Gender Stereotypes In The 1960's

The idea of the ideal wife is a woman who is happy with staying home all day, tending to the home, caring for the children and husband. A woman's success in patriarchy is measured by how happy she makes her husband and how well the home life is portrayed to be. These ideas were strongly portrayed in a popular shows in the 1950s. Shows such as Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best, and I Love Lucy allowed audiences to faithfully watch the TV and subconsciously absorb what they saw. They are each very conservative shows that show strong family values and patriarchal ideals such as the nuclear family, the wife submitting to the husband, and teaching moral lessons to their children.

How often do you hear your friends, family, or acquaintances say they would like to go back to simpler times such as the 1950s - the era where you could wear fancy poodle skirts, drive big cars, eat at your favorite diner, or catch a movie at the drive in. Americans tend to think of the positive aspects of the 1950’s. Unfortunately during that era women were treated unfairly. Even though women had rights, they were still unequal to men. Fortunately feminism has progressed since then. Today, women comprise over 50% of the workforce. Nonetheless, men still cling to stereotypes that should have been destroyed long ago, whether in the workplace, at home, or in society.

The sixties was an evolutionary era with a new variety of movies, tv shows and books. The 60’s revolutionised the way that people thought about movies and television and has inspired our favourite shows and movies today.

During the 1950’s- 1960’s men and women followed strict gender roles that complied with society’s expectation at the time. Women played domestic roles in which it was implied they were only useful in the kitchen and taking care of their husbands. Throughout this time period it was more important for women marry a man than it was to attend college and be educated. Some women had college degrees and still chose to be housewives. At the time even secondary schools prepared young girls for this type of role; lessons were given in cookery, household management, darning, sewing and even how to iron a shirt properly. Women were prepared to take on the housewife role both at school and at home; housewives did not have a career so they depended on their husband. Sexism was rampant during this era; the attitude carried over into advertising, which did little to advance gender roles and ran advertisements that implied women were idiots who cared mostly about pleasing their men.

The 1950s and the 1960s were a crucial stage for the feminist movement, a stage were women sought to find their rights and be whatever they wanted to be instead of what the society ought them to be. It is important we discuss the changes that have happened throughout time to see if we at all have improved, and how far we still have to go in this day and age. This topic is of special interest to me seeing as I love editorial and the printed media, whilst I am also a strong believer in equal rights and fair representation of the sexes.

During the period after World War II, there was a shift in the role of women from the private sphere to the public sphere. Namely, at the turn of the 1960s, the concept of the nuclear family was becoming less of the norm as many women began to fight more and more for their rights and the way in which they were to be portrayed. For many years, women have been made to believe that they must follow certain expectations such to fit into the “American ideal” of what the role of a woman should be. For example, according to the Redstockings, contests like Miss America perpetuate the idea that women must be “inoffensive, bland, [and] apolitical” and that “conformity is the key…to success in our society.” The sentiment expressed in the quotation,

Throughout history young girls and women were limited on what they could and couldn’t do. Society had put more pressure on them than men and they had to act a certain way in public and in their homes. Females were the underprivileged gender and were greatly affected by the gender roles occurring in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and were taught at a young age these rules and expectations. Gender roles had limited women in the past from being more than a perfect wife and homemaker, fitting the generation's beauty expectations, unable to dress freely due to the school dress code, to use proper etiquette to please everyone but themselves, and to work the same job as a man and get paid a lower wage.

For centuries, women have struggled to fit society's expectations, but the 1950s and 60s were a prominent time when gender roles were a big influence on everyone's lives. All throughout history women have had constant pressure from society to look and act a certain way to fill gender role expectations. There were battles women had to face, including how they looked and acted. Gender roles including dress codes, required etiquette, beauty standards, cooking and cleaning, and education have greatly affected and limited American women historically in the 1950s and 60s.

Gender roles once played an important role in marriage in the 1950’s. There was expectations for what a man should do compared to a woman. Women were supposed to stay home and take care of their husband and kids, while men were supposed to go out and make money for their families. Women were expected to want to be stay at home mom’s, and if they did work they had to work and still take care of their families. The husbands were not expected to help out.

For thousands of years, established gender roles have been a part of our society. Women are commonly known as sensitive, emotional, or passive. On the contrary, men are described as rational, competitive, independent, or aggressive. Believing women are more emotional than men is stereotyping. However, the stereotype is not entirely untrue. Development of gender roles is often conditioned more by environmental or cultural factors than by hereditary or biological factors. The development of gender roles between men and women involves the inference of peer community of each gender, the communication style of male and female and the intimacy or connection level of men and women.

Brown’s song is self-explanatory, for it attributes many inventions that was made strictly and merely by men. As he says “You see, man made the cars to take us over the road/ Man made the train to carry the heavy load/ Man made electric light to take us out of the dark/ Man made the boat for the water, like Noah made the ark,” expressing the power of men in the world. This long list of achievements however does prove the stereotype of the position of men and women in the society.

#1. After reading chapter one of the text book the thing that I came away with that surprised me the most was the information about the races listed on the United States Census survey. Even though I have filled out two of them in my nearly 40 years of life it never clicked that there were so few options to pick from. Working with the public has me interacting with people of innumerable racial backgrounds; for example, in a few years when the 2020 Census goes out to the, for example, numerous Indian-American (India born not American Indians) who frequent my place of business will have to select from, as the book says: “The US Census Bureau identifies five races: White, Black, Asian, American Indian, or Native Hawaiian” (Diversity and the College

Throughout history, women have been seen as incompetent compared to men, whether it is in the aspect of running a family, maintaining a job, or, simply put, completing any task of importance. It is no surprise that works of art depict the same misogynistic attitude. Such works include, but are not limited to, stories, comics, and television shows. Not only does this discrimination hinder on gender, but also race, socio-economic class, ethnicity, religion, and any other factors that deem one different from the “norm”. Most works state men as the competent being, but what they really mean is white men and, even more specifically, white men with money, so discrimination has been brought upon white females and both black males and females.

This week’s reading focus on changing gender roles in the 1950’s through culture, and political upheaval. In the African Girl from Paris, gender, and the role of women shows a view of women to be subservient her husband and follow what he says. However, that did not really happen in the play. Rather the play shows there was a change in the view of gender shown through Cecilia who does what she wants and does not listen to her husband. Ultimately, John expects her to follow his every command, and Cecilia does not want to live like that, given following Johns command ended in the death of Monique. While the play shows gender through defended roles, fashion allows for another two stories about gender to develop. Fashion tells two stories of national

As I walked out of my nine-story apartment complex, I saw an interesting array of faces. Mixed genders, some male, some female, all very different deep down inside. I study their faces, wondering what it'd be like to walk a day in their shoes. Some people are like open books, you can look at their facial expression and instantly guess what their emotions are, yet others are like locked diaries. You can't tell what they're thinking and you'll probably never know. I shake the thought out of my head as I rummage through my pathetic excuse of a handbag, pulling out my most recent bank statement. Thirty-two cents to my name. How do I live like this? My train of thought is lost as my mind ponders elsewhere. Do you think people can tell I'm a broke