Gender Project: 1950s

Berzelai, Cayden, Morgan, Xavier

Masculinity in 1950s
• Associated with strength, authority, and individualism (lack of
conformity)
• Pressured to marry and have a family, expected to be head of
domestic life
• Expected to be tough emotionally and physically
• Not allowed to show any aspects of "femininity" including curiosity
and intellectual pursuit
• Stronger perpetuation of stereotypes due to media
Outside Source

How to Be in Fashion and Stay an Individual: “...many Americans

began to reframe the circulating mass culture criticism within an
overriding ‘masculinity crisis.’ Subsequently, in the broader debate
that erupted in mid-century America, many Americans – and
intellectuals in particular – began to worry that doing as one was
told weakened the traditionally masculine qualities of strong,
authoritative action and replaced them with the commonly expected
feminized attributes of obedient compliance” (Lebovic 179).
Outside Source
Belief in Domesticity: “For men and women in the postwar
period, performing domesticity correctly – that is, following the
gender, sexual, social and material scripts of white middle‐class
domesticity – emerged as a central means of demonstrating one's
membership in the nation. Homophile activists of the 1950s did not
reject such conceptions of domestic citizenship, but adapted them –
encouraging their readers to strive for greater domestic stability, as
a step towards greater personal fulfilment and greater communal
and national belonging.” (Vider)
Gender Readings

Being a Man: “Even the expression “Be a man!” strikes me as

insulting and abusive. It means: Be stupid, be unfeeling, obedient,
soldierly and stop thinking. Man means “manly” — how can one
think about men without considering the terrible ambition of
manliness? And yet it is part of every man’s life. It is a hideous and
crippling lie; it not only insists on difference and connives at
superiority, it is also by its very nature destructive — emotionally
damaging and socially harmful” (567-568).
Gender Readings

Being a Man: “It was the 1950s and if you asked too many questions
about sex you were sent to camp — boy’s camp, of course: the
nightmare. Nothing is more unnatural or prison-like than a boy’s
camp, but if it were not for them, we would have no Elks’ Lodges, no
pool rooms, no boxing matches, no Marines” (568)
Femininity in 1950s

• Defined by ability to please and be obedient to husband and

household
• Ideal was to be a housewife and mother- status symbol
• Expected to conform to society's norms
• Very strict expectations enforced by media, strong perpetuation of
stereotypes
Outside Source

Beauty isn't all a matter of looking glamorous: “Beauty pages also

assisted readers in developing the skills needed to create a groomed
appearance by providing ‘how to’ advice such as tips for dealing with
hard skin on elbows and heels. Such advice functioned as a way of
educating readers (if they chose to follow such instructions) in how to
code their appearance ‘correctly’ to indicate conformity with socially
approved forms of femininity. Whereas glamour often had
connotations of dubious morality and disrepute, good grooming
signaled respectable femininity” (Ritchie 733)
Outside Source

How media like cookbooks were used to socially confine women:

“Conservative backlash against feminist gains has often linked
women's role in society to food preparation. For instance, historians
associate the emergence of the modern cookbook with rhetoric in the
1930s that constructed culinary household tasks as an enjoyable and
creative outlet for middle-class housewives.” (Neuhaus)
Gender Readings

Professions for Women: “She would have plucked the heart out of my
writing. For, as I found, directly I put pen to paper, you cannot
review even a novel without having a mind of your own, without
expressing what you think to be the truth about human relations,
morality, sex. And all these questions, according to the Angel of the
House, cannot be dealt with freely and openly by women; they must
charm, they must conciliate, they must — to put it bluntly — tell
lies if they are to succeed” (Woolf 526-527).
Gender Readings

There is no Unmarked Woman: “As I amused myself finding

coherence in these styles, I suddenly wondered why I was
scrutinizing only the women. I scanned the eight men at the table.
And then I knew why I wasn’t studying them. The men’s styles were
unmarked.” (553).
Outside Factors- Ads & Media

