Role Of Marriage In The 1950s

The era of the 1950s was an iconic era in American history. The American dream of freedom, self empowerment, and success was growing. After world war 1, the ideals of american culture changed. The country saw the aftermath of the war in the countries of western Europe where communism was beginning to take hold, and the U.S tried to be the opposite. Marriage was propagated to be the opposite of the war torn families across the world, where women were working in factories and children fending for themselves with no home. The American “nuclear family” strived to be one where the father supported his family, the wife stayed home and provided for her children. Family became a national priority, and women were taught that a happy marriage and home

The children born in the 1950s through 1960s were called the baby boomer generation. Many women were pregnant soon after marriage, and those who became pregnant before marriage were expected to marry the other parent. Families were large, as most families had an average family size of four to five kids. While children were expected and often an exciting part of marriage, the sexual component of a healthy marriage often worried young wives. Without a reliable form of birth control, women faced three decades of childbearing years before menopause. In the late 1950s, the Pill came into the market. This was a huge step for women, as couples could now decide when they wanted to start their family. For many women, pregnancy was not a welcome gift, it was an emotional blow that caused stress to their marriage and personal well being. Specialized health care was not available to women, as family practitioners were the main doctor. Abortion was a very hard to find operation, as abortion is illegal. Occasionally women could find a sympathetic doctor who would perform one. They were often called therapeutic abortions, or were performed because the doctors decided that the women would die during