In 1990 an email chain began circulating, purporting to contain information taken from either a 1950's Home Economics textbook or an issue of Housekeeping Monthly magazine, depending on the version of the story you received in the email; titled "How to Be A Good Wife" (eventually becoming The Good Wife's Guide), it claimed to be a list of authentic instructions to the young Homemaker- or, to the Homemaker-to-be.
Most of the advice, like "Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives. Run a dustcloth over the tables", seems reasonable to some extent, and very easily passes itself off as authentic information. Indeed, examples like that appear frequently in authentic Homemaking instructionals of the time- though not always with a reference to the Mister... Other items on the list such as "Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice" and "Don't ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or integrity. Remember, he is the master of the house and [...] you have no right to question him", however, are much more insidious in nature.
In reality, though... The Good Wife's Guide was never anything more than a hoax; a fraud; a way of poking fun at the backwards ways of yesteryear; while it certainly echoes some sentiments of the era, as it were, it never existed. Unfortunately, too many people continue to tout it around decades later as the absolute truth- proving once again that people are gullible and will believe anything, even well after it's been disproven; some people have made "woke" satirical stabs at it, recognizing its fraudulent nature... But the truth hasn't really stopped anyone from taking- and promoting- it as fact.
And gee whiz, people certainly do like to talk about how obsessed the 1950′s were with rigid gender roles, especially in relation to the Nuclear Family Model- and they really do love using the Good Wife's Guide in particular as their paramount source; modern Radical Feminists uplift it as the epitomical example of "everything wrong with the 50's"- while those obsessed with "traditional living" (and often "traditional femininity") uphold that it's the shining example of womanhood as it should be. If you're particularly familiar with it, you can sometimes even spot when it's been used as the foundation of household dynamics in modern media portrayals of the 50's housewife.
But in doing so, no one recognizes the Good Wife's Guide's true origins in emerging internet culture at the turn of the 21st century- and even fewer understand anything about the legitimate history of the era it falsely claimed to originate in; they not only incorrectly understand the 1950's and its social customs (and more), but tend to actively and intentionally gloss over the factors that created them to begin with. And this is especially true where it concerns women’s roles in society at the time, and, more importantly, what we think the authentic vintage Homemaker even looked like in the first place.
⚶ So What's the Real Story ⚶
World War II began in September of 1939. A year later, in September of 1940, the United States instituted the Selective Training and Service Act- otherwise known as “The Draft”- requiring all men between the ages of 21 and 45 to register for military service. As you can imagine, this left significant holes in the working population- especially in male dominated labor industries, necessitating the implementation of a patriotic campaign intended to encourage women to join the labor force; at the time, this was something seen by both the Right and the Left as an ultimate act of Patriotism and support for the cause.
The idea, however, that women didn't exist in the workforce prior to this is a myth- and one helped in no small part by the "glass ceiling" rhetoric of late 20th and early 21st century women's liberation movements; while female employment in the 1940's was small, at just 27% (thanks in no small part to the Great Depression that preceded it), and rose to almost 40% in the span of just a few short years... Women had always been staple figures in the work force.
Historically speaking, not working was a luxury few have historically been able to afford- meaning that, except in rare circumstances, the only people who didn't work were those who could. And indeed, there has never been an era in Human history where women's labor wasn't a necessary feature of life and survival; in many cases they actively participated in labor we now traditionally associate purely with men- from agriculture and herding, to minor household repairs, taking care of the household finances, and even earning additional income through cottage Industries- and much more.
This was true even after the great Industrial Revolution; on its own, the Industrial Revolution was largely responsible for the beginnings of the Middle Class we know now- and, consequentially, contributed greatly to the first stirrings of the "stay at home wife" as we'd eventually come know her. But the Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom alone still saw as many as 40% to 50% of Victorian women employed at all stages of life- including before marriage, well after marriage, and even into Widowhood in some cases.
By 1943, 90% of single women between the ages of 18 and 40 were either working, or were engaged in newly created National Service occupations. Women would even go on to make up as much as 65% of the work force in some areas- such as in the case of the Aviation Industry. And by the time the war ended in 1945, it’s estimated that 1 out of every 4 married women were further employed- a number which, despite the fact that Women have always held positions in the work place throughout history, was previously unprecedented (American Women in WWII; Striking Women: WWII).
A Great Shift Incoming ⚶
When World War II ended, those who'd survived the horrors came flooding back to their homelands. Yet women still dominated the work force- leaving hundreds of male service veterans in particular unemployed. To complicate matters further, an estimated 60 to 80 million people were taken by the war (only 1/3rd of which were actually militarymen). And while this only accounted for roughly 3% of the world's estimated population of 2.3 billion at the time, this death toll still left a rather significant mark in many communities- especially rural ones.
America decided it needed to stem the tide. The problem was that prior propaganda was working against them. And so society and the government turned once again to propaganda to solve the issue. Instead of patriotism, however, the new propaganda's focus was the Nuclear Family Model, encouraging women to take up roles as mothers and wives. This helped to displace them from their previously occupied male labor roles, opening them back up for the returning men (many of whom returned with new Wives they now needed to support through civilian means). But it also helped combat population losses sustained during the war.
