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Amy T Peterson, Valerie Hewitt, Heather Vaughan, et al

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by The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing Through American History 1900 to the Present (pdf)


  Thames and Hudson.

  Murrin, J. M., Johnson, P. E., McPherson, J. M., Gerstle, G., Rosenberg, E. S.,

  and Rosenberg, N. 2004. Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American

  People, Vol. 2 since 1863. Belmont, CA: Thomson.

  Olian, J., ed. 2003. Children’s Fashions 1900–1950: As Pictured in Sears Catalogs.

  Mineola, NY: Dover.

  Perrett, G. 1982. America in the Twenties, A History. New York: Simon and

  Schuster.

  Reeves, T. C. 2000. Twentieth Century America: A Brief History. Oxford: Oxford

  University Press.

  U.S. Census Bureau. 2001. Expectation of Life at Birth by Race and Sex, 1900–

  2001 HS-16.

  5

  The Individual and Family

  Families looked profoundly different from the beginning of the century to

  the end of the 1940s. In the first years of the century, marriage was seen

  as an ideal to which women aspired. Often, marriages were arranged by

  the parents. If they were not arranged, they still required the parents’ ap-

  proval. Divorce was scandalous, and if a young woman got pregnant, she

  was usually forced into marriage.

  Men’s and women’s roles in the 1900s were quite different. Men were

  seen as the breadwinners, whereas women were the keepers of the family’s

  virtue and morals. Women were expected to support and guide the family

  as the mother and wife, two roles that were held in high regard by society.

  Women began advocating for more rights, including the right to vote.

  Not all women agreed that their position should change, and there were

  frequent debates about the subject.

  Sexuality in the 1900s was rarely discussed, and, when it was, it was

  always done in private. Women were expected to suppress any sexual

  desires and never to have sex outside of marriage. Conversely, it was

  accepted when men had sex outside of marriage. As families sought to

  limit the number of children they had, they began seeking birth control

  methods but could rarely find reliable information.

  For children, the potential for illness was great and a source of fear for

  parents. Mothers had the responsibility of caring for their children’s

  health and their upbringing. Lower-class children often worked to

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  116

  THE INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY

  supplement their family’s income, and educational opportunities for girls

  were limited.

  The 1910s allowed women more freedom in choosing marriage part-

  ners. Many women chose to marry young, and, when WWI began, many

  couples rushed to the altar to keep the man from being drafted. During

  this period, women who held professional jobs, such as teachers, were

  expected to give up the job once they were married.

  Sex education and information was a common theme in the 1910s.

  Activists pushed for sex education in the public schools and more readily

  available information about birth control. There were many critics of

  these plans, so they were rarely implemented. Syphilis became a problem

  especially during WWI, when men would frequent brothels. White slav-

  ery, or forced prostitution, became a sensational topic and the impetus for

  legislation outlawing the practice.

  Young women began to have more choices in education. Although

  there had been many ‘‘finishing’’ programs available, professional programs

  for women grew in the 1910s. Activists took on the cause of child labor

  in the long fight to protect children from the often hazardous and fatigu-

  ing factory work in which many of them were employed.

  Women won the right to vote in 1920, and many of them chose to

  delay marriage and children. More often couples were choosing marriage

  for love over arranged marriages. Families became more affectionate and

  nuclear. Pregnancy was less of a risk, and families were eager to have more

  control over the spacing of their children. The divorce rate climbed as the

  social stigma of ending a marriage began to erode and the expectations of

  a loving marriage rose.

  People were more open about sexuality in the 1920s than they were in

  previous decades. The period was characterized by the sexually open flap-

  per who went to parties and night clubs unchaperoned. Cars provided a

  way for young couples to get away from the prying eyes of parents and

  chaperones.

  For children growing up in the 1920s, multigenerational households

  were less frequent. Grandparents lived in their own households, and older

  siblings moved out once they married or established themselves. More

  children attended school than in previous times.

  The Great Depression from 1929 to about 1941 colored the lives of

  many young couples and families. Marriages were often postponed or pre-

  ceded by long engagements. It was common for newly married couples to

  live with their parents to save on expenses. Multigenerational households

  became more common again, and women often picked up extra jobs to

  supplement the family’s income.

  The 1900s

  117

  In some ways, the Depression dampened people’s sexual appetites.

  Couples still engaged in premarital sex, and pregnancy continued to be a

  stimulus for marriage. The Hayes Code enforced a strict morality on

  motion

  pictures,

  which

  forced

  studios

  away

  from

  nudity

  and

  sensationalism.

