THE LIFE OF THE MIDDLE CLASSThe life of the middle class was of great value during the 19th century industrialization era. You might be wondering why it’s of such great value? More middle class Americans income grew during this time, about 30%, more middle class families owned homes about 36%, and they also sought opportunities that they never had before such as no having to take care of household chores, the ability for them to rise their living standards and being able to desire material items and then able to go out and shop for them.
During the time of industrialization many men allowed their wives to have more independence. We can establish this because before many men believed they owned their wives and we all know they weren’t treated equally to men. Women during this time now were given more property rights, able to wear more comfortable clothing such as shirtwaist blouse and ankle-length skirt. But did they give them too much freedom, enough that will make them want more and more? Because of their new freedoms many joined organizations of all kinds. Women realized their talents and started contacting other people and problems outside of their own lives. Realizing their talents made them want more, so many set out to get jobs. Even though job opportunities were limited and didn’t pay well, many attempted to get one. By now many middle class women were accepted better in society. Education opportunities expanded ad by 1900 nearly 20% of women graduated from college. Advances in birth control fueled the fire of having fewer babies. About every 1 woman in 5 were childless which increased the man’s fear of decreasing family size and increase in divorces. Were women becoming less dependent on males? Many men despised of these new freedoms women had, many started campaigns and tried to reinforce traditional sex roles. Many men still believed women were not equal to men but where their enough women and men that believed they deserved equal rights to win the fight? I believe that men were scared of women developing all of these new freedoms and I think they were scared that one that they will over power men. Men believed they were in control because they were able to overpower women but giving women new freedoms took more control away from the men.
Females were not the only ones who changing so were the men. As the lower-class world became more specialized the number of middle-class men jobs increased. This comes back to the “poor man’s fight but a rich man’s battle,” they weren’t fighting a war but they were industrializing which would benefit the rich but would hurt the poor. Yeah the poorer people who get jobs but the conditions of those jobs and the hell it put them through was a fight for survival. An education was now required for many new careers that were now being developed. Poor class citizens were not able to go to school this long because their families needed help just making ends meant so this gave middle class people a chance to get more education and get better jobs. This caused the expansion of school from about 160 schools to 6,000 schools. This section talks a lot about new school forming and the people who helped make it possible, so pay close attention to who goes with what. The need for many new careers helped with the expansion of aw schools, medical schools, business schools and even dental schools. As businesses expanded, so did career opportunities. Even though many ranked a person by their family background and their social rank this didn’t stop people with good characters and diligent work habits like Rockefeller and Carnegie. But equal and unlimited opportunity for upward advancement in America has never been easy as it sounds, these lower class people had to work 20 times harder than a middle class or upper class man had too.
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