APUSH 6.10 - Development of the Middle Class

Expanding Middle Class

• Industrialization caused a wealth gap

• Higher paying specialist jobs

• Education created more opportunities

  • White-collar professionals

  • Middle management → people who work in factories but don't get their hands dirty - more distribution of wealth and power

• More leisure time

  • Disposable income

  • Entertainment

Working Women

• 20% of women were in the workforce → many companies also liked to hire women because they had to pay them less, were basically able to bully women because they were considered to be less "industrious" - tried to keep women from talking, tried to lock doors of factories to stop women from socializing (going to cause problems)

  • Young and single → feminized occupations, secretaries, teachers, salespeople in female departments, telephone operators

  • Only 5% of married women worked → numbers were higher in the city, but more opportunity for women than ever before

• Education brought increased opportunity → some people started to become professionals, experts in the field

  • Doctors, professors, lawyers

• Feminized Occupations

  • Nursing, teaching, secretarial

• Extension of the home → women were typically employed in places that were seen as extensions of the home

  • Textiles

  • Food industry

• Less prestige and lower salary → secretary vs administrative assistant

Urban Development

• Higher incomes moved to suburbs

• Affordable land

• Inexpensive transportation

• Reduction in building costs

• Ethnic and racial prejudice

• Privacy and space

• Middle Class status

Private vs. Public City

• Who was responsible for cleaning cities → people don't want to come home after a long day and clean a place they don't even own. Public City starts to come to fruition in the private city vs public city debate, especially as political machines are exposed

  • Disease, crime, sanitation

  • Lighting and utilities

• City Beautiful Movement

  • Tree lined streets

  • Public parks

  • Cultural attractions

• Architecture

  • Home Insurance Building in Chicago

  • Louis Sullivan 

  • Frederick Law Olmsted