Generational Differences

2 Pages 574 Words

In the early 20th century, a married woman’s leisure was almost non-existing. They were very confined to their tenement because of household chores, cooking, cleaning, and child care; sometimes they had boarders or did laundry in their homes also. They spent a lot of time decorating their homes because that’s where they spent most of their time. Many of them might get some time to socialize with other women during their chores, mostly talking about gossip, hardly any real fun. Married women had no resources for leisure. Their husbands spent what they wanted before turning the rest over to the household. The women received no spending money. Of the rare times that the whole family decided to do something together it usually didn’t cost little to nothing. On those rare times it usually wound up just being more work for the mother.
On the other hand, working-class girls loved their leisure time and felt that is was a right, especially those born in America. The most common places where working-class girls went for leisure was dancehalls, cheap theaters, amusement parks, picnic grounds and in the streets. Socializing in the street was the easiest form of leisure because it was free and there was little supervision. The apartments were very small and the there was no privacy, so the streets were filled with working class people. Social clubs had a big following also. They seemed to be primarily social and were called ‘pleasure clubs’ to differentiate from serious clubs or benefit aid societies. The women got a chance to gossip and they usually held a dance after their meetings. The working class women were very concerned with the clothes they wore when going out. Sometimes they would go with out food or walk home from work just to save enough money to afford nice clothes so they can go out.
The changes in labor were one main reason that the change between generations became so evident. Young women had more ...