Economic Necessity and the Life Cycle in the Family Economy of Nineteenth-Century Indianapolis

Abstract

The hypothesis that economic strategies (wives' employment, children's employment, and taking in boarders) were adopted out of necessity by working-class families and at the point in the family life cycle when need was greatest is tested on a sample of families living in Indianapolis from 1860 to 1880. Loss of husband's income led some wives to seek employment, but generally did not lead families to use other strategies. Middle-class families were as likely as working-class families to use economic strategies. Families did, however, make more use of economic strategies as they moved through the most financially stressful stage of the life cycle-when the largest number of children lived at home. Thus, all three economic strategies showed a rise-and-fall pattern as families moved through the life cycle.