Middle Class Research Paper

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Pages: 2

The social classes of New York around 1832 began to change drastically with the introduction of a need for specialized labor and advancements in the need for manufactured goods. The social and economical revolution that made way for a wage-earning class also brought with it a defined middle class as well. Prior to the 19th century society was composed of a “middling rank” that was controlled by assiduous artisans, with no economic luxuries, and was not very well segregated from the lower ranks of the social structure. By the time the mid 19th century rolled around, there was a revolution affecting the connection between manual and nonmanual labor forces. This revolution led to the creation of a “white collar, suburbanizing middle class” with …show more content…
According to Mary Ryan’s study of Utica, NY the principal of middle class self-definition was the “ideal of domesticity”. In the early 19th century the economic revolution separated the workplace and home and brought about the notion of separate female and male provinces of doings. Women came to be associated distinctively with the home and domesticity, while men were associated with work outside the home and entrenched in the public sphere. In the process of assembling and adopting an idiosyncratic identity, the middle class purified the home, motherhood, and domestic values. Women presumed the head role in child rearing, mainly because women were observed as morally and spiritually grander than men. A new conception of family appeared as an increase of native-born, middle class families began to limit the number of children they were having, and kept them home longer to ensure their moral and instruction of middle class values. Also, to provide the children with as much formal education as possible to guarantee their success in entering the ranks as nonmanual wokers. Lastly, parents encouraged sons to delay marriage until they had established themselves steadfastly in the middle