World War II gave Americans an unprecedented era of economic growth, prosperity, and happiness, so it seemed. Everyone desired the perfect life, with the perfect family, in the perfect home: the American Dream. The ultimate goal was to meet the love of your life, get married young, move to the suburbs (which you could surprisingly afford after the economic boom) and start popping out babies. The perfect home was a well kept one, always clean and containing the newest, shiniest appliances to a housewife’s delight. The perfect family was a married, heterosexual couple with two or three well-behaved children; the father’s duties were to go to work and be the breadwinner while the mother stayed home to make bread. The perfect life was pretending that this ‘perfect lifestyle’ was in fact a dream come true. During the 1950’s this level of conformity was the social norm; there wasn’t
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Settling into these roles began early on life, girls who didn’t get married during or after high school would only go to college to primarily find a husband. During this decade, women were only encouraged to find a spouse rather than to pursue higher education or training for a future career; they weren’t encouraged to have ambitions of their own. They were taught to settle into gender roles instead to defy them. These roles were previously established in the 1940’s when women had to fill in for men when they went off to war, to take over the jobs in construction and manufacturing. However, when the men came back women were fired instantly to give those jobs back to their male counterparts. This lead to a woman’s place being considered the home instead a work force. Betty Friedan, author of the “Feminine Mystique,” believed woman wanted and needed more out of life, which is accurate; life can’t be fulfilling if society tells you your ambition is cooking, cleaning, and caring for
Settling into these roles began early on life, girls who didn’t get married during or after high school would only go to college to primarily find a husband. During this decade, women were only encouraged to find a spouse rather than to pursue higher education or training for a future career; they weren’t encouraged to have ambitions of their own. They were taught to settle into gender roles instead to defy them. These roles were previously established in the 1940’s when women had to fill in for men when they went off to war, to take over the jobs in construction and manufacturing. However, when the men came back women were fired instantly to give those jobs back to their male counterparts. This lead to a woman’s place being considered the home instead a work force. Betty Friedan, author of the “Feminine Mystique,” believed woman wanted and needed more out of life, which is accurate; life can’t be fulfilling if society tells you your ambition is cooking, cleaning, and caring for