1. Women in the 1950s Essential Question: What was life like
for suburban women in the 1950s?

2. WWII employment for women
Large demand for labor
New job opportunities for women
30,000 served in the military
Women’s Auxiliary Corps laboratory technician conducts an experiment, Fort Jackson State Hospital, 1944
Aircraft engine technician and senior supervisor, Naval Air Base, 1942

3. A secretary and her boss, an industrial designer, New York City, 1950
Post-WWII employment
Replaced by veterans
Employment rates increased for women
Limited opp. for Af-Am women
A secretary and her boss, an industrial designer, New York City, 1950

4. Kennedy wedding, Jacqueline throwing the bouquet, 1953
Social pressures
Early marriage
Childbearing
Stay-at-home motherhood
Nuclear family
Kennedy wedding, Jacqueline throwing the bouquet, 1953

5. The Baby Boom
Births
Year

6. Media portrayals of gender
Ideal of domesticity
A woman’s role in the family
Flawless house
A photo of the Cleaver family from Leave it to Beaver, a popular TV show in the 1950s-60s

7. Suburbia, home of the “happy housewife”
G.I. Bill
Mass-produced, affordable homes
Great Migration and “white flight”
Levittown track homes of the 1950s

8. Household products marketed to women
A 1950s ad for a cleaning product
A 1950s ad for an electric iron

9. Central Historical Question
Is the image of the happy 1950s housewife accurate?

10. Discussion Questions Were housewives happy with their lives?
2) Were women in the 1950s just staying at home?
3) Documents A and B say women were staying at home; but Documents C and D say that women were politically involved and even working. Who should we believe?
4) Do you think African-American, Latina, Asian American, and women from other minority groups had similar experiences to those depicted in these documents? Why or why not?