Around the 1950’s and 60’s, the stereotype of the American housewife became the preferred fodder for female entertainers and comedians. Entertainers like Lucille Ball and Phyllis Diller challenged ideas about societal gender roles, as well as female humor in general. The 1950’s brought with it a wave of innovative technology, economic opportunities, emerging entertainment genres, and new understandings of the roles of women in the household. With the addition of helpful, new machines such as the washing machine, vacuum, and ironing board to the home, it might initially be assumed that these devices would have lessened the workload of the American housewife. However, the creation of such technology introduced an entirely new concept of “cleanliness” …show more content…
Changes in the larger societal culture affected the duties and responsibilities of women as well as the values that were associated with the proper roles of women.
Lucille Ball is a quintessential example of a 1950’s celebrity who challenged the idea of the “perfect all-American housewife” through her humor, specifically through her role in the widely-acclaimed television show, I Love Lucy. In the show, Lucy’s character greatly defies typical gender roles of 1950’s women by holding various jobs, openly defying her husband Ricky on several occasions, and even cross-dressing at certain points. It is clear that Lucy did not fall into the mold of an ideal
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The Feminist Movement had been gaining in popularity, thanks in part to Betty Friedan's book, The Feminine Mystique, published in 1963, and the establishment of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966. More women were being educated and entering the workplace, often into once male-dominated fields. Despite this, only a few female stand-up comedians gained national recognition, and those who did were regulated to making mostly self-deprecating jokes. Still, these women marched onward, challenging cultural norms and questioning gender roles with their
...re involved in the male’s productive task. It was the mother’s role to teach her children how they should behave, the cultural trends and social values. Women taught their young ones the social skills and cultural forms and norms in order to get along with society and guided them on how should they behave not only in the household but in the larger community. Women brought up the children who represented the future of the household and society.
For a long time ago, women just did anything at home: clean the house, wash clothes, cook the meals, and work outside the house and nutrient their children. Then they followed to order from their husband at home, and listen to the words of their husband. In addition, they made many little things in the military: wash clothes, serve the meals, and fix the clothes. The next things that it was convinced me when women had their own value in society. They began to raise their own worth and sense of themselves to build their country even though no one explained to them. People can consider that they endured very much but they did not still accept
Such is the case with the actress Lucille Ball most known for the hit I Love Lucy and
Some historians have argued that 1950s America marked a step back for the advancement that women made during WWII. What contributed to this “return to domesticity” and do you believe that the the decade was good or bad for women?
In the early 1900’s, women who were married main jobs were to care for her family, manage their houses, and do housework. That is where the word housewife was come from. During the 1940's, women's roles and expectations in society were changing quickly and a lot. Before, women had very limited say in society. Since unemployment was so high during the Great Depression, most people were against women working because they saw it as women taking jobs from men that needed to work. Women were often stereotyped to stay home, have babies, and to be a good wife and mother. Advertisements often targeted women, showing them in the kitchen, talking with children, serving dinner, cleaning, and them with the joy of a clean house or the latest kitchen appliance.
The Cult of Domesticity is an offensive gesture; however in the 1950s’ there was validity this gesture. The rise of feminism has created a society in which there are more single mothers than ever before, long side more children born out of wedlock. The United States Census Bureau states, “During the 1960-2016 period, the percentage of children living with only their mother nearly tripled from 8 to 23 percent and the percentage of children…” (1). The article the Cult of Domesticity indeed points out the valid flaws of Ideal duties/expectations of domesticity in the 1950s’; however, I would like to state that anything man-made idea or material mechanism is not without faults. The agreeable points of the list were that there should be a genuine respect and act of service shown to our husbands each day. However, the list made a hard-left turn in suggesting that women are not to question the motives of their husband, and/or the location of their husbands if they chose to be late after work. Lastly, if husbands choose to
Aunt Rosana’s Rocker As times change, everything changes with it. The roles that women take on have changed in certain cultures, but in some cultures they have remained the same. Before, men were treated with more respect and superiority, while women had no voices or say in the events that took place in their society. Today, there are situations where men are taken more seriously than women, but slowly, women are being treated with respect and play an active role in their community and have involved themselves within their community. In certain cases the roles never change because the people do not change along with the society.
