American Women in 1950-1970
The portrayal of women's role and status in marriage and family
"Even though they make up half the population, women and girls have endured discrimination in most societies for thousands of years. In the past, women were treated as property of their husbands or fathers - they couldn't own land, they couldn't vote or go to school, and were subject to beatings and abuse and could do nothing about it. Over the last hundred years, much progress has been made to gain equal rights for women around the world, but many still live without the rights to which all people are entitled"
Robert Alan Silverstein
The typical portrayal of women in the period between 1950s – 1970s differs from the emerging image of a modern successful business woman of twentieth century. Before the feminist movement in 1960 began, women had to produce children, stay at home with them all day long and to cook the most incredible dinners for her husband while he is busy with more important things. For the most part, a woman in that period of time was less likely to have an occupation and was more often shown as a “spouse or parent” [2, p. 49]. A woman in 50s - 60s was pictured predominately as a provider of life, a perfect mother and wife with the primary duties of cleaning up the house, preparing the food and taking full responsibility in the education of children.A woman was not encouraged to become independent from her man. Let’s say she was forced by man-society to remain in her position of a housewife inside the “kitchen walls” and condemned to accept fighting all alone with the daily routine.
The domination of men was intensively shown in every domain of life in that period of time. A woman was obliged to please and satisfy each desire of her man and also to accept possibilities of being forced sexually or abused physically in the marriage. According to a study performed by Courtney Alice and Sarah Lockeretz in 1971, women in 1950s were seen as dependent to their men being nothing else as just "sex toys" (click here to watch more about the position of women in family). The both authors noticed that from man's perspective women were not able to make important things or serious decisions so that being fully dependent on men and their protection [1, pp.94, 95]. Thus, the criticism towards women was mostly extended to this idea that the place of a female is at home in the role of housewife, devoted wife and mother. Indeed, the truth is that the society from 1950s was completely different form the modern one that we live nowadays. Fifty years ago the relationship between husband and wife were quite different.The article “A good wife guide” (read the full article here) published in the magazine Housekeeping Monthly on 13th May, 1955 offered a good overview upon the image of woman’s status in 1950s and her role in the family. At first glance, almost everything described in that article sounds like a scenario for an old-school Holywood movie. None of the modern women can imagine themselves behaving the way a perfect wife does as in 1950's women's magazine. Thank to this article, we can compare how much the things got changed in the household over the few past decades. Above you can find a video that illustrates all the rules for a good wife presented in the described article. Enjoy ladies :) |
The 1960s-70s American feminist movement. The place of women in society
"Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say,
She doesn’t have what it takes. They will say, Women don’t have what it takes.
Clare Boothe Luce. The first American woman appointed to a major ambassadorial post abroad.
Browse the following link to see the gallery "The Classic images from the Golden Age of Advertising"
The former United Nations’ Secretary General Kofi Annan came up once with a strong message “…gender equality is critical to the development and peace of every nation" and he was more than completely right.
Before the 1950’s, America suffered hardly from the dramatic consequences created by the Great Depression and the Second World War. In 1960s an active fight against manpower and gender segregation hast started. It was a liberation movement for women's rights, equal opportunities for work, and women's active integration in all spheres of employment and education. The person that made the first step toward the revolution in this process on December 14, 1961, was the President John F. Kennedy who established the Commission on the Status of Women that reformed issues regarding women's equality in several domains as: education, politics and social security [5]. This decision was welcomed, due to the fact that there were many cases of discrimination against women recorded in the 1950s where female workers have been harassed sexually on the workplace and most often cases against working mothers who lost their jobs before or after getting a baby. In the article from CNN entitled "5 things women couldn't do in the 1960" the author Katie McLaughlin publishes a list about the things women could not do in the 1960s, i.e.:
Want to find out more about women revolution in sixties? Click here to watch a video about "Women's rights, environmental awareness and the new face of conservative politics" on bing.com!
