Marta Zapala-Kraj

Women of 1950s. The Truth behind White Picket Fence Marta Zapala-Kraj

Essay from the year 2014 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 5.0, Jan Kochanowski University of Humanities and Sciences in Kielce, language: English, abstract: In this society driven by the need to reproduce as much as one could - just to fight back the Communists, children were the obvious center of the suburban life, as well as the reason why so many families decided to leave big cities and transfer to these areas where the feeling of safety and community were dominant. And so - although contained in their suburban realms and living both the dream life of wife in modern house and a scared woman in the nuclear threat era, 1950's housewives had another aspect to be aware of - the moral standards they had to keep up. [However] Beneath the illusion of happiness, women wanted more - more power, more control over their lives and above everything - more autonomy. But it was all forbidden and what is even worse - it was stuffed between the warped morality of 1950s and social standard empowered by the government, where male dominance resurfaced as if it were reborn in the pure form of Victorian society.