The social perception of women has drastically changed since the 1950’s. The social role of women during the 1950’s was restrictive and repressed in many ways. Society during that time placed high importance on expectations of behavior in the way women conducted themselves in home life as well as in public. At home the wife was tasked with the role of being an obedient wife, caring mother, and homemaker. Women publicly were expected to form groups and bond over tea with a slice of cake. All the while government was pushing this idealize roll for women in a society “dominated” by men. However, during this time a percentage of women were finding their way into the work force of men. “Women were searching their places in a society led by men;
I Love Lucy is a conservative sitcom that does not tend to stray away from the gender norm, episodes in which Lucy tried to get onto her husbands show was seen in the best light and were met with critical scrutiny. As Lucy attempted to transcend her subordinate status, fails and is then swiftly brought back to the world of domesticity. Patricia Mellencamp stated in her analysis of unruly women of sitcoms that “ Lucy’s plots for ambition and fame narratively failed, with the result that she was held, often gratefully, to domesticity, performatively they succeeded”. Although the show appears to stick to the status quo, the repetition of her attempts to assert autonomy and escape the world of domesticity gave a voice to the frustration of the middle class housewife. The repetition of Lucy’s desire to escape from her role as a housewife, gives emphasis to the desire.
Women receive very little say and respect in society. Women are expected to stay home and be the perfect housewife, they cook food, take care of their children, clean, and clothes. Women have to make sure to prepare a warm and delicious meal for their husbands to eat after a long day at work, this is seen a
Due to the idealization of domesticity in media, there was a significantly stagnant period of time for women’s rights between 1945 and 1959. Women took over the roles for men in the workplace who were fighting abroad during the early 1940s, and a strong, feminist movement rose in the 1960s. However, in between these time periods, there was a time in which women returned to the home, focusing their attention to taking care of the children and waiting on their husband’s every need. This was perpetuated due to the increasing popularity of media’s involvement in the lives of housewives, such as the increasing sales of televisions and the increase in the number of sexist toys.
“Women’s roles were constantly changing and have not stopped still to this day.” In the early 1900s many people expected women to be stay at home moms and let the husbands support them. But this all changes in the 1920s, women got the right to vote and began working from the result of work they have done in the war. Altogether in the 1920s women's roles have changed drastically.
Since I was a little girl, my mother always made it clear that a husband was unobtainable if a woman could not properly tend to his needs. I learned how to cook, how to clean, how to do laundry, and I even learned how to take care of my younger siblings all because, according to my mother, these responsibilities were a woman’s duty; it was her job. For centuries, this has been the mindset for every woman, which has been passed down from generation to generation. A stereotype that has influenced a culture and defined a human being. In this 1930’s Kellogg’s PEP Cereal advertisement we witness yet another stereotype defining women into this sexist housewife persona. Through the use of clothing and appearance, text and audience the ad conveys
The conclusion of this essay is that there are four prime factors that construct gender role in today’s society. They include our family, society, educational systems and self conscious. There are other cultural products that affect the gender within these four. category. The.
More and more women work outside and inside the home. The double demands shouldered by these women pose a threat to their physical health. Whether you are an overworked housewife or an exhausted working mother the chances are that you are always one step behind your schedule. No matter how hard women worked, they never ended up with clean homes. Housewives in these miserable circumstances often became hysterical cleaners. They wore their lives away in an endless round of scouring, scrubbing, and polishing. The increased strain in working women comes from the reality that they carry most of the child-rearing and household responsibilities. According to social trends (1996), women always or usually do the washing in 79 percent of cases and decide the menu 59 percent of the time. Picking up the children at school or doing grocery shopping are just a few of the many typical household-tasks a woman takes on every day.