Gender Roles In The 1940s

Gender roles have existed since the beginning of civilization. Historically, women were treated as physically and mentally frail creatures while men were viewed as the stronger and more capable sex. Gender roles created predisposed notions of what a woman should be, as seen through a male-dominated lens; quite similarly the same lens dictated the notion of the role a man should conform to. Largely influenced by social, economic, and technological factors of the era, gender roles in the 1940s and the 1950s saw a great amount of change. While the trauma of the 1940s resulted in an unseen level of gender equality, the 1950s drastically redefined the roles of men and women in American culture, and in doing so created norms that are still present

in our current society.
In the Roaring Twenties in American society, there was a national feeling of limitless possibilities. Unfortunately, this economic and societal high did not last long as the stock market crash of 1929 triggered the economic downturn that would take the nation a decade from which to recover. The Great Depression was a devastating economic crisis: unemployment numbers increased to an all time high, as an estimated 15 million Americans were left without a job . Banks were failing, and with no financial security or means to make money, there was nationwide panic. Under President Herbert Hoover, the government unsuccessfully attempted to create programs to help civilians who were suffering from starvation, poverty and illness.
With thousands of men and women newly unemployed, the government was forced to spend heavily on relief programs. These, however, were often inadequate and left many people without enough food, clothing, and other necessities to properly support their families. Malnutrition became rampant and facilitated the spread of beriberi, tuberculosis and other diseases.

As America was reaching its social and economic low point, Europeans were beginning to feel the rumblings of war. Adolf Hitler’s ascension to total political power in Germany and his consequent decision to lead the German army into neighboring countries would give way to what would come to be known as the most cataclysmic war in world history. On September 1, 1939, German troops invaded Polish territory. This direct attack on Poland not only breached the Munich Agreement of 1938 but the Polish-British Common Defense Pact of 1939 which stated that “should one of the Contracting Parties become engaged in hostilities with a European Power… the other Contracting Party will at once give the Contracting Party engaged in hostilities all the support and assistance in its power.” The German invasion of Poland thus triggered the entrance of Britain and France into the Second World War.
During this time in America, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to his second term as president. Roosevelt openly addressed the issue overseas and stood firm in his support of the Allied powers of China, the United Kingdom, and Russia. He conceded that although he gave his support, America could not join the war given its still unstable financial and societal state. This stance however, would quickly change as it became more apparent as to the type of war the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) were waging. The Second World War differed drastically from the previous wars in world history as new technologies gave way to advanced mechanized warfare. German U-boats, tanks, and machine guns were only a few of the new deadly machines that were utilized. Aircrafts, which had been so effective during the First World War, were upgraded with the invention of radio detecting and ranging apparatus, which equipped pilots with bombsight technology . The customization and improvement of ships, communication devices, and artillery such as cluster bombs and bunker busters were critical to the war effort. Of all the innovations to arise from World War II, the potential for an atomic weapon further highlighted the pertinence of science in warfare tactical weaponry. This was a new type of war, where the race for arms was not sufficient; the race for new ideas in warfare was more of a commodity as each side tried to outdo the other.
The bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 by the Japanese army finally forced Americans to join the fight with the Allies against the Axis powers. Once this occurred, men were drafted into the war effort, leaving behind their jobs as they took on the role of the nation’s protectors. As fighting nations must supply their troops with artillery, women were needed to fill the positions left by men. The American economy began to grow as the surge in war production opened new occupations for women, from which they had previously been excluded.
For the first time, women flooded the workforce. The role of men was also transformed from being unemployed and helpless as providers (as they had been during the decade of the Great Depression) to becoming needed and important in the eyes of the nation. During the Great Depression men felt emasculated because they could no longer support their families. The perception of men in history had not been altered much, as they were constantly thought to be the protectors, providers and breadwinners. Men were to keep the family financially secure with food on the table and a roof over their families’ head. During the Depression, America’s middle and lower class men lost much of their identity with regard to their masculinity and purpose. The start of World War II and America’s political and military backing of the Allied powers created numerous jobs at home. Men reentering the workforce began to build machinery and supply arsenal equipment, which in turn gave the American man of the 1940’s a renewed sense of self-worth. Once America officially entered the war, men sought to further reestablish their roles. Joining the war effort, becoming a solider, and protecting the nation, all meant one very valuable thing to American Depression era males: they were needed. “Moreover, in military units men could feel the sort of association with others that had become increasingly hard to find in the modern, individualistic world of the Marketplace. Here a man had a place; he could belong.” The need for soldiers to fight on behalf of the United States gave men a sense of importance that they felt robbed of during the Depression. As the role of men altered, naturally so did the role of their counterparts.
Previously only thought to be useful in a domestic environment, women now played an essential role in the Second World War. As American men left for battle, the need for artillery and other warfare supplies became even more in demand. Women began to take on the jobs that their husbands and fathers left behind, fueling the economy and the war effort. One of the most prominent liberation movements in feminist history was when women left their homes to enter the workforce. Positive female propaganda began circulating with the intention of influencing women, such as the iconic Rosie the Riveter image. Rosie depicted women as strong, tough, and capable, all of which contrasted with the initial image of women of being weak and feebleminded. Where there was a will, there was a way, and American women had the determination and drive to show their worth. Suddenly, women were the ones bringing home a paycheck and who were the breadwinners of the family. Women no longer needed to lean on men for financial stability, which furthered the growing sense of self-worth and independence that so many women craved. American women had felt the economic burden of the Depression just as acutely as men and the fact that they were a part of the revitalization of the economy was a huge point of pride.
“The war that took millions of young men away from home and resulted in so many women working out of the home changed the traditional family lifestyle and child-raising in fundamental ways. Women of all ages, including teenage girls, had a degree of personal freedom unprecedented in history-and once they had it there was no way they were going to let it go.” (Male and Female Roles, 171).

