The 50’s era was an economic utopia. On the surface, many things looked wonderful, spending and disposable cash was at an all-time high, marriage rates indicated many successful unions of lovers, and the family was seen as the epitomy of happiness. However things were far from perfect. Women were expected to only be wives and mothers and not allowed to think…
As I have shown, the 1960s is a distinguished decade that transformed America, and overall society in an immense amount of ways. Firstly, the sixties consisted of fashion that was bi-polar in just about every way and innovatively expressed the emotions of individuals. Secondly, the memorable sports events and renowned players established a great foundation for the decade. Thirdly, the unforgettable fight for civil rights with the esteemed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy were ground-breaking, distressed events. Fourthly, the effect on family values and culture was preeminent during the decade. Fifthly, music was transformed and sculptured during the decade. The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix revolutionized the way…
Post-WWII, life in America seemed to be returning to normal. America overcame the Great Depression, and the daily life was what it once was. Men were returning home, women were returning to their previous duties, and the economy was back on track. On the topic of women and family, marriages and birth rates were skyrocketing in the 1950s. However, this means that divorce was becoming more common as well. It was not a drastic jump, but more of a slow and steady increase, by about 10,000 in the decade. Domestic life solidified during this decade, but unfortunately the marriage life wasn’t. As known in society, money has always been a common issue in marriages. The economy boomed during and post-WWII (following the Great Depression) which possibly made women consider more whether or not to leave their spouse.…
Wanted not only to be wives working at home but to have a career. Women wanted to be treated equally as men with respect.…
The following essay, “Why I Want a Wife,” appeared in Ms. Magazine in 1972 during the feminist movement in the United States. In this essay, Brady takes a satirical and humorous look at what it means to be a wife and mother. Brady was thinking of a longtime friend who appeared on the scene, fresh from a recent divorce and was looking for another wife (263). It was in that moment it occurred to Brady, as a wife and mother, which she also would like to have a wife. She first starts out by saying, “Why do I want a wife?” (263). She lists most of the duties, expectations and demands of the husband and society that are unfairly unjust to women and it is underappreciated and unrecognized.…
According to Rosie to Lucy the author indicate Women in the 1950s sought out to be nothing more than House wives who cooked and clean and took care of the kids while their husbands where off to work, there were woman with careers but that was considered abnormal. Unlike today, having to work for a living and look after a home and family was not considered a particularly desirable option by most women. Most women who could afford it gave up work when they married. The prospect y of 'juggling' a job and a family wasn't terribly appealing. Women who were serious about pursuing a career generally stayed single. In that particular generation society imbued within the women to be that by portraying it in television shows such as The honeymooners where the wives of the series stayed home cooked and clean and watch after the home while the husbands were off working hard brining in the money.…
Stephanie Coontz is a professor of Family History at the Evergreen State College in Olympia Washington. She is a nationally recognized expert on the family and an award winning writer. In her 1997 book “The Way We Really Are: Coming to Terms with America’s Changing Families”, Stephanie Coontz wrote an essay entitled “What We Really Miss about the 1950s”. In Stephanie Coontz’s “What We Really Miss about the 1950s”, she argues that we as a country collectively remember the 1950s with a nostalgic tone, but we are not remembering this era in its entirety, nor are we completely accurate. She explains that the family and economic life that we remember and long for does not represent the whole truth of that era by any means.…
The cases Friedan brought up in the first chapter confirms how unhappy women are, pointing towards feminine fulfillment being met early, lack of energy, and “housewife fatigue.”2 The goals women were expected to make were to marry early, have children, and act as a modern housewife. Per Friedan’s observations, most women typically didn’t have the time or experience to set their own personal goals. With goals as a woman having been sorted out incredibly early into a woman’s timeline, it’s difficult to find a source of satisfaction for the next decade or more without setting any new goals aside from what society has expected. In addition, housewives are being taxed daily. With many husbands working a 9-5, their wives are left to sort out the…
“The way to a man’s heart, so we’ve always been told, is a good working knowledge of a pot, pan and mold.” –The Brides Cookbook, 1956. This quote is from a cookbook, which was made especially for newlywed women (Brides Cookbook, 1956). This is one example of the gender roles that was expected during this time era. Many women during that time period were expected to stay home, cook, clean and take care of the children, while the man of the house would work. The quote also continues “A juicy red steak, or a tender fish fillet, done to a turn, in a bright copper skillet, And leaves the man happy, content and drooling” (Brides Cookbook, 1956), It states that the meals the women makes will leave him happy, and during this time era, women did all the work in the house (Brides Cookbook, 1956). Even television shows during this time era make is acceptable to be a house wife, such as I love Lucy and Leave it to Beaver.…
Compare and contrast the image of the ideal woman in the 1890s and 1950s. In which era did women have more freedom? How so?…
Friedan points out that the average age of marriage was dropping and the birthrate was increasing for women throughout the 1950s, yet the widespread unhappiness of women persisted, although American culture insisted that fulfillment for women could be found in marriage and housewifery; this chapter concludes by declaring "We can no longer ignore that voice within women that says: 'I want something more than my husband and my children and my home.'…
“...libraries converted their buildings into fallout shelters and disseminated survival information to millions of Americans.” (Spencer, Brett). While the men worked for hours on end to earn their families paychecks, women stayed home to clean the house, watch the children, and to keep their dresses without a single wrinkle on them. “The second half of the 1950s still emphasized women dressing for ‘their men’.” (1950 to 1960.). Women during this decade wanted to appeal others by looking uniquely beautiful , but still dress like every other woman in America, they had to look attractive and acceptable for any outgoing errands. “... practical but attractive housedress, not only for household chores but suitable for quick errands or the school run.” (1950 to 1960.). The Cold War brought women into where they had to play the role as the uprising wife who would always take care of all the cleaning. “Women’s focus was on rearing children and keeping house as they had largely left the war years’ workplace.” (1950 to…
“The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered in the middle of the twentieth century in the United States. Each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night--she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question--"Is this all?"…
In the narrative style essay written by Judy Brady (1971), "I Want a Wife", she uses out right sarcasm and exaggeration with a slight humorous tone. This demonstrates her stance on the unrealistic demands that were placed on women in that era. She starts off her essay stating "I belong to that classification of people known as wives. I am A Wife. And, not al-together incidentally, I am a mother" (1971). As if being a wife and a mother was almost an undesirable task to bear in life. I suppose that in the 1900 century it pretty much was to an extent. The way Brady goes on to list the expected duties of her wife, makes her sound more like a servant than anything else. She even mentions her wife performing things like…
In Linda J. Waite’s pro-marriage article “Marriage Matters,” she sheds statistical light on the outweighing positive, as well as the negative, aspects of marriage. From her view, there are four outcomes which are directly affected from marriage opposing including: health, wealth, intimacy with your spouse, and, of course, the children. These four topics are the areas most affected (positive or negatively) by living single, married, cohabitating, or rebuilt lifestyles.…