After the Great Depression fell upon the United States in 1929, family roles and dynamics shifted in various ways. One of the most prominent changes in family life was the increasing number of mothers and women in working-class families becoming the dominant supporters in households. The types of positions that women traditionally held, such as "clerks, maids, and waitresses," were generally more resistant to the job-killing effects that the Great Depression had on factory jobs (Cohen 247). This is because service workers were still in high demand, while need for production workers largely decreased with lower income among consumers and therefore lower demand for the products they made. Additionally, women continuously worked for substantially lower wages than men did, making them cheaper to employ and more attractive to employers who wanted to maximize profits (Cohen 247). The simple fact that women could find work much easier than men meant most of the families' incomes were coming from the mothers' paychecks. Women then were required to take on the providing role for the family while also continuing to be the caretaker for herself and the children (Dubofsky 164).
While women experienced relative ease in finding work, men experienced the opposite (Cohen 246). With scarce opportunities in the manufacturing business, men couldn't simply shift to open positions that were thought as "women's jobs" at the time because of societal standards and personal pride. Because women had taken a more prominent role and often became the chief breadwinner of the family, men began to feel robbed of their masculinity and "rightful" place at the top of the family hierarchy (Cohen 247). This initiated a variety of mental and emotional issues in a number of cases, and led to the deterioration of marriages and family bonds. Women refused to take their old submitting roles and children lost respect for their fathers due to the failure they experienced (Cohen 248). "1.5 million married women [were] abandoned by their husbands," during this period when men left families due to shame or the quest to find a job elsewhere (Seasons 10).
Unemployment or absence of fathers and reduced income forced children into a more responsible and active role within the family. While the 1920s' mass culture encouraged children to go out and see movies with friends, buy popular new clothes on credit, and enter the workforce later in life, the Great Depression pushed these luxuries aside and introduced a new, harsh reality for many young people (Cohen 144, 249). This is significant within family life, because children simply needed to mature faster and skip out on the leisure of childhood in order for families to survive. Fortunately, they too were able to find and hold jobs with more ease than their fathers could (Cohen 247).
Prior to the Great Depression in the post-World War I period, families often relied on institutions in their communities- churches, family-owned grocery stores, banks, and other organizations- for support in times of need and for additional figures of authority to guide their lives (Cohen 249). These often ethnically-based community institutions not only reinforced the strengths of individual families, but linked each household to others who shared similar backgrounds. Neighborhoods were sectioned off in racially and ethnically divisive areas (Cohen 21). This meant that instead of family life being restricted to simply immediate families, communities and the supportive institutions they contained became almost a unified extended family.
After the Great Depression hit, when these organizations could no longer sustain themselves, let alone the families who depended on them, it created a much more substantial shock to the lives of working-class families than would have occurred as the result of a financial crisis alone (Cohen 249). This sparked a large shift in the way families operated. They could no longer look to religious leaders, employers, owners of ethnically-centered businesses in the community, or even their own husbands and fathers for guidance and security. Additional pressure and responsibility were placed upon each member of the family, because in reality, they now had no one to depend on but themselves.
Amidst the changes in familial life during the interwar years in the United States, a transformation in work life was simultaneously occurring. In the late 1930s, national industrial unions began to finally experience victories and successes in achieving better working conditions and wages on a large scale (Dubofsky 187). While individual successes and sporadic wins occurred as a result of unionism before this time, various attempts to organize at a national level, such as in the case of the AFL in 1935, had previously failed (Dubofsky 187). The Committee on Industrial Organization (CIO), however, was able to create real change and unify effectively, with its first big win in 1937 over the Flint, Michigan General Motors plant (Dubofsky 187).
The CIO led to a variety of shifts in work life for many working-class families. Their success was driven mainly by their openness towards people of all races, ages, genders, locations, and trades (Dubofsky 187). This prevented a "divide and conquer" strategy from working for employers (Cohen 292). With everyone's interests consolidated under one system of leadership, people's demands were concentrated and used against the immense power of the employers. The CIO, recognized strength in numbers, and valued higher membership density over differences that had previously kept workers in separate groups and allowed opponents to crush union efforts (Cohen 292).
Integration of people from many different groups also led to an increase in the sense of community and common ground that all union members shared, which propelled unions towards success. Racial and ethnic tensions and inequalities in gender and age were dwarfed by the overwhelming hardships and outrage people felt as a result of the Great Depression (Cohen 324). This shows work life had shifted from being ethnically centered- with people living in segregated towns and people of one ethnicity working in the same factory- to being unified and more Americanized. Even the mass culture of the 1920s had failed to do this; instead, it reinforced ethnic lines and bonded people within communities (Cohen 138). A satisfactory and fair work life was so vital to the happiness and livelihood of workers that it evoked a strong enough passion to break down barriers and defeat the overwhelming power of corrupt employers.