Before the 1950’s, America suffered hardly from the dramatic consequences created by the Great Depression and the Second World War. In 1960s an active fight against manpower and gender segregation hast started. It was a liberation movement for women's rights, equal opportunities for work, and women's active integration in all spheres of employment and education. The person that made the first step toward the revolution in this process on December 14, 1961, was the President John F. Kennedy who established the Commission on the Status of Women that reformed issues regarding women's equality in several domains as: education, politics and social security [5]. This decision was welcomed, due to the fact that there were many cases of discrimination against women recorded in the 1950s where female workers have been harassed sexually on the workplace and most often cases against working mothers who lost their jobs before or after getting a baby. In the article from CNN entitled "5 things women couldn't do in the 1960" the author Katie McLaughlin publishes a list about the things women could not do in the 1960s, i.e.:
- Get a credit card. A woman was not allowed to issue a credit card without the permit of her husband. In the case if an unmarried woman is requesting a credit card, a bank could refuse to issue it. The things got changed in 1974 once with the issue of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act that claimed that it was illegal to refuse a credit card to a woman based on her gender [3]. One year later, the First Woman-Owned commercial bank was opened in New York City [9];
- Get pregnant at work. Until the issue of The Pregnancy Discrimination Act from 1978, a pregnant woman could be easily fired for becoming pregnant (to view the original Act from 1978, click here)
- Get an Ivy League education. Yale and Princeton did not accept female students until 1969. Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania started accepting women in 1870 and 1876, Harvard didn't admit women until 1977. Columbia started accepting women to high education at the beginning of 1981
- Serve on a jury. The reason why women could not serve on a jury is that they have been seen in that period of time as housewives and home makers with the primary place at home. As already mentioned in the previous section, women in 1950 - 1970s were just too fragile and dependent to men in order to undertake such serious jobs in that positions. The things got changed in 1973 when women could start serve in juries in around all 50 states of America.
- Go on the birth control pill. The issue for freedom regarding the control of birth was firstly opened for discussions in 1960. In this year, the pill was approved to be used as a legal contraceptive in some US states. Before that, women faced serious restriction when she decided to make an abortion due to the fact that terminating a pregnancy was seen as an illegal procedure against the state.Once with the approval of pill usage, the sexual revolution has begun.The opponents of the pill were arguing that legalization of pill will "promote prostitution". The pill was seen a long time as immoral when used by married women.
- Experience equality in the workplace. Pregnant and working women from 1950s were fighting with a hard discrimination on the workplace.The Civil Rights Act from 1964 stated that it was illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender, or race women on the workplace. The provisions of this civil rights act forbade "discrimination on the basis of sex as well as race in hiring, promoting, and firing" .Two years later, the National Organization of Women (NOW) enforced full equality for women. In 1980, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued guidelines declaring sexual harassment a violation of sexual nature that constituted sexual harassment [8]
Want to find out more about women revolution in sixties? Click here to watch a video about "Women's rights, environmental awareness and the new face of conservative politics" on bing.com!
The position of Women in Literature. The Perspective of male writers.
In the book “Thinking about Women” (1968) Mary Ellmann actively described in a separate chapter the feminine stereotypes as well as the way women have been pressed down by men in family and society in the last past decades. In this section, the author stressed attention upon two female stereotypes of incorrigible figures and namely “the shrew and the witch” attributed directly to women for centuries [7, p. 140].
Mary was writing that men are not as heroic as they want to be seen. Furthermore, they turned from an image of “no longer strong, but weak” and “no longer heroic but anti-heroic” (Stevenson). In addition to that, the trades and professions between
men and women had been continuously separated in following extend “male magic was intellectual, women magic manual” [7, p.141]. In addition to that, Ellman highlighted the idea how women were described by American male writers in literature to the extend of: unconfident, passive, irrational or even hysterical.Therefore, the male writers have been not providing in a realistic way female characters in their literal works by stressing attention to their weekness and helplessness.
