How Were American Families Affected by the Great Depression

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- and working-class families. As the economy boomed, new innovations allowed for more leisure fourth dimension and the creation of a consumer society. Just the economic low that followed those benefaction years profoundly affected the daily life of American families, in means large and small.

Even the affluent faced severe belt-tightening.
Iv years later on 1929 stock market crash, during the bleakest point of the Great Depression, almost a quarter of the U.S. workforce was unemployed. Those that were lucky enough to take steady employment frequently saw their wages cutting or their hours reduced to office-fourth dimension.

Fifty-fifty upper-middle class professionals, such equally doctors and lawyers, saw their incomes drib by every bit much as 40 pct. 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 information technology up, wear it out, brand do or do without." Many tried to keep upward appearances and conduct on with life as shut to normal as possible while they adjusted 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 buying of a home or automobile.

A mother serving dinner in the clean environment of a Farm Security Administration campsite in Visalia, California, 1939. (Credit: Bettmann Annal/Getty Images)

Potlucks and 'thrift gardens' were the norm.
Women'south magazines and radio shows taught Depression-era homemakers how to stretch their food budget with casseroles and ane-pot meals. Favorites included chili, macaroni and cheese, soups, and chipped beef on toast.

Potlucks, oftentimes organized past churches, became a pop way to share food and a cheap grade of social amusement.

Many families strived for cocky-sufficiency past keeping small kitchen gardens with vegetables and herbs. Some towns and cities allowed for the conversion of vacant lots to community "thrift gardens" where residents could abound food.

Between 1931 and 1932, Detroit's thrift garden program provided nutrient for virtually 20,000 people. Experienced gardeners could be seen helping old office workers—nevertheless dressed in white button-downwardly shirts and slacks—to cultivate their plots.

Children playing cards in the front chiliad in Washington, DC, 1935. (Credit: Smith Drove/Gado/Getty Images)

Board games and miniature golf game courses thrived.
The average American family didn't have much extra income to spend on leisure activities during the 1930s. Before the Depression, going to the motion-picture show theater was a major pastime. Fewer Americans could afford this luxury later on the stock market place crashed—and so more than than one-third of the cinemas in America closed between 1929 and 1934.

Oftentimes, people chose to spend time at dwelling. Neighbors got together to play cards, and lath games such equally Scrabble and Monopoly—both introduced during the 1930s—became popular.

The radio also provided a free course of amusement. By the early 1930s, many centre form families endemic a home radio. One-act programs such as Amos 'n' Andy, lather operas, sporting events and swing music distracted listeners from everyday struggles.

Mini-golf game became a Low-era craze. More than 30,000 miniature golf links sprang up beyond the country during the 1930s. Prices ranged from 25 to 50 cents per round.

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 adding 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 so many men were out of work, though women oftentimes took clerical or service industry positions that weren't seen as socially acceptable for men at the time.

Women establish work as secretaries, teachers, telephone operators and nurses. But in many cases, employers paid women workers less than their male person counterparts.

Families on government support were less stigmatized.
The New Deal programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt meant the expansion of government into people'southward everyday lives after 1933. Many Americans received some level of fiscal aid or employment as a result of New Deal programs.

Prior to the Slap-up Depression, most Americans had negative views of regime welfare programs and refused to go on welfare. In some towns, local newspapers published the names of welfare recipients.

While attitudes toward government help began to change during the Dandy Low, going on welfare was still viewed as a painful and humiliating experience for many families.

A family of migrant workers in Blythe, California, 1936. (Credit: Dorothea Lange/Getty Images)

Economical hardship caused family breakdowns.
The stress of financial strain took a psychological price—especially on men who were suddenly unable to provide for their families. The national suicide rate rose to an all-time loftier in 1933.

Marriages became strained, though many couples could not afford to separate. 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's divorce."

It'southward estimated that more than than two million men and women became traveling hobos. Many of these were teens who felt they had get a burden on their families and left home in search of work.

Riding the track—illegally hopping on freight trains—became a mutual, yet dangerous style to travel. Those traveling the country in search of piece of work ofttimes camped in "Hoovervilles," shantytowns named after Herbert Hoover, president during the early years of the Corking Low.

Crime was mythologized, merely this was largely hype.
Famous outlaw duo Bonnie and Clyde went on a two-year bankrobbing spree across America, while in New Jersey, famous aviator Charles Lindbergh's toddler son was abducted, held for ransom and and so murdered.

High-contour events like these, broadcast through radio announcements and in paper headlines, contributed to a sense of lawlessness and crime in the Bully Low, stoking fears that hard times had created a crime wave. But this was more hype than reality.

Fierce crimes initially spiked during the first few years of the Great Depression, but nationwide, rates of homicides and tearing crimes began to fall sharply betwixt 1934 and 1937—a downward trend that continued until the 1960s.

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Source: https://www.history.com/news/life-for-the-average-family-during-the-great-depression

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