The United States : A Growing Power

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”.

Eventually if the family was wealth enough nannies were brought in to take care of the house with the money makers were gone. Eventually leading to where the mothers weren’t necessarily doing their duties according to the men. Most men had trouble getting use to the idea of the women not being home having dinner already served. Then the 1980s to the 1990s you started to see the men cooking and cleaning helping the women out while they were out working, but their job was still to respect the men. Even though this was happening some men were still in though it was demeaning. The work force was a man’s

Women had the stereotype of being the homemaker which is a person whose main job is to take care of her family, home and children. Women were assumed to be homemakers with the primary responsibility for the children (Blair and Lenton 1). Traditionally, the job of a stay at home mother is done by women who have had to make them self’s approachable for marriage, stay at home, take care of the kids, cook and clean. Society benefited economically from high marriage rates because that led to an increase in production of family related goods, home construction, and furnishings. It was frown upon if women did not get married young, and a virgin. Women needed to get married in order to have unprotected intercourse because premarital sex was considered sinful. In the 1950s professional jobs were still largely closed off to women even after they had taken over the workforce when men left for World War II. It was common for companies not to want to hire women, and if they did provide employment for them they would pay them less than men. During that time there were too few women American lawyers, doctors, and engineers. Working women did not have a great salary, and were denied opportunities to advance. Their employers assumed they would quit their jobs as soon as they knew that had become pregnant. If women did work, they were stewardesses, secretaries, nurses and teachers. In addition, many women faced pressure from their families to stay home, and not work at all outside the home. In the 1950's, society encouraged, and pressured women to marry young because of the well-defined roles of that time. Women’s jobs were to serve as a homemaker and mother, so it was not deemed necessary for them to pursue a college degree. Most women were married after high school, and fell into their traditional gender roles right away. As stated in the American Journal of Sociology, “Women were

“By the 1920s, most American girls received a basic high-school education, while women represented more than a third of all college students” (Bingham, “Family Life”). Women were becoming more educated, and they also attained the right to vote, which was a huge milestone in their journey to receive equal treatment as men. Also, “a range of domestic appliances were marketed to help the housewife in her daily tasks.” (Bingham, “Family Life”) Thus, inventions such as the washing machine, the vacuum cleaner, and the electric iron were all designed to help women carry out household tasks easier and quicker. Therefore, women were usually left with more time to do other things such as studying or starting their careers. They were no longer the designated “housemaids” of their homes and now were able to make an earning by acquiring a job. Overall, families were able to now live more comfortably because there were now two parents providing financial support and women were able to accomplish many of their goals of attaining equality through their movement during the

While social change has brought on more changes than what women are a custom too, at one point in history women actually felt a form of importance in fulfilling their roles not only in the home; but outside as well. “These demographic shifts account for many new or altered roles, such as increased number of duel-earner families, later and fewer marriages, fewer children, increased life expectancy, and the massive migration shifting employees across a nation and across the globe” (Lindsey, 2011, pg. 275).

The treatment of the male gender role is altogether different from that of the female gender role, and this issue has turned out to be important. Gender roles were extraordinarily changed in the 1950s, with the men returning from war and taking their occupations back. Females had, throughout World War II, taken men’s occupations while they had been away at war. After the war, numerous women needed to keep their occupations. Instead, a considerable amount of them got to be spouses and moms as the men returned from the war. For example, the male spouses were away at work for most the day while the wives would need to do a decent measure of the manual work around the house. The type of chores could have been cleaning, cooking, or other tasks the female spouses handled. These adjustments in the home might not have been viewed as positive but rather they were for women. Ladies truly advanced in the fifties with finding new openings for work and discovering their place in the world. Therefore, two articles explain further in detail about the

The women of the 1920’s were first introduced to society as a generation that spent most of their time cleaning, cooking, and nurturing their children. However, as the “Roaring 20s” came to impact the

Throughout the 1920s, marriage was thought of to be a symbol of love and happiness between a married couple. Along with that came the expectation of starting a family and a new chapter in the couple’s lives. Most marriages that took place were based on romance instead of just marrying just to get money, which was rarely seen. Gender roles had an impact when getting married and starting a family. Living in the 1920’s brought more positive, as well as negative, impacts when it came to restarting the economy. Gender roles in marriage decided who stayed at home to take care of the children along with house duties and who went to work to provide for the family. Throughout these times, gender roles either imposed by society or created within the home, have altered dynamics within the home and society.

For example, almost all telephone operators in the U.S. were women and by 1920 office workers and telephone operators made up to 25% of the female workforce, while domestic servants were only 15%. A union leader named Abraham Bisno remarked that working gave immigrant women a sense of independence, “‘They acquired the right to personality’ something alien to the highly patriarchal family structures of the old country”. (Foner, 2010) Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in the book Women in Economics, wrote, “The spirit of personal independence in the women of today is sure proof that a change has come… the radical change in the economic position of women is advancing upon us… the growing individualization of democratic life bring inevitable changes to our daughters as well as to our sons… one of its most noticeable features is the demand in women not only for their own money, but for their own work for the sake of personal expression. Few girls fail to manifest some signs of the desire for individual expression…”.

As found by Gervase and Kidd, women who did have jobs often had an increased societal and domestic status and influence. (Gervase, Tati; Kidd, Rachel) This statement shows that while there still wasn’t equality between men and women in the 1930’s, women had begun on a

This article discusses the changing role of women in America during the 1920s. It talks about the transition in the role of women from their wartime jobs during WWI to their jobs in their homes working as housewives. The article also describes the new norm of women that says women should be nurturing their own children in contrast to women who would hire nursemaids to care for their children. Moreover, the article also describes the new view of women as the topic of sex became less taboo during the 1920s. This article was retrieved from a reputable online database, Explora, but is originally found in the book Failure is Impossible by Martha E. Kendall. In addition, the book this article is found in was published in the 21st century, which contributes

One of the major leaps that I believe has helped America become what it is today is the Civil War. More specifically though the Union side helped make these leaps in the military. The initial state of the military at this point we already see

Foremost, the familial image has undertaken significant changes in regards to the ‘breadwinner’ and ‘homemaker’ roles within the family. In the latter of the 20th century, women’s participation in the labour force had been very little to non-existent, primarily because time allocations had been perceived as gender specific, that is, men were seen as the ‘breadwinner’, while women were viewed as the ‘homemaker’ (Seltzer, Bachrach, Bianchi, Bledsoe, Casper, Chase-Lansdale, Diprete, Hotz, Morgan, Sanders, & Thomas, 2005, pp.20). The ‘breadwinner’ role was to secure financial stability, while the

Women’s home life in the 1930’s was very strict , mainly with the male in charge. Many women did not get to make executive decisions in their life. Family came first no matter if a woman had a job or if they were widowed (Gender Roles of the 1930’s). Being a housewife was not a highly respected role, although it was much needed. Mothers often passed down their ladylike manners to their daughters and sent them to women’s colleges if they could afford it (Southern Women Trailblazers). During the women’s suffrage movement women started to fight for more rights and wives had to talk about their rights when their husbands were gone (Southern Women Trailzers).

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