Gender Roles in 1950s

During the 1950s, young couples in the United States married and had babies at unprecedented rates. The idea of the perfect "nuclear family" was promoted in advertisements and media across the country, and there was an aggressive push for the reinforcement of typical gender roles.

However, the 1950s also saw a shift away from cultural norms, particularly when it came to the roles women played in society!

Gender Roles in 1950s America

A decade that is known for its post-WWII baby boom, the beginning of the civil rights movement in the US, and the dawn of the Cold War, 1950s America was a time of uncertainty of employment patterns, conformity, and traditions by the end of the War. Gender roles were being scrutinized for how malleable they had become during the War, and the role of a male 'sole provider' and woman 'homemaker' was in danger.

Fig. 1 Women of the Forces

Gender Roles in 1950s Post war

Millions of young men went overseas to fight alongside the Allies in WWII. This departure meant millions of job openings back in the United States, openings that were predominantly filled by women. Women flooded the workforce like never before, often in jobs that had previously not been thought suitable for the female gender.

Fig. 2 Women in employment poster 1945

Gender Roles in 1950s Transgender

While transgender individuals have existed throughout history, the public discourse at this time was generally only accepting of cisgender people.

Gender Roles in 1950s History

While many women did give up the jobs they had held during the war, others enjoyed their new lives in the workforce, and continued to work, even if they also chose to start a family. During the 1950s women made up approximately 1/3 of the workforce.

Fig. 3 Picture of Housewife

Even with so many women involved in the workforce, there was heavy societal pressure for women to remain at home. A large part of this attitude was a result of tension introduced by the Cold War. The United States government wanted to position the country as drastically different from its harsh, Soviet rivals, and one way of achieving this was by pushing their vision of the perfect "nuclear family" and a good, capitalistic citizen. Capitalism was seen as a great counter to communism, and it was women were who seen as the main consumers in a household, which they could do best if they were full-time housewives.

Gender Roles in 1950s Culture

The idea that men should work, and women should be the keeper of the house, was reinforced several ways throughout 1950s culture...

• This was reinforced in magazines, movies, and television shows, such as "Father Knows Best" and "Leave it to Beaver."
• The idea that a man should be the head of the household was also heavily influenced by Christianity, a religion the majority of American citizens identified as during the 1950s.

A common conception during the 1950s was that women attended college to get a 'Mrs degree', pronounced M.R.S., meaning to get a husband. The huge societal pressure to acquire a husband that was put on women during this time meant that the United States marriage rate was drastically high.

Being married before you finished college was societal normality, and despite women having other aspirations for their lives, the ideology that a husband was more important than an education filled the media and culture during this period.

Gender Roles in 1950s Cultural Shift

Despite extreme pressure for men and women to maintain the gender norms that had been the standard for most of the century, the 1950s saw a shift in the attitudes of some women.

Fig. 4 First International School for Women Labor Leaders

Access to reproductive services meant much more freedom for women who did not want to buy into the idea that they were only valuable for their abilities as a housewife and mothers. Birth control pills also offered relief to women who had already had children. At the time, it was expected that women were obedient to their husbands and that they would offer up sexual intercourse whenever the husband wanted.

Because of this, women who were still able to bear children had very little control over pregnancy and could often find themselves with more children than they wanted. Contraceptives, while not protecting women from sexual abuse, at least offered the comfort of not being forced to bear children they were not prepared to care for.

Gender Roles in 1950s Impact

Even with greater access to contraception, and more women in the workforce than ever before, post-war America experienced a higher birth rate than the country had ever seen. Between 1946 and 1964 an estimated 73 million babies were born.

Fig. 5 Advertisement for Margaret Sanger's American documentary film Birth Control

This generation, known as the baby boomers, has had a huge impact on American society. The influx of babies meant a massive building boom and buying boom. Suburbs, malls, cities, and the purchase of cars and household appliances exploded. Not only did the baby boom expand where and how Americans live, but baby boomers have also played a great hand in how American society operates, from dictating trends like clothing, hair, and music, to attitudes towards conflicts, policies, and laws.

Did you know?

Today, many 'baby boomers' are retired or close to retirement age, which has left large gaps in the workforce, and also put stress on the medical system.

The idea of the nuclear family is one that some don't want to let go of. Particularly when it comes to conservative politics. Even though the landscape of households has drastically changed since the 1950s, some still hold on to the idea that a nuclear family is ideal.

Gender Roles in 1950s Modern Perspective

There is a lot of complexity tied up with the idea of the nuclear family and traditional gender roles. One of them is how race and sexuality played into it. In the 1950s, the perfect family was consistently portrayed as white, with Black and other races rarely, if ever portrayed. Alongside race, the nuclear family was only ever expected to consist of a married heterosexual, cisgender couple, and any other couplings were ostracized, if not outright illegal.

Because of this narrow view of what a household and gender should look like, there has been a great shift away from this model over recent years. Not because there is anything wrong with a woman who wants to stay a home, a role that is difficult and respectable in its own right, but because there is no one right way to have a household, and traditional expectations don't reflect the reality of the America we live in today.