Changes in work life and relationships between employees, employers, and the government were also caused by the upheaval of the paternalistic employer system that had developed before the Great Depression. During the 1920s, workers kept a distance from government when it came to seeking solutions for labor issues (Cohen 254). They felt that a combination of reliance on community institutions and welfare capitalism from employers provided enough assistance to make necessary changes in the workplace. Under welfare capitalism, employers "attempted to gain their workers' loyalty through company furnished benefits" such as medical care, home ownership aid, and pension plans (Dubofsky 154, 160, 161)
As previously mentioned, however, community organizations crumbled when the Great Depression hit, and could no longer offer social support. Welfare capitalism also disappeared with the introduction of the New Deal by the government in the mid-1930s (Cohen 267). With the government initiating programs such as Social Security and passing the Wagner Act, previous welfare capitalist employers no longer saw a need to cover social protections for workers or give them any unnecessary benefits that may have reduced profits. For these reasons, laborers increasingly turned to the government to aid them in their fight for better conditions and wages and support them with services, securities, and job opportunities (Cohen 267).
Work life began to change in the way that workers viewed their jobs and duties. Previously, putting in a hard day's work and personally earning one's living was a highly valued quality that a person must fulfill in order to be considered respectable (Cohen 270). After the introduction of New Deal benefits and social programs, however, workers views shifted. The government, specifically FDR in some cases, became the providing figure for workers in need instead of welfare capitalist employers. Many believed they were entitled to relief and handouts, and became angry when they felt the government wasn't doing enough to support them (Cohen 272). Hard work and physical labor became less important in the eyes of workers, and the ultimate end result of receiving a living any way a person could took higher precedence. Workers gained a bolder attitude and were not so hesitant to voice their concerns.
Often, workers felt that the assistance and New Deal programs provided by the government still did not create a satisfactory situation in the workplace. Problems with "wage cuts, total disregard for seniority in layoffs and rehiring, and deterioration in benefits" still plagued the lives of laborers (Cohen 292). Despite the passage of the Wagner Act and National Industrial Recovery Act by the government, employers continued to try to deny workers the rights to unionize and collectively bargain (Cohen 292). The combination of new government support and continued injustice from employers ignited a spark within laborers that led to a major shift in work life of the 1930s: Increased union activity and success.
While the CIO was fueled in success by its policy of inclusion and integration of all people, it was also helped by this heightened dissatisfaction with the state of labor relations with individuals who may not have previously felt they could do anything about it. Much of the CIO's power can be attributed to the immense numbers of "rank and file" workers who joined unions in the late 1930s (Cohen 313). These people were not afraid to participate in union activities like shut-down and slow-down strikes, because they knew they had strength in numbers and the legal support of the government to back them (Cohen 307).
Workers during this time period did eventually achieve a moderate level of "industrial democracy." Complete industrial democracy is a virtually unattainable goal, in that employers and business owners will never base business decisions solely on the wishes of each worker. This would contradict the basis of the capitalist system. During the interwar period, however, workers and unions obtained enough of a voice and say in matters of labor that they often had tangible power in the workplace. Because they now had government backing with legislation such as the Wagner Act, workers could use legal leverage to pressure employers without fear of punishment (Dubofsky 187). Instead of employers being able to act as dictators over workers, now labor relations worked more like a democracy, with employers and workers having an almost equal share in decision making.
A possible reason for this success in industrial democracy aside from the factors leading to the strength of unions is a shift in overall goal of the workers regarding capitalism. Previously, many unions and political parties aimed to overthrow or do away with capitalism completely (Cohen 315). This was too radical of a goal to realistically achieve in the face of powerful corporations and more conservative politicians. Near the late 1930s, however, unions began to seek only to change and alter certain parts of the capitalist system in order to make it more "moral" instead of completely replacing it (Cohen 315). Unions aimed towards goals such as "equal pay for equal work; the end to job discrimination on the grounds of age, race or sex, and seniority in place of favoritism (Cohen 315)." This seemed more reasonable, and facilitated compromises between both sides.
Although workers could never have the lone say in the way labor relations played out, they did succeed in achieving an unprecedented amount of say over the actions and practices of employers and working conditions during the late years of the interwar period. Over two decades, work life changed to include more flexible relationships between the American government, companies, and employees, thanks to more passionate and unified union members and leaders. Through the hardships of unemployment and the collapse of community support structures, family dynamics transformed and adapted to fit the new society the Great Depression created. The period between World War I and World War II ultimately initiated the change into modernization and national unification that our country holds today, and introduced many of the workers' rights and social protections that we now take for granted.
The Interwar Period in the United States:
Transformations at Work and Home
