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losttreasure -> RE: 1955 a good wife (2/11/2007 7:21:11 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: catize
Points out that many women in the fifties worked as waitresses, teachers, nurses and secretaries; those were the limited choices for women.
The goal of the feminist movement was choice; not only whether to work or stay home, but choice in career, opening doors to jobs that were ‘men only’ and equal pay for equal work.
Currently, many families are dual income because of economics, not because those big, bad feminists said women must work outside the home.
Not to disagree completely or imply that feminists were wrong... their cause was ultimately just and the second wave of the Womens' Movement brought some much needed changes... but a large part of the reason that dual incomes are needed these days is because of those hard won rights for women.
I am by no means an historian or economist, and this is greatly simplified, but my understanding and theory is as follows:
On the heels of the Great Depression, during World War II, a great many women found fulfillment in the work they performed. Prior to that time, most of the women who worked were single and, as you point out, they were limited to being primarily teachers, secretaries, nurses and waitresses.
With so many men off to war, the positions vacated in addition to the demand created by the war effort caused those women who were able to enter into the workforce doing things that they had never been allowed before. When the war was over and the men returned, those positions were taken away from women and they were sent back to the home.
While many worried that the end of the war and the drop in military spending would cause the economy to falter, just the opposite happened. The lean years of the Great Depression followed by the rationing during the war, and coupled with the euphoria of victory, fueled consumer demand. The housing market exploded with single family dwellings to house the returned soldiers and their new wives. The technological advances of the time and a change in economic policy provided Americans with goods never before available and easily affordable.
It was a time of complacency. People were enjoying life as they'd never enjoyed it before. The birthrate soared... our "Baby Boom". Advertising from that time was geared toward living the good life... the suburban American dream.
With the 60s came a restlessness. Whether it was out of boredom because those babies born post-war were now in school, pushback because of the difficulties of living up to icons such as Donna Reed, or prompted by literature such as "The Feminine Mystique", who knows... but married women began to want more from their lives.
As married women entered into the workforce, families' disposable income increased. That extra capital allowed families to purchase even more, but the cost for consumer goods began to creep up. Prices are set based on what the market will bear... with increased income, more and more families could "bear" more.
Unfortunately, not all families had two earners and those that didn't soon found themselves limited. What had been a "luxury"... a wife working outside the home if she wanted to... gradually became a necessity.
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