• Advertisements used stereotypes to appeal to men and women by

representing ideals
• Strongly encouraged conformity to gender roles
• Women were expected to follow beauty standards that were
proliferated by media, as well as standards for being the perfect
housewife
Outside Factors – Women's Fashion

• “As the 1950s began, the initial resistance to the extravagance of

the New Look had died down and the silhouette was entrenched in
both women’s daywear and eveningwear. Dior himself continued to
produce designs that followed the feminine line even while
incorporating new elements, like the structural collar” (Reddy).
Outside Factors – Men's Fashion

• “...Tailors … introduced a slim cut suit with a velvet-

collared... While it was originally elegant, upper-class men who
wore these suits with narrow trousers, in the early 1950s, young
working-class men began to adopt and adapt the style for their own
purposes.... The clothes they adopted ... were items associated with
the working-class: jeans had previously only been acceptable for
farmers and other outdoor laborers, never for everyday wear”
(Reddy).
Outside Factors – Korean War

• "The act allowed women to serve as permanent members of the

Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force for the first time in
American history. Air Force nurses played a crucial role in
evacuating injured soldiers from battle zones in Korea, triaging
their wounds and facilitating communications with loved ones back
home." ("The Role of Women in the Korean War")
Outside Factors – Religion
• "Many of the men, the fathers of those children, were veterans of
'the great and good war' that had ended only 12 years before"
(Tucker).
Timeline of events
• 1941- 1945: World War II
• 1950: McCarthy Red Scare
• 1950-1953: Korean War
• 1950s-1960s: Major "baby boom" > population goes up 30 million in
3 years

Sources: Forman 856-999

& history.com
Works Cited
• “Fifty-Nine Years of Telephone Service.” Time, 7 Sept. 1953, p. 10.
• Forman, Steve. Give Me Liberty! Third AP Edition. W. W. Norton & Company, 2005.
• Jacobs, Harrison and Jim Edwards. “26 Sexist Ads Of The 'Mad Men' Era That
Companies Wish We'd Forget.” Business Insider, 8 May 2014, businessinsider.com/26-
sexist-ads-of-the-mad-men-era-2014-5. Accessed 1 Feb. 2021.
• Lebovic, Anna. “‘How to Be in Fashion and Stay an Individual’: American Vogue, the
Origins of Second Wave Feminism and Mass Culture Criticism in 1950s America.”
Gender & History, vol. 31, no. 1, Mar. 2019, pp. 178–194. History Reference Center,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=khh&AN=135199602&site=ehost-
live. Accessed 31 Jan. 2021.
Works Cited

• Neuhaus, Jessamyn. “The Way to a Man’s Heart: Gender Roles, Domestic Ideology,
and Cookbooks in the 1950s.” Journal of Social History, vol. 32, no. 3, Spring 1999, p.
529. History Reference Center,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=khh&AN=1650267&site=hrc-live.
Accessed 29 January 2021.
• “1950-1959.” Fashion History Timeline, 2 June 2019, fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/1950.
Accessed 04 Feb. 2021.
Works Cited
• Ritchie, Rachel. “‘Beauty Isn’t All a Matter of Looking Glamorous’: Attitudes to Glamour and Beauty in
1950s Women’s Magazines.” Women’s History Review, vol. 23, no. 5, Oct. 2014, pp. 723–743. History
Reference Center, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=khh&AN=97655637&site=ehost-live.
Accessed 1 Feb. 2021.
• Vider, Stephen. “Lesbian and Gay Marriage and Romantic Adjustment in the 1950s and 1960s United
States.” Gender & History, vol. 29, no. 3, Nov. 2017, pp. 693–715.History Reference Center,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=khh&AN=125690618&site=hrc-live. Accessed Jan. 29
2021.
• “The Role of Women in the Korean War.” Korean War Legacy, 16 Sept. 2020,
koreanwarlegacy.org/chapters/the-role-of-women-in-the-korean-war/. Accessed 9 Feb. 2020
• Tucker, Carol. “The 1950s - Powerful Years for Religion.” USC News, 3 Apr. 2012,
news.usc.edu/25835/The-1950s-Powerful-Years-for-Religion/. Accessed 9 Feb. 2020