How Were Families Affected by the Great Depression
The Swell Depression (1929-1939) was the worst economic downturn in modern history. The preceding decade, known as the "Roaring Twenties," was a fourth dimension of relative affluence for many eye- and working-class families. As the economic system boomed, new innovations allowed for more leisure time and the cosmos of a consumer society. Merely the economic depression that followed those boon years greatly afflicted the daily life of American families, in ways big and small.
Even the flush faced severe chugalug-tightening.
Four years after 1929 stock market crash, during the bleakest point of the Bang-up Depression, nigh a quarter of the U.S. workforce was unemployed. Those that were lucky plenty to have steady employment oftentimes saw their wages cut or their hours reduced to part-time.
Even upper-centre form professionals, such as doctors and lawyers, saw their incomes drop by as much as forty percent. Families who had previously enjoyed economic security of a sudden faced financial instability or, in some cases, ruin.
The average American family lived by the Depression-era motto: "Utilise it up, wear information technology out, make exercise or do without." Many tried to keep up appearances and bear on with life as close to normal as possible while they adapted to new economic circumstances.
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 abode or motorcar.
A mother serving dinner in the clean environment of a Farm Security Administration camp in Visalia, California, 1939. (Credit: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
Potlucks and 'austerity gardens' were the norm.
Women's magazines and radio shows taught Depression-era homemakers how to stretch their nutrient budget with casseroles and one-pot meals. Favorites included chili, macaroni and cheese, soups, and chipped beef on toast.
Potlucks, frequently organized past churches, became a pop way to share nutrient and a cheap form of social entertainment.
Many families strived for self-sufficiency past keeping pocket-sized kitchen gardens with vegetables and herbs. Some towns and cities immune for the conversion of vacant lots to community "thrift gardens" where residents could abound nutrient.
Between 1931 and 1932, Detroit's thrift garden program provided food for well-nigh 20,000 people. Experienced gardeners could exist seen helping former function workers—nonetheless dressed in white button-down shirts and slacks—to cultivate their plots.
Children playing cards in the front yard in Washington, DC, 1935. (Credit: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
Board games and miniature golf courses thrived.
The average American family didn't take much extra income to spend on leisure activities during the 1930s. Before the Low, going to the motion-picture show theater was a major pastime. Fewer Americans could afford this luxury later the stock marketplace crashed—then more 1-third of the cinemas in America closed between 1929 and 1934.
Oft, people chose to spend fourth dimension at home. Neighbors got together to play cards, and board games such as Scrabble and Monopoly—both introduced during the 1930s—became popular.
The radio likewise provided a free class of entertainment. Past the early on 1930s, many center class families endemic a domicile radio. Comedy programs such as Amos 'north' Andy, soap operas, sporting events and swing music distracted listeners from everyday struggles.
Mini-golf game became a Low-era craze. More than than 30,000 miniature golf game links sprang up across the country during the 1930s. Prices ranged from 25 to 50 cents per circular.
Workers at a button factory in New York, circa 1935. (Credit: FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Women entered the workforce in increasing numbers.
Some families maintained a middle-class income by calculation an extra wage earner. Despite widespread unemployment during the Depression years, the number of married women in the workforce actually increased.
Some people criticized married women for taking jobs when and so many men were out of work, though women oft took clerical or service industry positions that weren't seen equally socially adequate for men at the time.
Women establish work every bit secretaries, teachers, telephone operators and nurses. But in many cases, employers paid women workers less than their male counterparts.
Families on government support were less stigmatized.
The New Deal programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt meant the expansion of regime into people's everyday lives afterward 1933. Many Americans received some level of financial aid or employment every bit a result of New Deal programs.
Prior to the Slap-up Depression, about Americans had negative views of government welfare programs and refused to become on welfare. In some towns, local newspapers published the names of welfare recipients.
While attitudes toward government help began to change during the Great Depression, going on welfare was even so viewed as a painful and humiliating experience for many families.
A family of migrant workers in Blythe, California, 1936. (Credit: Dorothea Lange/Getty Images)
Economic hardship acquired family breakdowns.
The stress of financial strain took a psychological toll—especially on men who were all of a sudden unable to provide for their families. The national suicide rate rose to an all-fourth dimension high in 1933.
Marriages became strained, though many couples could not afford to carve up. Divorce rates dropped during the 1930s though abandonments increased. Some men deserted their families out of embarrassment or frustration: This was sometimes called a "poor man'southward divorce."
Information technology'due south estimated that more than than two million men and women became traveling hobos. Many of these were teens who felt they had become a brunt on their families and left home in search of piece of work.
Riding the rails—illegally hopping on freight trains—became a common, yet unsafe manner to travel. Those traveling the state in search of work often camped in "Hoovervilles," shantytowns named after Herbert Hoover, president during the early years of the Smashing Depression.
Criminal offense was mythologized, but this was largely hype.
Famous outlaw duo Bonnie and Clyde went on a ii-year bankrobbing spree across America, while in New Bailiwick of jersey, famous aviator Charles Lindbergh's toddler son was abducted, held for ransom and and so murdered.
High-profile events like these, broadcast through radio announcements and in newspaper headlines, contributed to a sense of lawlessness and crime in the Great Depression, stoking fears that hard times had created a crime wave. But this was more hype than reality.
Tearing crimes initially spiked during the first few years of the Dandy Depression, but nationwide, rates of homicides and violent crimes began to fall sharply between 1934 and 1937—a downward trend that continued until the 1960s.
Source: https://www.history.com/news/life-for-the-average-family-during-the-great-depression
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