family pressure in great depression Essay -- essays research papers

1. Family pressure during the great depression was unlike any the U.S. has ever seen. Everything about families changed in the 1930s. Couples during the depression delayed marriage, and at the same time the divorce rates dropped because people could not afford to pay for two households. Birthrates also dropped and for the first time in American history below the replacement level. Income was closed to none in all families; regular income had dropped by 35% just in the years Hoover was in office. Families had a lot of stress; some pulled together and made do with what they had others pushed away. People turned to who ever they had, family, friends, and after all else the government. Although there were rich people in the depression as well that the depression did not effect at all who were oblivious to the people suffering around them. By Franklin Roosevelt’s inauguration the unemployment rate was up to 25% only increasing till the 1940s. Within families the role played changed as well. Women and children were now working to put bread on the table. Fathers would despise sons for becoming the main source of income for a family. Unemployed men had a deep lack of self respect. That often led them to running away from there families forever. Because many men ran out or stopped caring the women’s role was enhanced and became working women. Black women found it easier to find work a servants, clerks, textiles, workers, ect. Work made all women’s status go up in their homes. Most mi...