Unfortunately, this financial independence and usefulness did not last past the war. As World War II ended and troops returned home, there was again a change in the dynamics of gender roles in American culture. In 1945, as troops began to return home, American women were forced to ask themselves if they would stand firm in their claim of independence, or return to their domestic roles.
Once men arrived home from the war, they were adamant about not returning to the emasculated state they had fallen to during the Great Depression.

During the war the numbers of women working had peaked at nearly eight million, but within a year of VE Day that figure had fallen by a quarter. The men wanted their jobs back, and the usurpers were expected to beat a nifty but decorous retreat. Of course, there were some women who longed for nothing more than to be a housewife again: the safety, the security and no officer or factory boss barking orders in your face. (Cooke xviii).

As Cooke states, some women were too happy to be done with this sense of independence; they had had their fun.

Others did not have a choice because they were laid off. With the men back home and jobs no longer available to them, women returned to their prior position of homemaker. The baby boom of the 1950’s proved to be a pivotal moment for gender roles in American society as it pushed the last of the women back into the household. The idea that a woman could not work and be a good mother at the same time soon became the unquestioned truth. The nation no longer needed women but now their growing families did. As families began to grow and men brought home bigger paychecks, there was a shift from living in the cities to the suburbs. “Domestic and quiescent, they moved to the suburbs, created the baby boom, and forged family togetherness…the quintessential white middle-class housewives who stayed at home to rear children, clean house, and bake

cookies.”
Images from the 1950’s images show an almost propagandist depiction of the all-American family--complete with a white picket fence and large home. This was the new American Dream. Men were once again the primary breadwinners of the family unit.
The economy during the 1950’s was stronger than ever, due largely to the many manufacturing companies that opened during the war. As America’s economy thrived, people regained trust in the government and in banks and the American middle class continued to grow. During this time, the technological advancements of the country shifted from warfare to that of consumerism. There was an influx in consumerist products geared toward how the average American family should live. With the invention of the television, video recorder, radio, computerized machinery and the credit card, America entered a new phase of socio-economics. As the 1957 U.S. News & World Report tells us,
People [in the 1950’s] quickly accepted new products and new inventions.

TV sets, only a curiosity 10 years ago, were acquired by most American families during the decade. High-fidelity phonographs were developed and sold in huge numbers. So were filtered cigarettes of many kinds. Housewives took to detergents. FM radios caught on. Lawn work was made easier with a wide variety of power mowers. People began to buy tape recorders, boats of glass fiber, instant foods, long-playing records… People, more prosperous than ever before, spend record amounts on travel and recreation. More than 8 million civilians traveled abroad. In addition, Americans flocked in record numbers to resorts in the U.S., bought bombs, built summer cottages, went to dude ranches, built their own swimming pools, took up fishing and other forms of recreation – spending about 113 billion dollars on these activities in the

process.

