1950s Gender Roles

The woman’s role in society had many changes during the era of WWII to the baby boom era. It went from the strong independent woman that can work in a factory to a house wife that takes care of the family to the final slightly dominant, but still dependent female. All of these different feminine mystiques were changed because of society and through indirect propaganda in TV shows and

You are Fatima, a middle-aged, middle-class woman in El Nahra, Iraq in 1954. You have met an American woman for the first time in your life, and have come to know her pretty well. But you just cannot understand how she can be happy living according to the American customs she has described to you. Construct Fatima’s argument for why the customs of Iraq, especially as they relate to gender roles and gender relationships, are vastly superior to those of the United States.

Life in the 1950s was a time where when a women was married and has kids she would stay home taking care of the meals, and children. Men would be the ones to go out and find a good job that helps with money problems. Also sometimes married women would hire a nanny to also help around the house. In the 1950s men respected women more than they do today because women were supposed to be beautiful and elegant. Also men were able to be a gentleman around women.

“were forced out of their wartime occupations and into the domesticity of the new American nuclear family, many women felt disenfranchised. Furthermore, the 1950s are often identified as the pinnacle of gender inequality as women were denigrated and portrayed as ‘stupid, submissive, purely domestic creatures’” (George, 2013).

A patriarchal society dominated the early years in Afghanistan. This society is not also apparent in modern America. Women may not be treated as badly, but are still not treated equally. For example, women do not necessarily get paid the same as men even when they do the same job. In fact, America has never even had a woman president.

After World War 2 American society faced different changes because of the war. For example because men were gone off to war women had to join the work force and even after the war they wanted to stay in it. Women stayed in the workforce even after their husbands came home. The role of men stayed the same because they were expected to be masculine and the head of the home. They were expected to be the sole provider of the household. In suburbia all houses looked the same. During the 1950s in the United States, the role of women, suburbia and

This academic journal is relevant because Lindsay Markle discusses the challenges women in the Middle East confront daily due to gender norms that are embedded in culture, religion, and family structure. These gender norms influence the way women are able to participate in their economy and in the public sphere.

Gender conformity played a huge role in the cultural shift of the 1950s. During the War, wartime labor shortages opened more doors for women in the work force. However, women still received lower wages than men and their complaints went overlooked. Women in the work force were unendingly urged to think their place in the industrial work force was temporary. Inevitably, during post war, women in industrial jobs declined as men returned home.

When looking at the shift occurring with gender roles in this postwar period, the simplified answer to why these advancements were happening is because of the impact of the war on society but Roberts goes in depth about the issues that were brought out in society because of the war. Jacques Boulenger said, “The femme moderne is above all a creation of the war.” The femme moderne is a prevailing image of women after the war and they are described as “scandalous in her dress and

The gap between men and women also grew in the postwar era. The men who returned from war were forever changed by the experiences they had there. This, as David Farber explained, gave them something to differentiate themselves from their wives. The women, who had held jobs while the men were away, were told to return to the home. This gave the women something to resent the men for. The 1950's were a difficult time for men and women due to the large gap that had grown between them as a result of the war.

Additionally, since Iraq is an Islamic country, women face many problems and the gender issues are one of the biggest issues in Iraqi society (Rothstein, Roz, and

The Role of Women in the 1950’s Conformity. A common word used to describe the time period of the 1950’s, especially concerning women and the responsibilities that were pushed onto them solely because of their sex. Gender roles were still very traditional, with men being the breadwinners and providing for the family, with women staying at home to tend to children, cook, and clean. For women, this can also be described as domesticity, however, women now desired more and were exhausted with the mold that they were constantly being shoved into. Society expected a household to be perfect; a father would come home after a long day at work to his wife putting dinner on the table for him and his children.

The diversities within North Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia (cultural, religious, political, etc.) play a crucial part in the status of women and the key features of gender roles in these particular geographic regions. The Middle East and North Africa share commonalities through Arabic and Islamic culture. Establishing equalities for women amongst the current social and political changes of Middle Eastern and North African societies stands as a difficult obstacle to overcome, but in spite of this, women’s rights efforts are still being made. While Islamic culture is dominant in Southeast Asia, the culture of Southeast Asian nations is diverse. Islam and gender in Southeast Asia have contributed to the continuing debate over Islam, feminism, and gender rights in the region. The cultures of North Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia are male dominated, but this cultural dominance might not sustain in the future. This essay will compare and contrast the current status of women and the key features of gender roles in North Africa and the Middle East with those of Southwest Asia. Examples will also be provided to justify any arguments that are made.

Thus, the extended family becomes unified functional unit which contributes to the much larger community. The tribal villages settled in Iraq still rely on these traditional concepts for a living. The family structure in Syria is quite different from that in the tribal villages in Iraq. There are two major reasons for this difference. First of all, most of the settled tribes belong to the Shiite sect of Islam. The Shiite believe themselves to be pure Muslims and therefore are very conservative towards religious obligations. Secondly, if we look back at the Arab conquest, The Arab army itself never introduced a new culture in the region, it was actually the fusion of the religion (Islam) and the local cultures of the conquered people which in the time developed into a universal Islamic culture. So, it is understandable that now all the Muslim countries will have the exact same way of life, yet their fundamental family beliefs will , no doubt, stem from the sources of the Islamic law. The conservative outlook of the Shiite is somewhat misleading, for it may seem that family life is very monotonous, but on the contrary it is rather very complex. Women in this society are rarely seen in the public, but it does not mean they don’t have a public life. For them, the private life, in the sanctuary of their houses, is their public life. It is there that a woman can do anything she pleases. If she does decide to come out into the public she

Women in the Middle East hold little to no power, especially compared to women in the United States. Women escaping these wars are women who have been oppressed by society; oppression that a woman in the United States has never felt and gone through. Women are denied equal education and rights, when dealing with a part of the world that has law made from religion and military conflict, the man is in charge and women feel the biggest burn. In Israel, the biggest conflict is revolves the Arabs against the Israelis; although it is one country it is split into two sectors dividing its people, with different religious views and different practices there is a huge problem.