Women's Role In The 1950s

In the 1950s, life was fairly great for those who lived in the suburbs. The first suburb was developed by Abraham Levitt and his two sons, William and Alfred, he named it Levittown, after himself, of course. It was just pure farming land before he got to it, but after he was done it had become a suburban community that housed thousands of men with their families. A basic Levitt four-room house on a 6,000-square-foot lot sold for $6,900, about 2-1/2 years’ wages. It was criticized as stifling individuality. But to the 82,000 people living in 17,000 new houses, it was home. Other builders followed suit, all over the country, and 13 million new homes were sold during the decade. The houses in the town were constructed very similarly to each …show more content…
During the 1950s women had certain gender roles and norms were socially enforced, women were to be wives, and mothers, women going out and working was still frowned upon. There were writings everywhere like the Advice books and magazine articles like “Don’t Be Afraid to Marry Young,” “Cooking To Me Is Poetry,” “Femininity Begins At Home” for example urged women to leave the workforce and embrace their roles as wives and mothers. Then there's Lucille Ball, in I Love Lucy, inevitably met with disaster whenever she pursued job opportunities or interests that took her outside of the household. This made it seem like women were incapable of living a life outside of the household. It made many women take pride in staying home, which might they weren't out working to do the things men normally did. The idea that a woman’s most important job was to bear and rear children were hardly a new one, but it began to generate a great deal of dissatisfaction among women who yearned for a more fulfilling life. For women, the charms of suburban life began to wear thin after a few years. Although it should not be forgotten that more than 30% of women did work outside the home in some capacity during the 1950s, popular culture was replete with messages counseling women that their greatest …show more content…
The term "teenager" was rarely used before the 1950s. During the Eisenhower years, young people began to see themselves as a distinct group. Their attempts to forge an identity worried adults, who couldn't understand the shift. There is a great deal of truth to this characterization. Teenagers in this era were the first teen generation to be targeted by advertisers; many teens wore the same styles and had similar tastes as a result. . Adults spent a lot of time in making sure that teenagers did nothing in any way rebellious. They had educational films in schools that taught students to to fit in with the group, obey authority, to control one’s emotions, and to not even think about sex. They had Popular television shows of this era such like Ozzie and Harriet to show young people who acted in exactly that manner. There was still a bit of rebellion, though, one of the ways teenagers chose to rebel during this period was listening to a new kind of music, rock and roll. Everyone who lived in the suburbs actually went up against each other, they were always trying to be the best. To many adults, rock and roll was immoral, was the “devil’s music,” and caused juvenile delinquency; a few even charged that it was sent to America by the communists as part of their plot to conquer the United States. There was no good that kind come with that kind of