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African American Families In The 19th Century

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In the 19th century and early 20th century, men would go to work for ten or twelve hours a day six days a week. Their wives were expected to work at home, and since family sizes were larger and there was no gas, electricity, home appliances, telephone, running water or indoor plumbing, housework much harder. Therefore, staying at home and taking care of the family and the home was a full-time job for women. Sometimes, women would earn money at home by taking in boarders. Sons were sent to school until they were twelve or fourteen and then put to work, the age was later raised to 16 as the necessity for education grew. Daughters either worked part-time for wages or at home with their mothers. All children, male or female, were expected to turn over their wages to their parents.
In the 1960s, the baby boom happened because men and women were so stable financially they did not see a problem with having many children in a short period of time. Men found it easy to get jobs straight out of highschool, were able to pay enough to support families and had job security.
However, at this time, life was very different for African American citizens. For African American families, men were not the only ones considered to be “breadwinners,” as women were always expected to work outside of the home. This caused …show more content…
As factory work moved overseas or onto computers, there lesser jobs available to sustain families. Also, attitudes changed towards living together or having children outside of marriage. These sharp economic changes put together with the sharp cultural changes caused the fall of the working class family. Cherlin believes that the working class family is only hanging on by a thread. In the 1950s, family was balanced for men and constraining for

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