Era Of Conformity Analysis

The period after WWII brought many changes. Traditionally, the 1950s have been regarded as an era of conformity and prosperity. In order to determine whether this assessment is accurate, one must analyze how these changes affected American society and economy. Once the war was finished, expected roles in society grew stronger, especially those pertaining to gender. The suburbs expanded quickly and gained popularity. However, the minorities of the decade were still struggling. This suggests that the 1950s were a prosperous age, but perhaps not prosperous for everyone. Societal roles are never absent from any decade, but the ones from the 1950s were very strong. They placed all women in a position that only allowed for the caring of their …show more content…
White women were dependent on their husbands in order to have any sort of income. Their troubles, expressed in Document H, were deeply rooted within their happiness. “Each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, [...] lay beside her husband at night, she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question ‘Is this all?’” While this emotional distress is caused by their conformity, one can hardly call them prosperous when their livelihoods remained dependent on another, and their content is invisible. The African Americans and other racial minorities experienced neither prosperity nor conformity, as they were actually discouraged to conform to white roles. Unable to afford even the cheap living in the suburbs, they remained separated from them. So separated, in fact, that the first integrated school did not occur until 1957 (Doc E), the tail end of the decade.
It is easy to see that while the 1950s were filled with both prosperity and conformity, it did not touch every American. gender roles increased the conformity, the suburbs increased both conformity and prosperity, but most of the minorities experienced neither, making the 1950s a place ironically suiting the label “separate and