Traditional Families In The 1950s

Analysis Paper

Not-so Traditional Women means not-so Traditional Families

In the 1950’s, families were stereotyped to be “compassionate” and their primary focus was on their family. Today however, people believe that the “traditional family” from the 50’s is only a thing of the past. Women have dramatically changed in the past sixty years and are becoming more and more independent. This change is why our families are no longer traditional. In the 1950s, with a male-breadwinner and a female housemaker, parents were to be “friends and lovers”. This idea was about creating family togetherness as the primary source of emotional satisfaction and personal happiness. And for the first time in 100 years the divorce rates plateaued (Mintz,
S. and McNeil S.). According to Stephanie Coontz, a history professor at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, and is Director of Research and Public Education for the Council on “Contemporary Families”, [In 1960s] When women were staying home, children were going out into the work force and making money for their families. And when child labor was abolished married women began reentering the work force in even larger numbers (Coontz, Stephanie).
And with more women in the work force, the “caretaker” of the family was no longer around as much as she used to be.
This is the start of women moving on from the traditional family lifestyle.
“Between 1970 and 2001, women went from being the minority to the majority of the U.S. undergraduate population, increasing their representation from 42 percent to 56 percent of undergraduates (Horn, Laura and Peter Katharin). Women increasing their education strengthens their ability to get better employment can become economically independent. 50 years ago, women were the caretakers and they married men who could support them and a family. Today however, with women getting better jobs and can support themselves economically, they don’t need to marry if they choose.
Coontz also states, “What’s new is not that women make half their families living, but for the first time they have substantial control over their own income, along with the social freedom to remain single or to leave an unsatisfactory marriage”(Coontz, Stephanie). A large part of families today being less “traditional” as they used to be is on how society views traditional. Things that used to be socially unheard of in the past, is socially acceptable today. And in all societies and cultures over the world, eventually change is something we, as a part of it, have to accept and move along with
it.
Just because families are no longer traditional, does not mean that family life is no longer good. Men are getting more involved at home, which is good for their relationships and good for their children. Coontz says, after research…
Hands-on fathers make better parents than men who let their wives do all the nurturing and childcare: They raises sons who are more expressive and daughters who are more likely to do when in school, especially in math and science(Coontz, Stephanie). Women’s independence is the reason why families today are no longer traditional, but women’s independence has not been the worst thing that has happened to our society because it has opened doors to bigger possibilities of family life. What works for families in one economic and culture time doesn’t necessarily work for a family in another. If there is one lesson to be drawn from the last 60 years, it’s that families are always going to change with a changing world. How a family functions on the inside is more important than how it functions on the outside.
Work Cited

Coontz, Stephanie. "The American Family." . Evergreen State College, 2005. Web. 22 Nov 2013. .

Horn, Laura, and Katharin Peter. "Gender Differences ." Postsecondary Education Descriptive Analysis Reports. U.S. Department of Education, 20 Nov 2013. Web. 22 Nov 2013. .

Mintz, S., & McNeil, S. (2013). How Does The American Family Have a History. Digital History. Web. 22 Nov 2013. .