Peacetime Women

I have been exploring a bit of women's history in my research on the Progressive Movement in the United States. During the early twentieth century, the progressives worked to get women into government service and into unions. Remember that the progressives want to manage society. The best way to manage a society is to have all members of society working for government or big business.

After the conflict that we call World War II ended, many women left the workforce to get married and start families. The 1950s ushered in an era of prosperity in the United States that had never before been seen. The middle class grew by leaps and bounds.

This prosperity was brought about by a surplus of cash that many people in the United States had. During the war the government instituted rationing so the resources of the nation could be put into the war effort. Since people could not spend money during the war, they had lots of money to spend once the war was over. The young couples that were buying suburban homes with dishwashers and televisions were children of the Great Depression. They knew what is was like to be without food. They also wanted a better life for their children.

Women left the workforce not because they were told to, but because they wanted to. They knew how their mother's struggled during the Great Depression to help provide for their families. Women wanted the luxury of being able to stay at home and raise their children knowing that they did not have to worry about where their next meal was coming from. Progressives saw this as a setback for women's rights. American history textbooks scorn women who decided to stay home and raise families rather than work outside the home.

Parents of the 1950s spoiled their children rotten. A very influential writer, Dr. Benjamin Spock, wrote an influential book - Baby and Child Care. Remember back in the 1920s women were encouraged to look to "experts" outside the extended family for advice on how to raise their children. The old adage "spare the rod, spoil the child" was tossed away. Spock proposed a child centric family unit rather than the parents disciplining the child and molding the child into what they expected as far as behavior and lifetime goals. Also, since the parents had more disposable income than ever before, they bought their children many luxuries that the children began to expect as entitlements rather than privileges, from records and record players to their own cars.

Even though many women left the workforce after World War II, one third of married women continued to work outside the home. Again market forces were at work rather than the artificial influences of government and big business. My maternal grandmother was a single mother who worked as a teacher after she was widowed. My paternal grandmother and my husband's grandmothers continued to work outside the home after the war ended. The ability for women to obtain jobs did not end with World War II. If women wanted to work, they could. If they didn't want to work, they didn't have to.

My next post will look at the next generation of women. The sense of entitlement that they gained as children spilled over into their early adulthood. It erupted into another sexual revolution that has set women back by centuries. As these women burned their bras and broke glass ceilings, they abandoned the family and their purpose.