Women in the 1950’s

Although the number of women at work did continue to rise after the war, female workers and career-women were viewed with suspicion by many. The traditional idea that a woman’s role was a
homemaker raising her family was very influential in 1950s.

The average age at which women were married was 20 – the youngest for 60 years. Newspaper and magazine articles encouraged women to return to the home. Popular TV shows such as 'I Love Lucy' and 'Father Knows Best' carried this message into homes.


A very influential book was ‘Modern Women: the Lost Sex’ by Maryinia Farnham and Ferdinand Lundgren. It claimed that most of society’s problems – alcoholism, teenage hooliganism and even war – were because of women following careers instead of being housewives and mothers.

Kitchen and cleaning appliances like washing machines, fridges and Hoovers were advertised as being ‘every woman’s dream’.

The suburbs developed in the 1950s. Middle-class families left the cities to live in new houses in large suburban estates. The husband would drive to work in his car and the wife would stay at home and bake apple pies. The only companionship women could look forward to was weekly ‘Tupperware Parties’ where neighbours would gather to have coffee and buy plastic kitchen products.