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Women's Role in the 1950s: Conformity & Housewife Image

Explore women's position in the 1950s, from WWII employment to societal pressures shaping the ideal housewife. Analyze the impact on conformity and gender roles.

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Women's Role in the 1950s: Conformity & Housewife Image

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  1. Monday, February 8 Today's Agenda DO NOW Women in 1950s notes Feminine Mystique Mona Lisa’s Smile DO NOW • Look at the lyrics to Maldiva Reynold’s song “Little Boxes” • Answer the questions Today's Objective Explain the role women had in the 1950s in order to analyze the idea of conformity and the role of women as housewives.

  2. Women in the 1950s Women in the 1950s

  3. Wwii Employment for Women • WWII brought great economic growth to US • Booming economy demand for labor new job opportunities for women and minorities • Women worked in new jobs in the war industry or filled in for their husbands.

  4. Post-WWII employment • Women were expected to vacate the jobs they had worked for the returning male veterans • Employment rates increased for women but only in “women’s jobs” • Teaching • Clerical work • Domestic labor • Store clerks • Typists • Secretaries • Opportunities for African American women also limited- domestic laborers A secretary and her boss, an industrial designer, New York City, 1950

  5. Social pressures • Women were pressured to marry young (late teens, early 20s) • Have a big family • IF you went to college, it was to find a husband, not a career path • Be stay-at-home mothers (white women could afford this more than minorities) • Single mothers – shunned • Cold War Propaganda- strong nuclear families would help the US beat the USSR Kennedy wedding, Jacqueline throwing the bouquet, 1953

  6. Baby Boom • Women were marrying early and having babies right away • 1940-1960- number of families with three children doubled, and the number of families having a fourth child quadrupled.

  7. The Baby Boom Births Year

  8. Suburbia, home of the “happy housewife” • Levittown- first mass-produced suburb (1951) • Affordable- many vets purchased because of GI Bill Levittown track homes of the 1950s

  9. Suburbia, home of the “happy housewife” • Mass production- uniformity of design • Millions of African Americans moved out of the South and into NE, Mid-west and Western cities during the Great Migration causing “White flight” to the suburbs Levittown track homes of the 1950s

  10. Household products marketed to women • pressure to keep up with the Joneses with material purchases • TV and print ads promoted consumer culture, strongly targeting women. A 1950s ad for an electric iron

  11. The Feminine Mystique http://video.pbs.org/video/2330963851/

  12. Document Analysis • In your groups complete the graphic organizer analyzing the excerpt from the Feminine Mystic and answer the questions provided.

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