Good Afternoon!!! HOT ROC: Women in the 1950s “Peace, Prosperity, and Progress”: Rise of Suburbia and the middle class Poverty in the 1950s Essential Question: Were the 1950s a decade of “peace, prosperity, and progress” for all Americans? Homework: Study for Test FRIDAY!

According to these images, what do you think life was like for suburban women in the 1950s? A 1950s ad for a cleaning product A 1950s ad for an electric iron

“Peace, Prosperity, and Progress” 1950’s are a decade of prosperity and affluence fueled by Consumerism Suburbia: middle class family communities outside of the cities Levittown: first planned suburban community Post-WWII Trends Men: GI Bill of Rights helps former soldiers receive financial aid for college and job training Increases size of the middle class! Women: pushed out of jobs and back into the home by returning GIs Levittown, PA

Women in the 1950s

The Good Wife's Guide From a 1950’s Home Economics high school textbook Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready on time for his return. This is a way of letting him know that you have be thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they get home and the prospect of a good meal is part of the warm welcome needed. Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you'll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people. Be happy and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.

Life in Levittown “The Levitts’ homes were affordable, planted in a picture-perfect, carefully controlled community, and were equipped with futuristic stoves and television sets. The houses were simple, unpretentious, and most importantly to its inhabitants, affordable to both the white and blue collar worker. And the Levitts took more than the homes themselves into consideration—they designed community streets along curvilinear patterns to create a graceful, un-urban grid like feel, and directed cars going through the development to the outside of the community so Levittown would not be disturbed by noisy traffic. Even the maintenance of houses and yards were meticulously governed; buyers agreed to a laundry list of rules that, for example, prohibited residents from hanging laundry to dry outside their homes.”– Journalist David Kushner

Critics of Suburbia Analyze the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjbV9z50gPM This song was written in 1962. What does this say about how some people viewed the lifestyle of the 1950s-1960s What is conformity? How is conformity perceived as positive and how can it be perceived as negative?

Transition: Poverty in the Age of Affluence Read the following quote and analyze “Affluence creates poverty.”--Marshall McLuhan, Canadian philosopher Discuss with your partner. How might affluence create poverty? Because America is an affluent society, do you think we will ever be able to get rid of poverty?

Defining Poverty Poverty line: the minimum amount of income (money) someone needs to make to support basic needs C.1958 poverty line set at $3000 per year for families The Other America: popular book reveals 25% of all Americans living BELOW the poverty line 50 million people

The Other America Why did poverty persist in the United States in an age of affluence?

Attempts at Reform: “Urban Renewal”

Pruitt-Igoe Clip 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfVXkQTs_pQ&index=2&list=PLyy8BrdwVyjRoE-VRWVQzET7_tJlqPdYU (2:58 - 7:45 min. - Intention and Overview) What was the city of St. Louis’s goal in creating the Pruitt-Igoe public housing project? How is the housing project first presented? How do the living conditions at Pruitt-Igoe change over time? What are the different hypotheses the video offers about why the Pruitt-Igoe housing project failed? Which of these hypotheses does the video seem to present as the most convincing?

Pruitt-Igoe Clip 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfVXkQTs_pQ&index=2&list=PLyy8BrdwVyjRoE-VRWVQzET7_tJlqPdYU (38:000 – 46:10 Ghettoization/The Color Line/Poverty and Jobs) How did Pruitt-Igoe become a racially segregated community? What were some of the burdens that blacks had to bare living in segregated neighborhoods? What happened to the urban industrial economy after WWII? How did this impact poor African-Americans?

Poverty Today Poverty Line today $11,000 for individual $23,000 for family 15% of Americans living below the poverty line 46 million people