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How Did The Great Depression Affect The Traditional Family

1474 Words6 Pages

KAA UPOL
May 2023
Linda Škodová

How did the Great Depression affect traditional family life in the USA in the 1930s?
This paper presents an argument that the general idea of a family was changed in the aftermath of the Great Depression. The essay is structured into paragraphs with each paragraph presenting supporting evidence for the argument. The data for this paper was collected through secondary sources and newspapers from the era found on online databases. Since each family was affected differently and some not at all, this paper only focuses on the ones who were hit the hardest and therefore their life was significantly changed throughout the era.
First, what we need is to look at how the typical household looked before the Wall Street …show more content…

Despite the huge percentage of unemployed people, the number of women in the workforce rose higher. Women were taking up jobs to support their families when their husbands lost jobs or if they could not afford to support their families anymore. While women in America were able to work before Great Depression , it was still an idea that was not fully supported by the public. If a husband lost his job and the only provider who could now bring money home was a woman, then the traditional family type is completely turned upside down. Since this situation was probably happening in a lot of households throughout the United States, the typical gender role in the family was significantly changed and therefore changing the concept of a family …show more content…

The typical American family has a nice house with a big garden, which is something entirely impossible during the Great Depression. It was already mentioned that people everywhere in the USA were losing their jobs and since many of them could not afford to pay their bills the only possible outcome was to lose their homes. Family either being homeless or moving across the country goes directly against the stability of families that America was proud to have before.
A major change in the well-being of the family is also mentioned in a book by historian Harvey Green. He mentions that the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash also saw a rise in domestic abuse percentage. Since the families were mostly struggling to survive, this proved a huge strain on the psyche of the population. That is not to say that domestic abuse never existed before or after this period, but only that this era saw a massive rise in this because of the situation in the country. Men at home who could not find work or who could not bring home enough money were taking out their frustrations on

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