“The old familiar relations between employers and employee
were passing. A few generations before the boss had known men by their first names, asked about the family and swapped jokes and stories with them. Today, you have the large factories, the personal touch is gone!”
-Theodore Roosevelt
Women's Roles Change Because of Urbanization
Women began to become independent during the Gilded Age as a result of urbanization. Women were no longer stuck at home with their only job being taking care of children and their home, instead they got jobs in factories and textile mills. During this time, women began to fight for their own equality. They began to fight for women's suffrage, forming the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Women were granted the right to vote in the Wyoming Territory, which was a huge strive for them. Women also became involved in the prohibition of alcohol and other forms of reform. They formed the Woman's Christian Temperance Union as well. Urbanization was the circumstance that women needed to break out of their former roles as homemakers, and to get out into the world. They could now make their voices heard and fight for their own rights, this was a positive outcome of urbanization, that helped further the women's rights movement.
Family Life Dwindles in the City
Previous to urbanization in the United States, families would live and work on farms. Children used to be extra hands to help with work around the farm, but in the city they were extra mouths to feed. Because of this, family size began to shrink and birthrates dropped. Couples also began to learn the techniques of birth control. Children and mothers began to work too, to make ends meet in the city. Families spent less time together as a result of spending a majority of time working. It was a very stressful time for families and many marriages ended in divorce. Making it even more important for women to work to support themselves and their children without a husband to help take care of things.
Child Labor
Urbanization sparked an increase in the use of children in the labor force. The costs of living in the city caused children to work like their mothers and fathers did. These children worked long hours at low pay. Children made far less than their parents, but were good for many jobs in factories because they were small.There were many dangers to this, seeing as they were children. But they worked to help put food on the table in their homes.
Poor Living Conditions
The rapid increase in the population of city workers created a need for more housing. Dumbbell tenements were part of an architectural plan for human warehouses to accommodate the large population of people in cities. In these dumbbell tenements, multiple families would live packed together on one floor, and share a single bathroom. Dumbbell tenements had very poor ventilation and were the epitome of poor living conditions. The over-populated cities with poor sanitation were definitely a negative result of urbanization in the United States. In these slums, poor families, mostly immigrants lived. There was a large amount of disease, pollution and a very high rate of infant mortality. Wealthy people would move out of these areas and into nicer ones to avoid overcrowding. This led to electric streetcars, commuter trains, and trolleys being used in cities.
American Literature
The changes caused by urbanization had an influence on American Literature during the Gilded Age.Three movements sparked as a result of urbanization: realism, naturalism and regionalism. Realism depicted how life really was during this time, instead of an image that was dreamed up in a writer's head. Naturalism dealt with the influence of social environment and heredity on a person's character. Regionalism captured the individuality of particular areas in the United States. These movements all analyzed the changes occuring in society and the change that had to be made to literature to reflect current events.
Farmers' Lives Change in the Gilded Age
Industrialization made it so that the United States was no longer purely agrarian. Farmers were now at the bottom of the economic ladder. Because of new expensive technology which ensued in debt, overproduction and deflation, farmers were left in the dust. They formed the Farmers' Alliance to work together, as well as the Grange to fight against their circumstances.