Women in the 1950s

Essential Question: What was life like for suburban women in the 1950s?

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WWII employment for women

Women’s Auxiliary Corps laboratory technician conducts an experiment,

Fort Jackson State Hospital, 1944

Aircraft engine technician and senior supervisor, Naval Air Base, 1942

•Large demand for labor•New job opportunities for women•30,000 served in the military

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Post-WWII employment

A secretary and her boss, an industrial designer, New York City, 1950

•Replaced by veterans•Employment rates increased for women•Limited opp. for Af-Am women

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Social pressures

Kennedy wedding, Jacqueline throwing the bouquet, 1953

• Early marriage• Childbearing• Stay-at-home

motherhood• Nuclear family

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The Baby Boom

Year

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Media portrayals of gender

A photo of the Cleaver family from Leave it to Beaver, a popular TV show in the 1950s-60s

•Ideal of domesticity •A woman’s role in the family•Flawless house

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Suburbia, home of the “happy housewife”

Levittown track homes of the 1950s

• G.I. Bill• Mass-produced,

affordable homes

• Great Migration and “white flight”

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Household products marketed to women

A 1950s ad for an electric iron

A 1950s ad for a cleaning product

Central Historical Question

Is the image of the happy 1950s housewife accurate?

Discussion Questions1)Were housewives happy with their lives?

2) Were women in the 1950s just staying at home?

3) Documents A and B say women were staying at home; but Documents C and D say that women were politically involved and even working. Who should we believe?

4) Do you think African-American, Latina, Asian American, and women from other minority groups had similar experiences to those depicted in these documents? Why or why not?