Society has always painted the picture of a “traditional” woman: stay home, raise the children, keep the house, be nurturing, and in a multitude of ways, contribute to American society. However the 1920’s marked the birth
During WWII to most men were drafted to join the military. This some what forced many women to take on the jobs most held by men at the time. When the Baby Boom happened, many Americans viewed this as a chance to get women back as household keepers. Many magazines at the time promoted sending women back to housewives. They would post articles like “Cooking To Me Is Poetry” and “Femininity Begins At Home”.
The television, air-conditioning, dishwasher, and cheaper phone calls and air travel all made life easier (Foner, 728). The “postwar baby boom” caused a large demand for “housing, television sets, home appliances, and cars” (Foner, 739). Automobiles became an essential part of daily life, causing a trend of “motels, drive-in movie theaters, and roadside eating establishments” (Foner, 740). During WWII, women had a vital role in working during the war; in 1955, the tendency continued and a higher amount of women worked than during the war. However, the motives were different in that the purpose was no longer “to help pull it out of poverty or to pursue personal fulfillment or an independent career” (Foner, 742).
Gender roles were reasserted in 1950s America postwar. Even if there was an increase in divorce rates popular culture and mythology upheld hetronormative marriage as a key to spiritual, financial and spiritual success. In the 1950s, the term “containment” referred to the foreign policy-driven containment of communism and atomic proliferation. In Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (1988)
During the 1950s, gender roles were known as “stereotypical”, which they are compared to now. According to Life magazine in 1956, “The ideal modern woman married, cooked and cared for her family, and kept herself busy by joining the local PTA and leading a troop of Campfire Girls. She entertained guests in her family’s suburban house and worked out on the trampoline to keep her size 12 figure.” There are even newspapers about what women are supposed to do for their husbands,
Women throughout history have always been oppressed. They were thought of as objects to create families and keep the husband happy. This began to change when women started to argue for more rights in the 1800’s. It still took many years for women to receive equal rights though. In 1920 women in America were finally granted suffrage, meaning the right to vote.
Research Paper Draft: How have women's roles changed from 1940s to 2000s? Katrina Bauers When Hitler invaded Poland from the west, France and Britain declared war on Germany and began World War Two. America entered the war when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The United States instituted the Selective Training and Service act of 1940 which required all men between the ages of 21 and 45 to register for the draft.
The context of the changing roles of women between the periods of 1890-1920 and 1960-1980 are voting rights and equal pay in the workplace. Women's roles have changed a lot over the many years women have gone from being housewives to working in the factories. The roles of women changed from 1890-1920 to 1960-1980 and one of the big changes from 1890 to 1980 is women's voting rights because women couldn't vote in 1890 but they could in 1980. Another one is women in the workforce because in 1890 women were expected to provide for their homes and not work but by 1980 most women worked.
In the 1950’s, church attendance was at its peak, everyone was rushing to get back to their homes, marry their high school sweethearts, move out to the suburbs, and have children. Somewhere in this mix women as individuals were forgotten again. During the war they were given freedoms and luxuries that today people may scoff at but at the time seemed important. The church played an important role in insuring that women went back to their lives and worked to idealize women into believing that their former roles is all they could play nay all they ever wanted in life. The Jewish people have a prayer that is a clear symbol of the historical treatment of women it thanks God for not making them a women.
The 1960s saw more and more women entering the workforce (moreso than in the 1920s), changing the dynamic within families. With more working mothers, fathers were called upon to play a more integral role in the function of the household (Potter, n.d.). In 1960, birth control was legalized (Potter, n.d.), giving women even more control over their family structure and lifestyle they chose to
Since the beginning of time women have had different roles than men. Women have been the ones to take care of the family in the home and men have been the ones to take care of the financial needs. In the 20’s women began to realize that they were worth more than a housewife and began to change their roles. Women had to fight for their rights to change roles, leading up to events that show their determination for suffrage, and their right to work and be whomever they wanted to be. Women were not given their roles and a question asked is, “Why did they have to fight for them?”
The breadwinner-homemaker family, the norm since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, is being replaced by a new norm of diversity” (Schulte). Family life in the 1950s is one of the most looked back upon generations, because it was so closely following the second World War, and was the beginning of the Baby Boomer generation. Because a lot of the soldiers were returning from the war to their wives to have children, the
Roles of men and women in my cultural group were very much set back in the earlier 1900’s. Men were the head of the household, they went to work, made the money, and supported the house. The women took care of all the household duties including, cleaning, cooking, and taking care of the children. Women did not go out and work if they were married. Before they married they could work to help provide income for the household, but once they found a husband they could not longer have a job.
During the 1960s the Women’s movement began to build progress, giving women higher status. Women were encouraged to be more confident and independent within their working and living environments. As a result, divorce rates increased, because “when women no longer depend on men for status and income, they are less likely to stay in unsatisfying marriages” (Clarke-Stewart and Brentano 10). This movement is just one cause that affected societal change. During the era, everything in the United States was being questioned, from personal values, to marriage and even other institutions.
Raisin in the Sun: Gender Roles Defied Following the event of World War Two, America during the 1950s was an era of economic prosperity. Male soldiers had just returned home from war to see America “at the summit of the world”(Churchill). Many Americans were confident that the future held nothing other than peace and prosperity, so they decided to start families. However, the 1950s was also a time of radical changes. Because most of the men in the family had departed to fight in the war, women were left at home to do the housework.
