The Impact of the Great Depression on Family Life in the United States Resulted in:

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 heart- and working-class families. As the economy boomed, new innovations immune for more leisure time and the creation of a consumer society. Simply the economic low that followed those boon years profoundly afflicted the daily life of American families, in ways big and small.

Even the affluent faced severe chugalug-tightening.
4 years after 1929 stock marketplace crash, during the bleakest signal of the Great Depression, almost a quarter of the U.S. workforce was unemployed. Those that were lucky enough to have steady employment ofttimes saw their wages cutting or their hours reduced to part-time.

Even upper-center class professionals, such every bit doctors and lawyers, saw their incomes driblet by as much as forty percent. Families who had previously enjoyed economic security suddenly faced fiscal instability or, in some cases, ruin.

The average American family lived past the Depression-era motto: "Use it up, wear information technology out, brand do or do without." Many tried to keep up appearances and carry on with life as close to normal as possible while they adjusted to new economical circumstances.

Households embraced a new level of frugality in daily life. They kept kitchen gardens, patched worn-out apparel and passed on trips to the movies as they privately struggled to retain buying of a domicile or car.

A female parent serving dinner in the clean surroundings of a Farm Security Assistants camp in Visalia, California, 1939. (Credit: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

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

Potlucks, oft organized by churches, became a popular way to share food and a inexpensive form of social amusement.

Many families strived for cocky-sufficiency by 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 grow food.

Between 1931 and 1932, Detroit's thrift garden program provided nutrient for about xx,000 people. Experienced gardeners could exist seen helping former office workers—still dressed in white push button-downwards 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 have much actress income to spend on leisure activities during the 1930s. Earlier the Low, going to the movie theatre was a major pastime. Fewer Americans could afford this luxury later on the stock market crashed—so more than 1-third of the cinemas in America airtight betwixt 1929 and 1934.

Frequently, people chose to spend fourth dimension at domicile. Neighbors got together to play cards, and board games such equally Scrabble and Monopoly—both introduced during the 1930s—became pop.

The radio also provided a complimentary form of entertainment. By the early 1930s, many centre grade families owned a habitation radio. Comedy programs such as Amos 'n' Andy, lather operas, sporting events and swing music distracted listeners from everyday struggles.

Mini-golf game became a Depression-era craze. More than than xxx,000 miniature golf links sprang up beyond the country during the 1930s. Prices ranged from 25 to l cents per circular.

Workers at a push button manufacturing plant in New York, circa 1935. (Credit: FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Women entered the workforce in increasing numbers.
Some families maintained a heart-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 and then many men were out of piece of work, though women often took clerical or service industry positions that weren't seen as socially acceptable for men at the time.

Women found work as secretaries, teachers, telephone operators and nurses. Just 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's everyday lives after 1933. Many Americans received some level of financial assistance or employment every bit a issue of New Deal programs.

Prior to the Swell Depression, near Americans had negative views of government welfare programs and refused to go along welfare. In some towns, local newspapers published the names of welfare recipients.

While attitudes toward regime aid began to change during the Nifty Depression, going on welfare was still viewed every bit a painful and humiliating experience for many families.

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

Economic hardship caused family breakdowns.
The stress of fiscal strain took a psychological toll—peculiarly on men who were suddenly unable to provide for their families. The national suicide rate rose to an all-time high in 1933.

Marriages became strained, though many couples could not beget to separate. Divorce rates dropped during the 1930s though abandonments increased. Some men deserted their families out of embarrassment or frustration: This was sometimes chosen a "poor homo's divorce."

Information technology's estimated that more than than ii million men and women became traveling hobos. Many of these were teens who felt they had go a brunt on their families and left domicile in search of piece of work.

Riding the rail—illegally hopping on freight trains—became a common, yet dangerous mode to travel. Those traveling the land in search of work often camped in "Hoovervilles," shantytowns named subsequently Herbert Hoover, president during the early on years of the Swell Depression.

Crime was mythologized, but this was largely hype.
Famous outlaw duo Bonnie and Clyde went on a 2-year bankrobbing spree beyond America, while in New Jersey, famous aviator Charles Lindbergh'south toddler son was abducted, held for ransom and and so murdered.

Loftier-profile events like these, circulate through radio announcements and in newspaper headlines, contributed to a sense of lawlessness and offense in the Great Low, stoking fears that hard times had created a criminal offence wave. But this was more hype than reality.

Violent crimes initially spiked during the offset few years of the Swell Low, but nationwide, rates of homicides and violent crimes began to fall sharply between 1934 and 1937—a downward trend that connected until the 1960s.

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