To Be or Not to Be...Confined in a Home or Break Free?

Can a woman who once studied “Baudelaire” and “wrote poetry” or had volunteered for defense jobs or flown planes find her complete identity when exchanging her intellect and personal progression for washing clothes and changing diapers?[1] After WWII media, politics and the work force tried to send women (particularly white middle class women) back to their homes as full-time mothers, and was to a great degree very successful. The promotions went from applauding women “who held down jobs” in order to support the troops to the expectation that they get married, have children and become a housewife. This change of place for women in society seemed more “mandatory” than a choice.[2]

During the 1950’s over 95 percent of the women who were old enough did indeed get married and it was a great time for many American women to be housewives. The economic conditions were favorable. There were “generous benefits” for returning soldiers that allowed them to provide for their family while still going to school.[3] The question is, however, was this what they really wanted or just what society wanted? Society (media and promotions) tried to convince women that they would be most happy as a wife and mother at home, not in the work force or at school. If a woman felt depressed or unsatisfied, then she needed to “changer her feelings to reconcile herself to her role in the family.”[4] On top of this, many women who had their children rather quickly became early empty nesters. Could a woman still be a happy homemaker with no children at home? Gail Collin points out that the “lonely years” that awaited this large group of homemakers was a problem that previous generations had never faced.[5]

In 1963 Betty Friedman wrote a book titled The Feminine Mystique which targeted the white middle class woman’s stifling situation. Stephanie Coontz explains, The Feminine Mystique electrified a layer of women ‘in between,’ women who might otherwise have been lost entirely, to themselves and to the woman’s movement.” Women who once were engulfed in “deep self-doubt and despair” now not only more fully recognized their situation but also realized that they could make a choice to change their situation.[6] Friedman encouraged her readers to improve their lives through getting an education “and to make sure their life plan included developing the capacity to engage in creative work.”[7] The Feminine Mystique, according to Coontz, also helped African American and working class women improve their status in a complicated but real manner.[8]

Understanding the women’s situation during the 1950’s helps one realize the importance of choice. Just as Prohibition (though a thought to be honorable motive) could not really legislate morality, [9] society should not pressure and restrict women in their choices of what they want to be in life. Though being a housewife is an honorable choice it is not the only choice. Personally, if feel that a woman will find great happiness if she has both, and to do that she needs the proper support. Such as having a husband who does want his wife to have her own career and is willing to help raise their children or childcare that available to help.[10] During the 1950’s mothers and wives did not have much support from husbands or society in their role as housewives.

Here are some pictures from some 1950's women's magazines that show the ideal housewife in action:

1.     Stephanie Coontz, A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960’s, (Basic Books, New York, 2011), 113.

2.     Gail Collins, America’s Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines, (Harper Perennial, New York, 2003), 382 & 406.

3.     Collins, America’s Women, 399.

4.     Coontz, A Strange Stirring, 73.

5.     Gail Collins, When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women From 1960 to the Present, (Back Bay Books, New York, 2009),55-56.

6.     Coontz, A Strange Stirring, 161.

7.     Coontz, A Strange Stirring, 149.

8.     Coontz, A Strange Stirring, 138.

9.     Gail Collins, America’s Women, 339.

10. Coontz, A Strange Stirring, 94.