20th Century Name: ________________________ Ms. Shen

Changes in Everyday Life in the 1920s

How did people spend their t ime in the 1920s and how did that di f f er f rom decades be fore?

I. Work a. Work week shrunk

i. ____ to ____ days for industrial workers ii. White collar workers worked a ______ hour week and had the weekends off

b. Annual vacations become a standard benefit for white collar workers II. Family

a. Family size decreased between 1920-1930 i. ____________________ more widely used

1. In the 1870s-1880s, more than 50% women who lived to age 50 had 5+ kids. By the 1920s, only 20% had 5+ kids.

b. _____________ rate rose (1920 1 in 7.5 marriages ended in divorce but by 1929, 1 in 6 marriages end in divorce (cities were higher.))

c. Adults devoted less time to raising kids d. Household Management

i. Spend less time at home producing household necessities – WHY?

ii. Wives still work long hours cleaning, cooking, caring for kids but machines made job easier. For example?

iii. Housewives use time differently – modern technology made life easier but also put new

demands on time. Why was this?

iv. Changing eating habits – HOW SO?

v. Overall, Americans in the 1920s were healthier than ever before 1. Better diets and shorter workdays 2. Life expectancy increased from ______ to ______ (between 1920-1930) 3. Infant mortality rate decreased by 2/3 4. Less life-threatening diseases (sanitation, research, nutrition)

III. Leisure

a. The growth of old age homes, public health clinics, and workers compensation reduced family responsibilities even more. Combined with shorter work weeks/hours and increased wages – gave Americans more time to relax and enjoy themselves.

b. 1920s saw the development of a __________ culture in which leisure pursuits played a key role in transmission of shared cultural values.

i. Movies ii. Sports arenas iii. Speakeasies iv. Dance halls and dance marathons v. Radio and popular songs vi. Fads – FOR EXAMPLE?

Changing Manners and Morals

I. There were a number of different reactions to the post-war era a. Some embrace life and live for the here and now b. Others chose to hold tightly to tradition and small-town morals

II. Why this change in manner and morals? Why then?

a. Returning ________________ brought new styles and habits home

b. Changes in family unit and values

i. More women out of the home working – less time to raise kids and manage house ii. Child labor laws and compulsory attendance laws kept kids in school longer than before.

More kids also finished high school & went on to college in the 1920s. Result: ___________ play a bigger role in socializing kids than ever before.

c. Advances in communications rapidly spread the emerging new culture vii. phonographs / record players viii. radio = by 1922, 500 stations existed (music, news, sports, religious services) ix. movies = talkies started in 1927 and by 1930, 100+ million movie tickets bought each

week x. chain stores = supermarkets, fast food xi. advertising = products become synonymous with brand names, convince people that they

need to buy new products III. Breaking social conventions – changing social values

a. New habits and values – exposed to new influences

i. Flappers and Bootleggers ii. Free relations between men and women as both sexes began defying social conventions.

1. FOR EXAMPLE? (Evidence of the more relaxed relationship between men and women?)

b. Changing fashions

i. _____________ become a means of self-expression, women wear more revealing clothing, makeup, shorter hair styles for women (style known as the _______ was popular.)

ii. Note: women’s behavior was still judged more strictly than men’s by society (they faced conflicting social pressure to adopt new standards of behavior while still adhering to old ones)