The Role of Woman in the American Society in the 1950’s -1960’s

What were the role of woman in the 1950’s- 1960’s? The primary evidence of the role women in that time were in advertisements. Advertisements from 1950's and 1960’s suggest that women were perceived as inferior to men, were expected to be great housewives focused mostly on pleasing their husbands and play the role of mothers.

Advertisements from 1950's and 1960's promote the idea that a woman is expected to be a homemaker. In the appendix A, we have an advertisement of a husband and wife and it says in the right top corner, “The chef does everything but cook, that’s what wives are for!” they both have a big smile on their face and are in front to a cooking machine.

This advertisement shows that woman’s responsibility was to take care of the family while the husband’s work. The target audience were women. Woman couldn’t have jobs, or anything that will take her attention from doing her chores around the house. Woman were supposed to rely on the man to make money for them. The purpose of this picture is to let all the men know that they are not supposed to cook, that’s only the woman’s job. That they will provide with the money and woman will take care of them. Woman were viewed as housewives and were treated like they were not smart to have a job and provide for themselves. This was the quality of life woman had in the 1950’s and 1960’s. This advertisement shows a domestic life for woman as they were only expected to take care of their husbands and kids.

Another advertisement of the role of woman in the 1950’s and 1960’s suggest that women were focused mostly on pleasing their husbands. In the appendix B, we have the husband and kid playing outside and the wife is watching them through the window inside the kitchen. It also says “woman don’t leave the kitchen” on the bottom left corner. The purpose for this add is to let everyone know that women were only require to focused doing chores around the house while their husbands worked all day. The target audience are men. The lifestyle of this advertisement is that all women are supposed to stay at home. Women were viewed as maids. They had accountability of making sure everything is ready when the husband gets home. This advertisement shows that the husband and the kid could enjoy themselves outside but the wife had to be inside taking care of her chores, they could not enjoy some loving time with the family. This is the idea how woman needed to act and which duties they needed to accomplish in the house.

Next, Advertisements from 1950’s and 1960’s suggest that woman were expected to be great housewives. In the last appendix C, we have a couple and it shows the woman is taking out the food out from the oven that she cooked for her husband. The husband is standing behind her supervising her. In the right top corner, it states “successful marriages start in the kitchen”. The purpose of this picture is to show that for a successful marriage woman need to know how to please their husband. The target audience is woman who need to know the skills and ability to cook a delicious meal. They’re viewed as cookers and housewives. Woman needed to have everything that the husband wanted done. They were expected to make cooking fun. Planning lovely meals for her man, preparing all sort of interesting dishes and failure free cooking. During this time, this is what would make a marriage successful.

Another advertisement from 1950’s and 1960’s suggest that women were perceived as inferior to men. In appendix D, we have a woman on her knees holding the food for her husband while he is laying down on the bed with a smile on his face. In the right top corner, it states “show her it’s a man’s world”. The purpose of this advertisement is to show that men are inferior to woman, that woman were basically treated like were servant to their husbands. The target audience is man reminding them how to treat woman. The lifestyle of this advertisement is woman having individual rights as a woman. This is the quality of life woman during this time. While men had everything handed to them, woman had to work hard for every little thing they wanted. This advertisement show how unfair woman were treated and how far they had to work to make their husbands happy.

Last, the advertisements in the 1950’s 1960’s suggested the need for training young girls to prepare them for such duties as housewives. In the appendix E, we have a woman and her daughter in the kitchen in front of the stove. The mom is telling the little girl “Clever you” meaning she is teaching her daughters how to cook, she is passing on the traits of cooking to the next generation. This is the idea of how a mother should raise her kids. By making sure she will be able to take care of her future husband because that’s one of the requirements woman needed to know during this time. This advertisement shows educational values to better the little girls future. The priory of woman during this time was to play the role of mothers. They goal was to raise their kids and make sure they were successful.

In conclusion, Advertisements from 1950's suggest that women were perceived as inferior to men, were expected to be great housewives focused mostly on pleasing their husbands. Also in 1960’s women were engaged in a powerful social movement that demanded equal rights, the feminist movement. The feminist movement was becoming very popular in 1960’s. It was focused on woman’s legal rights.

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