With the age of consumerism born, there were no limits on what an American family could have. Advertisements in magazines and newspapers circulated and instructed men what they needed to buy their wife in order to make her happy at home. Other magazines spoke of how men and women should act in relation to one another to achieve the perfect marriage. The change in gender roles in the 1950s was largely shaped by commercial consumerism.
The majority of advertisements showed men in smart suits leaning in towards his family to allow a sense of self-confidence and fulfillment to ooze through the image . Men were steadfast in keeping up with the middle class hype that in turn allowed them the recurring notion of masculinity for which they hungered. The 1950s crafted the notion that a man was providing for his family by earning a large paycheck and procuring them the newest consumer goods. Not only did these products improve the day-to-day efficiency of life, but it also kept their families happy and made them look better in comparison to their neighbors.
For women in the 1950s, the sense of self-importance and self-reliance wore off as they were once again sent back to what many considered, the mundane daily activities of the home. Women were no longer called upon to serve their country, but to fit the constructed notion of being the perfect wife. Women in 1950’s advertisements were portrayed as motherly, nurturing, the faultless homemaker and caretaker. By 1950 standards, women were expected to keep the family picture perfect, which translated to being obedient wives and loving mothers. Women were expected to keep up with the newest fashion trends such as having a thin waist and perky bosom. They were also expected to stay relevant in the social scene and be a graceful, caring, and gentle to all around them. Women were encouraged by the media to find fulfillment in such roles and goals. As most advertisements were geared towards women, the consumerist culture blurred the lines between want and need for women. Acquiring a washing machine did not mean simply gaining an efficient way of washing clothes, it meant having more time to spend with your family in the evenings. The consumerist culture further personified what the average woman needed in order to have the perfect life. It was a gimmick, but one that worked wonders across the nation in defining a decade of gender roles.
The events that spanned from 1940-50 allowed Americans to take a step closer to gender equality. These events propelled women to step outside of their comfort zone, pushed them to realize their worth could be weighed in more than just the home that they kept. This also allowed them to become financially secure and begin to put an end to the warped perception that women are necessarily helpless without a man.
At the end of World War II, gender roles morphed back into the familiar. The next decade cemented men into the role of protector and provider in the eyes of American society. A woman’s place especially was at home taking care of children, the house, and other minor tasks that might keep her “simple” feminine mind busy. Always seen as lacking physical strength as well as intellectual capacity, the role of woman has always been subservient to man. For the better part of history, women were seen as little more than wives and mothers. One could say those words translate directly into the dilemma we have today. There are still predisposed notions of what a woman should be, as dictated by societal expectations, as opposed to what she is. The same could be said for men, as they had a strict behavioral pattern to conform to in order to keep their identity as males, which was a recurring thread throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s. The gender shift that occurred throughout these two decades ultimately gave way to the feminist movement of the 1960’s.
The feminist movement was successful because of the events of the two prior decades. Feminist goals were simple: they wanted rights and privileges equal to men. In the article “The 1960s-70s American Feminist Movement: Breaking Down Barriers for Women” the author paints a picture of what it was like to be a working woman of the 60’s,
The 38 percent of American women who worked in 1960 were largely limited to jobs as teacher, nurse, or secretary. Women were generally unwelcome in professional programs; as one medical school dean declared, "Hell yes, we have a quota...We do keep women out, when we can. We don't want them here — and they don't want them elsewhere, either, whether or not they'll admit it." As a result, in 1960, women accounted for six percent of American doctors, three percent of lawyers, and less than one percent of engineers. Working women were routinely paid lower salaries than men and denied opportunities to advance, as employers assumed they would soon become pregnant and quit their jobs, and that, unlike men, they did not have families to support.

Women had been taking steps since the 1940’s to eradicate the stereotypes that came with being a workingwoman. Once women began to create enough awareness, laws were passed and gender discrimination was recognized as a social epidemic. Although women and men have both been influenced by American historical events, the fight for gender equality is still on going. The 1940’s and 1950’s only helped to ignite a whole new conception of what a woman is capable of when given the opportunity.
The need for innovative technologies used in World War II gave men the push they needed to feel a sense of purpose. Those same men leaving work to join the war effort had a parallel effect on women of the 1940’s as they took over the jobs the men left behind. These opportunities were liberating for both parties, both in the sense of achieving a lost (or never achieved) sense of self-worth and of serving a greater good. Men reasserted themselves as protectors and women freed themselves of a life lived within the confines of the home. As the war ended and troops made their way home, the economically booming 1950’s awaited them. During this decade the roles of each gender were shaped concurrently with American consumer culture. Women returned to a life of domesticity and molded themselves to fit the description of the perfect wife while men took on the task of working to achieve the American dream as defined by consumerist marketing.