Domestic Containment In Homeward Bound, By Elaine Tyler

Domestic Containment

Kara Kozuch
United States Since 1945
February 3, 2015

In Homeward Bound, Elaine Tyler May portrays the connection between foreign and political policy and the dynamics of American families during the post war and Cold War eras through the idea of containment. She argues that political containment bred domestic containment by tying together the widespread anticommunist views of the years following World War II with the ideal of American suburban domesticity. According to May, "domestic containment" was a side effect of the fears and aspirations that arose after the war had ended - within the home, "potentially dangerous social forces of the new age might be tamed, where they could contribute

May argues that “the depression thus paved way for two different family forms: one with two breadwinners who shared tasks and the other with spouses whose roles were sharply differentiated.” In the latter form the father would have earned a “family wage” while his wife would have been responsible the children and their home, only working if it was necessary to supplement her husband’s income. This trend was caused mainly by two factors. During the financial strain of the depression, marriage and birth rates were much lower than they had been in the previous decade while the divorce rate was much higher. Young men of the time were afraid that they would not be able to provide for their new families and chose not to get married. While young women on the other hand, encountered an employment boom that allowed them to gain a sense of economic freedom that allowed them to not feel compelled to marry. This new single woman was glamorized by Hollywood during the 1930s. However, families tended toward choosing a life with the husband earning a “family wage” with the wife at home. Why? May concludes, "for all its affirmation of the emancipation of women, Hollywood fell short of pointing the way toward a restructured family that would incorporate independent women." Films from the 1930s like Gone with the Wind and His Girl Friday portrayed strong female leads that had to choose between their independent working life and domestic happiness, as it seemed that both could not coexist in their lives. Another cause for this were the programs implemented during the New Deal Era. Such programs aimed to raise male employment levels and often did nothing for female employment. Men had become embittered during the depression when women