Question

what key social economic and technological changes of the 1920s affected women marriages and family life?

Answer 1

Mechanization and industrialization are clearly the most dominant factors. In the first place, the general deployment of running water, sewer lines, electricity, and appliances generally revolutionized labor. When she first married my grandmother had to shovel a ton of coal every week from the street into the cellar. As a young girl in the 20s she earned good money on sewing machine. One result of labor-saving mechanization is the shrinking of the household: it was no longer necessary for a house to consist of 6-8 members -- family, servants -- in order to function. One might surmise this reduced the executive authority and social stature of the female head of household.

Industrialization also meant increasing numbers of men worked in factory jobs, for wages, rather than on farms or in small proprietorships (a trend that had been well under way for 50 years by the 20s). This would lead to increasing separation between male and female heads of families (early working conditions mimicked, foolishly, farm working hours, and a common pattern was 6 days of 12-hour shifts), as well as an increased reliance on cash purchase of family necessities -- which would increasingly be in the immediate control of the man. Both issues would have driven a wedge between male and female heads of household, and forced a re-evaluation of the (generally unspoken) nature of the marriage contract.