Families in Postwar America

The late 1940′s were a time when much change happened to the American society. As a result to the expanding threat of the Soviet Union, or its Communistic ideals, America took a stand that lead it to the Cold War.  Although the war didn’t involve fighting directly with Russia, it still affected the American society and domestic policy. The war affected America so much that it lead to a fear of livelihood; precisely when Joseph McCarthy began his “witch hunt”. The Cold war lead to an enlarged fear of nuclear war; as well, it affected many of the domestic policies.

Prior to World War II, many women were unemployed, due to the Great Depression which had started a decade before. With men always getting preference for jobs, there were very few jobs left for women. Consequently, not only were many occupations were reserved for men, but men were also paid wages up to five times higher for the same task as women. Some states also barred married women from holding jobs. However during World War II, America produced at an efficiency which was higher than ever. This meant that the women had an increasing number of jobs. Jobs in the public sector opened up. Since 1939, women progressively changed the idea of patriarchy and the cliché thinking of an average woman in the United States to be a wife and mother.

The biggest and most fervent effect of the Cold War on American culture was the state of anxiety that swept the nation. Americans have always harboured a fear of radicalism entering the country and destroying any parts of the government that give power to the people, but when the Cold War begun, this fear was immensely heightened. This time period became known as the “age of anxiety”.

We have to contain the spread of Communism. We have to contain our women, our children, anything that goes against our American values and leaders. This was one of many widely held beliefs during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. In the book, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era, the author Elaine T. May defines domestic containment as being a protectorate of the nuclear family; which consisted of: the bread-winner father, the stay at home mother (housewife) and well behaved children. This, was to stay aligned with our patriarchal society, where men were seen as superior; and women and children as in inferior. Thus, in need of protection by them. Overall, containment was the key to security for the wellbeing of all Americans.

The American home front during World War II is recalled warmly in popular memory and cultural myth as a time of unprecedented national unity, years in which Americans stuck together in common cause. World War II brought many new ideas and changes to American life. Even though World War II brought no physical destruction to the United States mainland, it did affect American society. Every aspect of American life was altered by U.S. involvement in the war including demographics, the labor force, economics and cultural trends.

The Cold War propelled the United States of America into a seat of previously unattained power in the world . American citizens spearheaded the push toward advancement in their search for the epitome of happiness: the “American Dream”. Post-war paranoia was driven by the supposed threat of the spread of communism, which Americans feared could interfere with the freedoms and liberties the founding fathers fought to achieve. This paranoia eventually controlled the thoughts and actions of citizens everywhere. The Second Red Scare spread across America like a virus, leaving a trail of dread and despair in its wake. The fear of the growing communist regime, a lack of trust between citizens and the government, and a zealous streak of American pride drove the U.S. toward internal conflict and potential devastation.

Women, particularly married women joined the workforce in numbers never before seen “Between 1940 and 1945, the female percentage of the U.S. workforce increased from 27 percent to nearly 37 percent, and by 1945 nearly one out of every four married women worked outside the home” (Staff). These people who stayed at home and helped the war production most certainly did their best. By the end of the war they had more than doubled the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is a modern measurement of the health of an economy ("U.S. GDP by Year"). Their hard work had truly made us “the arsenal of democracy” ("Franklin D. Roosevelt: Fireside Chat.").

The Brady Bunch were the ideal families in the 1960's and 1970's, and in the 80's, it was Family Ties. When the 1990's approached us, television shows took on a whole new outlook on American Families. There were shows such as Full House, which was about a single father raising three daughters with the help of his brother-in-law and his best friend. Roseanne was also another show that showed the "dysfunctional" side of families. American Families keep changing, and they will continue to change in our future.

Gender roles of labor opportunity for women were changed as the outcome of World War II. Before the hardship war, women were seen as “stay at home” mothers according to Historpedia in the article of “A Change in Gender Roles: Women’s Impact during WWII in the Workforce and Military”. A stereotypical perfect American family would be that the men were obligated to bring home money from work and the women in the family were obligated to raise their children and do house chores. As the United States joins in the war, women were brought into factories to help produce war production as the men were sent off to serve the military, states Historpedia. In the factories, women were producing airplanes, warships, munitions, tanks, and even working started in technical and scientific fields as well.

World War II was the catalyst that changed the opportunities available to women and eventually the way they were regarded as a viable workforce. Suddenly women throughout the United States were pushing themselves to their limits to support the war effort. Women were fulfilling jobs and responsibilities that many previously believed to be impossible for their gender. Opportunities were opened in steel plants, ammunition factories, and even the United States military. As the war progressed the number of male workers declined dramatically. Society had no choice but to turn to the mothers, sisters, and daughters of our nation for help. The results for each woman varied

The families in America are steadily changing. While they remain our most valued and consistent source of strength and comfort, some families are becoming increasingly unstructured. In the past, the typical family consists of a working father, a stay at home mother and, of course, well-rounded children. Today, less than 20 percent of American families fit nicely into this cookie cutter image. American households have never been more diverse. Natalie Angier takes stock of the changing definition of family in an article for the New York Times.

Is it worth going back to the 1950s and experience the workplace of woman and men going to War or staying in the present time. Many people in today’s society see the morals and values of the past of the fifties. Nevertheless, the fifties had its nuclear family to where everyone was set for in life already. The woman became homemakers and men worked at an occupation. In the 1950s men were going to War, so the mother had to do both work and raise the family. However, after the War the woman wanting to continue to work, but the men were overpowering the woman in the past. In today’s culture everyone works and raise a family together. From the past to the present time of the 1950s the culture has changed. The woman finally got rights to do more activities now then it was in the fifties. Therefore, people have opinions to go back to the past to experience of what had happened to the nuclear family. America has changed by the culture and the environment from the 1950s to the present time of men and woman raising a family.

Prior to the war, women generally held jobs that were either low paying, or held little appeal for male workers. One the men went off to war, the shortage of labor occurred in much higher paying jobs than most women were accustomed to. During the course of the war, "fifty percent of all women who had been in trade and personal service and sixty-six percent of those who had been employed in eating and drinking establishments shifted to war manufacture" as their main source of income. (7) Women saw the situation as a wonderful opportunity for them to excel financially. Women gained more independence, which gave them increasingly more freedom. The role of married women changed drastically. The largest group of women to enter into the work force during the Second World War was married women. In 1944, at the height of war production, almost one in three defense workers was a former full-time homemaker. Their addition meant that married women outnumbered single women workers for the first time in United States history. This statistic proves that the great efforts of wartime propaganda were quite successful. The vacant jobs were being filled as needed, especially once married women joined the force. Approximately

This paper will discuss the differences between families from the 1960’s and the families of today. There are many differences between the different times. I have focused on the parentage portion of the families. I explained what the ideal family is and how it is different today. I’ve also included ways that will help these families of today become stronger as a family.

(Clark, Summers 8), a change affecting women of all ages (See Table 1 of the