  Despite the frugality and malnutrition of the Depression, people of

  the 1930s had a greater life expectancy than before. More children went

  to school and fewer of them worked.

  In the 1940s, the marriage rate increased in part because of the men

  who went off to serve in the war. Women held up the home front by

  working in factories and contributing to all of the government campaigns.

  The baby boom began as the war was ending.

  Sexual messages conflicted during the 1940s. Women were urged to

  avoid provocative dress when they worked in the factories. At the same

  time, servicemen ogled at scantily clad ‘ pinup’’ girls as motivation while

  overseas. Then the government issued literature to servicemen warning of

  the dangers of sexually transmitted disease.

  Children of the 1940s may have experienced the new child-rearing

  techniques espoused by Dr. Benjamin Spock. He exhorted parents to treat

  their children with affection, a strange notion to parents who were raised

  in an era when affection was thought to warp a child. Children partici-

  pated in the war effort just as their parents did. Adolescent boys enlisted

  in the services, and adolescent girls often married right after high school.

  T H E

  1900S

  MARRIAGE AND FAMILY

  Women in the early 1900s lived life much as their ancestors did. The lives

  of women who were born into wealthy families were somewhat easier

  than the lives of women born into poorer families, but all women tended

  to share some of the same problems.

  It was not uncommon for a girl to be married, sometimes against her

  will, at a very early age. Girls were, in some cases, considered a dra
in on

  the family’s budget. Boys were able to get jobs and produce income.

  Although some urban girls were forced to work almost as soon as they

  could walk, they rarely earned the salary that their brothers did. It was

  easier to marry them to a young man who wanted to start a family of his

  own. He, then, had the responsibility of caring for his wife.

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  THE INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY

  Marriage was part of the ideal for women. Divorce remained scandal-

  ous, but women found that marriage was not an equitable arrangement.

  Before 1900, many states would not allow women to own property in

  their own name. Any property they had became the husband’s property.

  Although the laws that allowed women to keep property were advances,

  there were other laws that reinforced their inferior position. In 1907, a

  law was passed that mandated that all women take on their husband’s

  nationality upon marriage. Women continued to struggle for equal rights.

  Girls from the upper-middle class and their wealthier sisters would be

  chaperoned when they reached a marriageable age. Group activities were

  the norm. ‘‘Proper’ young ladies were not to be alone with any male.

  Daughters were expected to marry a suitor of the parents’ choice. A lot of

  marriages were arranged many years before the young people were old

  enough to be interested in marriage. Marriages were to maintain or

  to improve the social standing of a family. Males were not expected to

  ‘ marry down,’’ but females were expected to ‘ marry up,’’ preferably to a

  man who had a good income. Few women were allowed any choice in

  their mate. The higher up the social ladder their parents were, the less

  choice a girl had in her marriage.

  The families of the working poor had few such restrictions. Many girls

  were allowed to meet a variety of eligible males, and the couple was fre-

  quently able to make their own decision about marriage. In many cases, a

  marriage might be ‘‘forced’ because the girl was pregnant, but a poor girl

  with a child and no husband did not have the same stigma that her

  wealthier sister would have in the same situation.

  A marriage proposal, once accepted, carried with it the force of a

  signed contract for the man. Once an announcement was made about

  a wedding, a man could not change his mind. Some states, usually in the

  south, had laws that would allow a man to be prosecuted for breaking an

  engagement. This was one situation in which women had more freedom

  than men because women could change their minds. Society, perhaps,

  granted a woman this option because she was usually forced to remain in

  a marriage once it was performed.

  Marriage for immigrant families was often difficult. Once a family

  had come to the United States, they not only had to earn a living, but

  they had to manage with a different set of social customs. Although

  women in the early 1900s might seem to have been restricted by the

  standards that were prevalent even sixty years later, they were freer than

  the women in Europe or Asia. Men and women who came to America

  learned that many of their cherished beliefs were not shared by their new

  country.

  The 1900s

  119

  An Asian woman, for example, would have learned not to look any

  man directly in the eyes. Possibly she would have learned to obey her Jap-

  anese husband in all matters. Once in America, she realized that her

  behaviors were not as limited as they had been in Japan. Other women

  who had been told since childhood that they had to accept their husband’s

  drunkenness or physical abuse learned that they had options. If a man was

  known to be physically violent or could not support his family because of

  alcoholism, a woman was permitted to divorce him. She might leave the

  area in search of a new life and call herself a widow, but it was an option

  that she would not have had in her native country.

