Topic: THE 1950’s
1. What was the prevailing definition of women in the 1950s? What kind of problems did this create for married women, career women, working class women and women of color?
2. Go into Google,com and use as your search words “How to be a Good Housewife”. This should show up as the second option and will be identified as an excerpt from a high school textbook from the 1950s. Read this document (it is short) and comment on what kind of message it conveys and how this relates to our reading for this week in HWA.
3. How would you relate Lorraine Hansberry’s play Raisin in the Sun to the discussion of Black women and men in the HWA reading? Consider the character of Walter, What special race and gender problems does he face? How does that come to a crisis at the very end of the play in his final confrontation with Mr. Lindner? What role do the women play in this final scene?
4. How would you relate the Langston Hughes poem that opens the play to the various characters? What kind of DREAM does each of them have? What are some of the things that both fuel and frustrate those dreams? What is the status of those dreams by the end of the play?
Lecture
THE 1950’s
The Depression and the war years had been uncertain and difficult. Part of the return to a normal way of life in the United States seemed to mean a restructuring of male and female roles with women making the home the central concern of their lives. Thus the cycle reversed itself once again. The model of the ideal woman as housewife-mother could be seen clearly in the women’s magazines from the late 1940’s to the early 1960’s. Betty Friedan, in her important and controversial book THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE, published in 1963, called this image of women the “happy housewife heroine.” Yet Friedan found that not all women were either happy in this role or even trying to play it. Friedan labeled the problem “the feminine mystique.” This, she wrote was the belief that the highest value and the only commitment for women was to fit into the housewife-mother ideal. The “mystique” taught that it was best for women to accept their “nature.” This nature was described as passive, accepting of male domination, and nurturing. Women who sought to step outside this role were accused of wanting to be like men and ignoring their proper and healthy destiny.
By 1950, in response to this “mystique,” more girls between the ages of 15 and 19 were marrying than any other age group. This was the lowest age in the nation’s history. The percentage of women attending college in comparison with men dropped from 47 percent in 1920 to 35 percent in 1958. By 1958, five women’s colleges had closed and twenty-one had become coed. Fewer than one out of every ten doctorates granted went to women, as compared to one in six in 1920.
In actuality, the feminine mystique’s understanding of the reality of women’s lives was not accurate. Not only were many housewives unable to identify with the image of the perfect housewife-mother, but also many of them were not even full-time housewives. Throughout the Depression and war, and into the 1950’s, there was a steady movement of wives and mothers from household activities into the world of paid employment. These women in the work force were to provide the material base for the rebirth of the women’s movement in the 1960’s. Another major contributing factor was the Civil Rights movement in the South which began in the 1950’. As in every national reform movement, women were to play a vital role in the struggle for social justice.
During this time, women continued to participate in sports. Althea Gibson was the first Black to compete in tennis matches at Forest Hills, New York, and Wimbledon, England, winning both titles in 1957 and 1958. In literature, women continued their successes in educating and entertaining the public. In GIFT FROM THE SEA, Anne Morrow Lindbergh questioned the role American women were expected to play. Gwendolyn Brooks became the first Black poet to win a Pulitzer Prize.
A brilliant and thoughtful scientist, Rachel Carson, in her influential study SILENT SPRING, exposed the dangers Americans faced from pollutants.
But in spite of continuing involvement in government, literary and scientific life (however limited), the idealized American woman was still different from Margaret Chase Smith or Althea Gibson. Many young girls chose as their ideal the major film star of the period, Marilyn Monroe, who became the leading sex symbol of the 1950’s. The stardom of her talent and body brought her also drove her to kill herself in 1962 when she was only 36 years old.
In spite of the superficiality of the prescribed roles for women during this decade, it is important to note that many women participated in the Civil Rights Movement in the South, which began in the early 1950’s with such courageous gestures as Rosa Parks’ refusal to go to the back of the bus! We can see the beginnings of protest in Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun: in the rage and humilitation of Walter, the quiet dignity of Lena, and the family’s courageous decision to affirm its own integrity at the end.
Reading: A HISTORY OF WOMEN IN AMERICA: 323-340
Lorraine Hansberry A Raisin in the Sun (OC bookstore)
Assignment
The Good Housewife
The following is excerpted from an actual 1950’s high school Home Economics textbook:
ADVANCE: How to be a Good Wife
HAVE DINNER READY: Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal–on time. This is a way to let him know that you have been thinking about him and are concerned with his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home, and having a good meal ready is part of the warm welcome that is needed.
PREPARE YOURSELF: Take fifteen minutes to rest so that you will be refreshed when he arrives. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people. Be a little gay and a little more interesting. His boring day may need a lift. Greet him with a smile.
CLEAR AWAY THE CLUTTER: Make one last trip though the main part of the house just before your husband arrives, gathering up children’s books and toys, papers, etc. Then run a dust cloth over the tables. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you lift too.
PREPARE THE CHILDREN: If they are small, wash their hands and faces and comb their hair. They are his little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part.
MINIMIZE ALL NOISE: At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise from the washer, dryer, or vacuum. Encourage the children to be quiet.
SOME “DO NOT’S”: Don’t greet him with problems and complaints. Don’t complain if he is late for dinner. Count this as a minor problem compared to what he might have gone through that day.
MAKE HIM COMFORTABLE: Have a cool or warm drink ready for him. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or suggest that he lie down in the bedroom. Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing voice. Allow him to relax and unwind.
LISTEN TO HIM: You may have a dozen things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first.
MAKE THE EVENING HIS: Never complain if he doesn’t take you to dinner or to other entertainment. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his need to unwind and relax.
THE GOAL: TO MAKE YOUR HOME A PLACE OF PEACE AND ORDER WHERE YOUR HUSBAND CAN RELAX IN BODY AND SPIRIT.
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