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2 thoughts on “Women and the 1950s”
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http://hist380.ferrellhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/W2P2-Branigan-Hist-380.pdf
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Brian,
I do agree that women were expected to conform a great deal during 1945-1960 to the way they were expected to dress, clean, and cook, but there were women that made decisions to not remain exclusively in a domestic role. While it may have been thought that women that worked were from a lower socioeconomic class, there were some women who were from higher socioeconomic classes, so to speak, that went to work for the Tupperware Industry. “Tupperware employment was organized on a casual basis; the flexibility enabled by this self-employment structure ‘allowed’ women, in a period identified by its reaffirmation of women’s domestic roles, to be informally employed” (Clarke 161). It was a way to make women feel as if they had control over their lives, and time for themselves. Although, Tupperware employment did not offer very much security, or benefits, it “was an opportunity to socialize outside the home at little expense” (Clarke 163).
I could only imagine how they must have felt when this opportunity arose. I do not think they took part in sales as a way to make money, but more so for a means of companionship, and freedom to display their own individuality.
(I Pledge Word Count: 199).
The readings did make a case for what you have argued. Major emphasis was placed on proper dress and conformity to the standard. I do believe that the website should have given some text to countercultures. I do not know anything about 1950s counterculture, but I am sure that there was at least some at the time. You bring up the beginning of ideal body imaging coming out around this time, but I wonder if there has not always been some form of it throughout the past? At the end you bring up women returning to domestic life, post WWII, so as to please their husbands. Yet you would think they would want their wives to work, at least part-time, so they could make more money and live more comfortably, right?
(I pledge 131)