The Great Depression had a direct effect on the American family. Thousands of families were forced to give up much of what they owned, in hopes of holding onto a small portion of their livelihood. As families made due with less, fathers slowly lost status within the structure of the family. A father without a job often lost self-esteem, and self-respect. Without the spiritual and financial support of the father, many families split apart during the Great Depression.
As the dominance of the father figure slowly faded during the Depression, families began to depend more on the mother to support the family, not only morally and spiritually, but also financially. Some mothers' ability to economize was the difference between keeping food on the table, or allowing the family to starve. Traditional homecrafts such as canning vegetables, drying food, and sewing clothes were reinvented as mothers found new ways to provide for their families.
Women did not only run the households in some cases, but could often be found working outside the home. Jobs such as clerical and secretarial work that were specifically targeted towards women did not necessarily decline as rapidly as other jobs during the Great Depression. This allowed the role of women in the work place to expand.
In John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, Ma Joad delineates perfectly the expansion of the roles of women in the American family. The dominant male in the family, Pa Joad, represented the financial supporter, decision making head of the family. Pa Joad had a sense of responsibility for the well-being of his family. The strength of Pa was mirrored by his family; his strength was their strength:
And the women came out of the houses to stand beside their men - to feel whether this time the men would break. The women studied the men's faces secretly, for the corn could go, so long as something else remained...After a while the faces of the watching men lost their bemused perplexity and became hard and angry and resistant. Then the women knew that they were safe and that there was no break. [Page 6]
This passage shows the reliance families had on the fathers at the beginning of the Great Depression. Wives and children looked to their fathers in order to determine how they should act, or feel in a given situation. Pa Joad was the Joad family's security - their sense of safety.
However, this role slowly changed. Pa became unsure of himself, and felt wary of his actions. "[Pa] twisted his neck to look up at [Ma], and he was ashamed. Her tone had made him ashamed." Ma began to slowly support what Pa was too unsure to hold - the family. Ma's role as a power figure gave the Joad family hope staring through the intimidating glare of the Great Depression.Ma went into the house again. There was a screech of a lantern hood and the yellow light flashed up in the dark kitchen. When she lifted the lid of the big pot, the smell of boiling side-meat and beet greens came out the door. They waited for her to come back across the darkening yard, for Ma was powerful in the group.
Ma's powerful role in the Joad family is an illustration of the increased part women played in the affairs of their families, and in society during the great depression. Her support of the family, and strength under the pressure of America's economic depression allowed her family, like thousands of family across the country, to recover from the loss their families faced in the early years of the Great Depression.