
The weekend was created by a mixture of labor union strikes, religious accommodations, and also just capitalist economics. Sunday was the traditional Christian day of rest, but Jewish immigrants needed Saturday off for the Sabbath. Some employers like Henry Ford granted this to his employees, but it only became federally required in 1938 after frequent violent clashes between striking workers, private security forces, police officers, and National Guardsmen.
Ford actually hypothesized as well that lessening hours would reduce fatigue-related errors and actually increase overall productivity, he would regularly say, “Tired men build tired machine” But it was also so people could buy and use his products, it was the same reason he advocated for higher wages, it expanded his product’s market