Examples Of Femininity In The 1950's

Women of the 1950’s through the 1960’s are ridden with male oppression and self-esteem issues. The book Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates and an episode of Mad Men titled The Shoot have a lot in common. The differences and similarities between the leading women in both of these stories from the 1950’s show that times are different today. The women of the 1950’s had a dream for the future and their dream has finally become a reality for American women. From Mad Men, Betty Draper’s dream of becoming a model and in Revolutionary Road, April Wheeler’s dream of traveling the world are actual realities for women today. Their dreams show similarities, differences and the “American Dream” that every woman has.

After World War II, the nation was blooming. Everything was growing, people were going to college, and wealth grew. The idea of the perfect American life was developed, this included a husband that worked and a wife that stayed home and took care of the house and children. To look at how women are affected by this perfect life I am analyzing “Governor Adlai Stevenson Tells College Women about Their Place in Life, 1955” and “Good Housekeeping: Every Executive Needs a Perfect Wife, 1956”.

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

In the 1960’s, women had been placed in stereotypical roles for years. But women were tired of these roles and were done with being complacent. They felt like something was missing in their lives, and they desired something more. The typical American

The idea of television began since the 1820s but it was until 1927 when the 21- year old Philo T. Farnsworth produce the first electronic television picture. Experimental broadcast began, featuring music, wrestling, and dance; however, it was until the 1950s that TV really became the new form of mass entertainment. Nevertheless, in all the shows that were produced women was denigrated and producers focused mainly on their physical appearance and not their intellect capacity. Ward and Harrison stated, “TV has depicted females by focusing on their physical characteristics, sexual appeal, and romantic success, whether they are housewives, mothers, or objects of desire.” Women did not have a choice, they were placed on TV shows with a certain stereotype needed to be fulfilled by them, and because they wanted to work they did not deny the job, therefore, they encouraged the stereotype.

the house becoming the homemaker once the war was over. The 1950s has also been

Feminism is about empowering women and achieving equality in all aspects. There have been several waves of feminism throughout American history. These periods of time are now referred to as waves because a majority of women could be seen protesting and fighting for specific rights over consecutive years. The First Wave of feminism laid the groundwork for all the rights women have today. During this time period, women changed how they could dress and also fought for their right to vote in general elections. Before the First Wave, women were treated as property and had to obey their husbands or other male leaders of their families. Consequently, women grew tired of not having a voice or a say about their own lives. Much of what the women in

After all the devastation brought about by the Great Depression and World War II, Americans desired and sought for a return to normalcy during the 1950s. With men away at war and women pursuing jobs, the rate of divorce skyrocketed as families were being split apart. Juvenile delinquency rose in great numbers due to the lack of parental supervision during wartime. This evoked fear in the American people that the survival of the “traditional American family” was in jeopardy. Thousands of women were pushed out of the workforce and back into their homes as returning soldiers resumed their positions on the job. Suburban housing flourished as the notion to conform spread across the country. The 1950s was a period of conventionality, when both men and women practiced strict gender roles and complied with society’s expectations in attempts to recreate the “American Dream”. The concept of the “Ideal Woman” created a well-defined picture to women of what they were supposed to emulate as their proper gender role in society. A woman was told her primary interest was everything but herself. She was expected to cook, clean, take care of the kids, and be a loving wife who waits for her husband to come home in order to adhere to his needs. Taking time to care for herself was never in the picture. The idea of conformity trapped these women in suffocating boxes that allowed no room to breathe. The pressure put on women to be the core of the entire family while keeping her husband happy was

In 1963, writer and feminist Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique in which she challenged the post-World War II credence that it was women’s purpose to get married and have children. The textbook nuclear family image portrayed and intensely promoted at the time, she wrote, did not reflect contentment and was rather demeaning to women. Friedan’s book was a best-seller and instigated the mindfulness of many women who decided that homemaking in the suburbia robbed them of their uniqueness and left them unhappy. The post-World War II wealth did not encompass one and all. A lot of Americans continued to live in poverty during the course of the 1950s, particularly mature individuals and the so-called Negro, the former of whom continued to make far than their white counterparts.

Understanding 1950s, families is a possibility of a new form of family in order to understand the family dynamics of new modern family and gender role specialization. In 1950 families have showed greater practice of gender role style in family social function setting. Various factors that led to strong affinity of the understanding of family dynamics among sociologists. Women being viewed as home makers and men as breadwinners in a family set up both enjoying their predefined norms on roles. Thus, this paper seeks to provide a greater insight of family dynamics to understand the ideology behind gender role specialization as depicted by Parsons and Bales.

Despite the dissatisfaction real women felt in that role, there were still endless advertisements showing housewives smiling while hugging a box of laundry detergent (Parks,1), or ironing away with a smile from ear to ear. This was not the reality of most women at the time. Most women had a longing for more than just serving other people and constantly being in a submissive role this was discussed in  The Feminine Mystique . One example from this book shows how dissatisfied some women truly were, the following quote comes from a mother of four who left college at nineteen to get married she

The 1950’s is a very different time from todays, but are the fashion statements the same? Does the fashion live up to the 20th century? Looking at the fashion statements made from the men, children and the women from the 1950’s and comparing them to modern day wear, proving that we may have differed but you can definitely still see that we have fashion pieces from the 50’s embedded into modern day clothing. Men during the 1950’s were the ‘breadwinners’ at the time so they would wear a button up shirt under their grey suit occasionally with a tie. Nowadays men wear suits only for when they are heading to formal events or if the job they work requires it.

In the book The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan brings attention to what she calls the feminine mystique, or “the problem that has no name”. Through the use of anecdotal narratives, her own personal experiences as a journalist, editor, mother, and the interviews of many women from different backgrounds in order to unveil the truth about the women of the 1950’s. The problem which sparked the second wave of feminism in the United States is one that focuses on the inequality between men and women and the undervaluing of women in both the social and private spheres. The women of the time gave up pursuing their passions, such as getting an education or careers in science or business in order to fit the image of the stereotypical stay-at-home mom whose main goal in life is to raise her children while providing a safe and comforting home for her husband. The Feminine Mystique, as she called it, was the idea of widespread unhappiness of women, despite the preconceived notion that women were happiest when they have a family. Throughout her work, she dives into many of the problems associated with the feminine mystique and builds a powerful concept of what would eventually be labeled feminism.

In 1963, Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique which was revolutionary for that time and exposed the “happy homemaker myth”. Ms. Friedan discussed how women “feel it’s unfeminine” to want to take an active part in society on equal footing as men. More specifically, Ms. Friedan is quoted saying, “a woman today has been made to feel freakish and alone and guilty if she wants to be more than her husband’s wife, her children’s mother, if she wants to use her abilities in society.” This feeling has been coined as “the problem with no name”. Homemaker Rose Garrity said, “I felt inside very alienated from the world.

In the 1960s to 1970s, a feminist movement began and sparked a change in attitudes towards women in familial roles and pushed against gender inequality. This movement’s effects trickled down to the opinions and actions of people in the later 1970s to mid-1980s. The period saw a decline in the backing of the traditional family wife role for women and greater acceptance for women finding employment (Mason, K.O., Lu, Y., 1988). However, the change also encountered backlash, with the growth of employed mothers came concerns of the negative effects on the children and their relationship with the mother (Mason, K.O., Lu, Y., 1988). This triggered an inconsistent time for family structure. The nineties saw