  Blacks, after the Civil War, adopted most of the rules of the southern

  white culture. Women would get wedding dresses and follow the ‘‘tradi-

  tional’ southern wedding ceremony. Former slaves brought with them one

  tradition: that of stepping over a broom. The couple might have been

  married by a preacher, but the marriage was not really final until they

  stepped over a broom handle as they entered the house in which they

  would live. Some couples, especially in areas without a preacher, would

  simply step over the broom. Once it was known that a couple had done

  that, they were considered legally married.

  According to the accepted philosophy of the day, women’s work was

  primarily to produce and raise children; therefore, the lives of women

  deviated sharply from the lives of the men in their families. Women

  remained in the house, running the household and raising the children.

  The men would be expected to work outside the home. As fathers, men

  were supposed to establish the rules of the home and provide the financial

  support, but otherwise, men were not expected to have much to do with

  the daily operations of the household.

  Southern women were not supposed to need any skills other than

  managing a home and raising children. Occasionally, however, a woman’s

  husband would die or become unable to manage the work of a plantation.

  Women, somehow, were expected to step in and manage, and many

  women did. Some women, however, found they had so few skills that they

  would have to remarry or depend on some male to oversee the work of

  the plantation. Women who were able to assume the responsibilities of

  their dead or incapacitated husbands were allowed much more freedom

  than other women. Although some people still expected a woman to have

  a man be responsible for her, a widow was allowed more latitude than her

  single or married sisters.

  Men worked outside the home; therefore, they developed an extensive

  set of social contacts outside the home as well. Men generally engaged in

  leisure activities that excluded their wives and children. Men could engage

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  THE INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY

  in some sports, depending on where they lived and how old they were, or

  they could join men’s clubs and engage in whatever activities were accept-

  able for men in their community

  The concept that a woman’s life revolved around her house and home

  whereas her husband’s life revolved around his work and leisure activities

  tended to be more accurate for the urban middle classes, although there

  were exceptions to that rule. Most poor families had to put almost every-

  one to work to have enough money to pay the bills and buy food and

  clothing. The farther west one traveled, the less likely the woman’s role

  was very different from her husband’s. There was just too much work to

  do to tame the wilderness, and both men and women shouldered much of

  the work together.

  The one thing that did not seem to change for women, under most

  circumstances, was that the woman was responsible for the home and

  housekeeping. This included raising the children, keeping the house

  clean,
and ensuring that her husband was cared for and fed. Whereas

  women might have worked in factories or put their shoulders to a plow,

  men were never expected to feed the children or stir the cooking pot. This

  attitude began to change with the coming of the 1900s.

  By 1900, women had started organizations to make changes. Some

  women wanted the right to vote. Some women wanted more autonomy in

  their lives. Some women wanted nothing to do with suffrage but wanted

  to abolish liquor. Other women’s organizations had different agendas, but

  they all wanted change.

  The new millennium was being called the age of ‘‘the new woman.’’

  Depending on where one lived, that phrase had a variety of meanings, but

  as the decade developed, the phrase came to mean that women did not

  want to be the compliant, self-sacrificing mothers and wives that they had

  been in the past. Although many people advocated abolishing marriage

  totally, that was one of the more radical views and was never really accepted

  by the majority of men or women; however, it might have been discussed

  at length in some of the more liberal newspapers and magazines of the era.

  The industrialization of the workforce indirectly contributed to the

  changing views of morality. Technology and science had begun to make

  noticeable changes in people’s lives. As new products were developed and

  distributed, the nature of work began to change. Workers moved to urban

  areas and companies needed larger offices and a larger sales force. Bu-

  reaucracy was developed to help streamline production. Efficiency experts

  were creating new ways to increase production. Women entered the work-

  force as typists, phone operators, and office workers because they did not

  need to be paid as much as men. The mingling of men and women

  The 1900s

  121

  The Gibson Girl. Charles Dana Gibson

  young woman with soft, feminine fea-

  was a popular illustrator for magazines

  tures and hair arranged in a full pompa-

  and advertisements at the turn of the

  dour. His illustrations were so popular

  century. The ideal woman he created in

  that they were merchandised on a wide

  the 1890s continued to be extremely

  variety of items, including ashtrays,

  popular until WWI. He created pen

  fans, pillow covers, souvenir spoons, and

  and ink drawings of a wasp-waisted

 

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