Herewith, we would like to present a book list that will enrich you the idea of how women's status started to change in the 1950s.
For further information about the history, style and brilliant personalities between 50s -70s, access the following web links inserted :
- 1950s Fashion History, Costume History & 50s Social History
- Important and Famous Women in America
- History of International Women's Day
- The Most Sexist Print Ads from the 1950s
- Women who changed the world
- Vintage poster size music press adverts from 60s and 70s
- Born in the Fifties
Collection of Internet Archives & Digital Databases:
- Women - National Archives and Records Administration
- The National Archives for Black Women's History
- Youtube - Vintage Fashion and Beauty Archive
- Discovering American Women's History Online.
- The 1950s Women's Fashion Film Archive
- American women and the world war
- The 60's Fashion Archive
- The 70's Fashion Archive
- Vogue Archive
- Gucci Archive
Useful book references about the history of American women and the evolution of women's rights in the USA:
The 1950s
- Bayyinah S. Jeffries (2014) "A Nation Can Rise No Higher Than Its Women: African American Muslim Women in the Movement for Black Self-Determination,1950-1975"
- Darlene Clark Hine (1989) "Black Women in White: Racial Conflict and Cooperation in the Nursing Profession, 1890-1950"
- Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James (1971) "Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary: 1607-1950"
- Martha J. Bailey. (1998) "American Women in Science 1950 to the Present: A Biographical Dictionary"
- Susan L. Smith (1995 "Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired. Black Women's Health Activism in America, 1890-1950"
- Suzanne O'Dea, Ann W. Richards (2006) "From Suffrage to the Senate: America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues"
The 1960s
- Gail, Collins (2010) "When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present"
- Gail, Collins(2007) "America's Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines"
- Judith E. Barlow (1999) "We Have Come to Stay: American Women and Political Parties, 1880-1960"
- Stephanie (Coontz 2011) "A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique” and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s"
- Walter Cronkite, Amy Nathan(2004)"Count on Us: American Women in the Military"
The 1970s
- Constance Waeber Elsberg (2003) "Graceful Women: Gender and Identity in an American Sikh Community"
- Frank L. Mott (1982) "The Employment Revolution: Young American Women in the 1970s"
- Irene Browne (1999) "Latinas and African American Women at Work"
- Susannah Walker (2007) "Style and Status: Selling Beauty to African American Women, 1920-1975"
- Winifred D. Wandersee (1988) "On the Move: American Women in the 1970s (American Women in the Twentieth Century"
Bibliography
- Alice Courtney & Sarah W. Lockeretz (1971) "A woman's place: An analysis of roles portrayed by women in magazine advertisements. Journal of Marketing Research". pp. 8, 92-95;
- Bernice, Lott (1993) “Women's Lives: Themes and Variations in Gender Learning” Brooks/Cole. p.49;
- CNN
“Five things women couldn't do in the 1960s" http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/07/living/sixties-women-5-things/ last accessed 28/01/2015;
- Elizabeth Stevenson “Thinking About Women" by Mary Ellmann. Article about Sex & Sensibility in Commentary Magazine. https://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/thinking-about-women-by-mary-ellmann/., last accessed 25/01/2015;
- Encyclopaedia Britannica.com President’s Commission on the Status of Women. 2013. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/475262/Presidents-Commission-on-the-Status-of-Women, last accessed 03/02/2015;
- Kristin, Celello (2009) “Making Marriage Work: A History of Marriage and Divorce in the Twentieth Century USA”. The University of North Carolina Press; Reprint edition;
- Mary, Ellmann “Thinking about Women” (1968) Harcourt Brace & World, pp.140 – 229;
- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Policy Guidance on Current Issues of Sexual Harassment. http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/currentissues.html , last accessed 01/02/2015;
- Women's rights and their money: a timeline from Cleopatra to Lilly Ledbetter. http://www.theguardian.com/money/us-money-blog/2014/aug/11/women-rights-money-timeline-history last accesed 30/01/2015.