The American family began to change in many ways throughout the 1920s.
How was family life changing?
What was causing the cultural shift of the nation?
In the year 1800, 95% of the US population lived in rural areas.
By 1920, only 50% of the country’s population was living in rural areas.
This means that drastic numbers of people were flooding into the nation’s cities.
This process of people moving into urban areas is known as urbanization.
Additionally, with the advent of the automobile, cities could begin to expand outward.
Gone were the days when a worker needed to live within walking distance of not only his
job, but also the marketplace and church.
The expansion and growth of cities into previously rural areas became known as “urban sprawl”.
Cities were not the only thing changing, though.
In the 1920s, the American family began to change as it never had before.
During World War I, many women had gone to work—taking factory jobs that were ordinarily
held by men.
Once the war was over, the men went back to work, but many women desired to keep working
as well.
Several factors occurred in the early 1920s that allowed this to happen.
An industrialized economy led to new working opportunities for women.
An increased need for record-keeping in plants and factories created positions for clerical
workers, filing clerks, typists, and secretaries.
Some women even broke with traditional gender roles and took jobs on the factory floor.
A plethora of time and labor-saving devices such as washing machines, electric irons,
vacuum cleaners, and refrigerators gave housewives enough additional free time that having a
job became a real possibility.
Other items such as canned goods, store-bought sliced bread, and factory-made clothing only
increased this available free time even more.
These were just some of the changes that helped over ten million women become part of the
workforce by 1930!
Women holding jobs was just the beginning of changes taking place in the American home.
Birthrates were dropping as well.
This meant that American families were getting smaller.
In 1916, Margaret Sanger opened America’s first birth control clinic, and in 1921 she
founded the American Birth Control League.
This helped Americans have much better access to information regarding various birth control
methods.
Children were also experiencing changes.
Child labor laws had largely done away with children working dangerous jobs in factories
and coal mines.
As a result, the number of students in public schools soared.
In 1914, there were only one million high school students in the United States.
By 1926 this number had grown to nearly four million.
This meant that, for the first time, children and adolescents were spending more time with
others their own age rather than adults who were training them to work.
Schools began to change as well.
Traditional subjects were still offered, but other courses were being presented.
For example, vocational training became available for those interested in pursuing industrial
jobs.
The increased enrollment, as well as the new courses, offered even more available jobs
for women, since teaching was largely seen as a female profession at the time.
Life for older teenagers changed too.
The increased use of automobiles allowed for greater mobility.
Teenagers began spending more time with friends and less time with families.
Young men and women could also enjoy a date in an automobile.
College increasingly became an option for young women.
This gave them an opportunity to not only have a job, but to strive towards a career.
Most women focused on traditionally female professions such as nursing or teaching.
However, others sought to become doctors and lawyers, helping to change the way Americans
thought of women.