1989. Foner, Eric. Th…