There was another aspect in play, however, that heavily influenced the post war era and the Homemaker we'd come to know- and it’s one that often gets significantly overlooked, but plays potentially the greatest role in how the image of 50's grandiose came to develop: Wartime rationing, and technological advancements; which brings us to:
The Golden Age ⚶
While sources sometimes disagree on when Rationing ended where, restrictions didn’t begin to lift in many areas until 1950. In other places, however, it wouldn’t lift until as late as 1958. But in all cases it was instituted, it kept a great number of things out of the hands of the common people- up to and including soap, fabric, tires, and more; when wartime rationing ended, the economic market was flooded not only with excess items that people hadn’t been able to obtain in over a decade- but also wartime technologies which now had to find ways to survive in civilian society.
As employment ramped up, the housing market boomed, family sized increased once more, and America in particular began to prosper, so too did the average household income- further expanding the Middle Class that first started to appear during the Victorian Era... And with plenty of disposable income to spare (and new expectations for an old role), the majority of these advancements wound up being applied to women’s industries in particular. Especially as more and more companies turned to women as viable consumers with plenty of buying power.
The old mentalities of scarcity imposed by hardship, however, kept getting in the way at first. And so a part of economic resurrection necessitated the resurrection of various social rules, beauty standards, and other socio-cultural elements that would make it easier. This was often done with additional propaganda easily distributed in print and television media, and even through schools- both by companies acting individually, and those continuing to work in tandem with the government. Its purpose? To slowly encourage a country used to “Mend and Make Do” to not only take up and use previously rationed items with glee- but also embrace the luxurious modernity of technological advancements driven in large part by the war.
This great economic boom of the 1950’s, beautifully covered by Stephanie Coontz in The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap, led to what we all too often consider the "Golden Age" of American family life today... But absolutely nothing which arose existed, nor emerged, out of a vacuum. It was all impacted by the socio-eco-political climate that had been building- and certainly, many things contributed.
A New Look ⚶
1950’s America was an age of excess after nearly 3 decades of deadly scarcity. Everything became bigger and more over the top than it had been in prior years- and this is most evident in women's post-war fashion.
The two Christian Dior collections (the Corolle and Huit lines) that would go on in history as "the New Look" debuted in France in 1947, and were defined by their caricaturization of traditionally feminine stylism; according to Jonathan Walford in Forties Fashion: From Siren Suits to the New Look (and again echoed by Julie Summers in Fashion on the Ration: Style in the Second World War), the New Look turned midcentury fashion on its head through “Its abundance – the excessive use of luxurious fabrics and time intensive labor [… and …] the overly female form that he presented". All if which existed in stark contrast to the simplicity and bleakness of three decades of preceding fashion.
Dior's New Look wasn't an overnight sensation, however. It took years of concentrated social effort and a lot of propaganda for the New Look to actually become the defining image of the decade. Its success in achieving that was due largely in part to America's early adoption- compared to many places in Europe where newspapers were widely banned from mentioning Dior's name. But even in America, those who chose to wear it were often attacked, snubbed, and shunned for daring to be so excessively wasteful.
Eventually, however, rationing slowly dissolved away into a dream, the mentality of scarcity imposed by two World Wars and a severe Economic Depression fell to the wayside. More people embraced stylistic elements of the New Look. And with the American social propaganda machine well at work, by 1955 it had became an extravagant image of American victory, prosperity, and opulence; another tool among many that greatly influenced the image of the All American Housewife.
⚶ And That's the Reality ⚶
This is the birth of what we now consider the essential, stereotypical image of the 1950’s Housewife today: A hyperfeminine, typically white, middle class cis woman who stays at home with the children and the housework all day, while her husband works tirelessly in some smart business profession to bring in the family's only source of income.
Through careful, calculated manipulation of the public's strings, she (along with her doting Husband and two children- usually a Son, and Daughter) became the face of the 1950’s domestic bliss and glamour, economic stability, and American prosperity; the new American Dream, if you will- complete with a house, a single car, a white picket fence, and sometimes a little Schnauzer too.
This image was satirized perhaps most famously in Ira Levin's novel, The Stepford Wives, published in 1972. It persists today, even, in nearly every piece of media purporting to depict a legitimate image of the 1950's. We can't shake her- and yet if the multitude of "I lived like a 1950's Housewife for a day" and "50's Housewife Challenges" (such as that currently being participated in by the author of Playing 50's Housewife) are any indication? We've also personally invested ourselves in her... It's a true testament to the power of propaganda well done- both in regards to the old propaganda that created her, and to the modern propaganda which simultaneously derides and yet romanticizes her.
What is all too frequently left unspoken, however, is the fact that the woman we see in add campaigns, television, and commercials of the 1950’s, who we think quintessentially defines the 1950’s housewife? Were nothing more that the culmination of various propaganda campaigns; massive, concentrated, and well coordinated efforts by several areas of society working in tandem with one another- launched in part to solve economic, labor, population, and other issues... Issues first started by World War I, worsened by the Great Depression, and which came to a head after World War II- and in some ways continued after.
As Sheila Hardy notes in her brilliantly detailed historical account of Homemakers in 1950’s England, collected from the personal testimonies of real women who lived through the period: Women certainly did quite a lot- and it wasn’t an easy job (though when has it ever been)... But few, if any, women ever actually managed to live it as it was ideally shown. On the rare occasion one did, it was either at a significantly decreased capacity with much community help, or it was the direct result of having money and affluence.
The epitomical "Vintage Homemaker" that we think of today while scrolling through Pinterest boards of full of fake Vintage Housekeeping tips and horrible "reproductions" of "vintage" dresses, dreaming of the golden romanticism of the 1950's era... May be a nice idea to aspire to for some- or a truly horrifying story of oppression to others... But like The Good Wife's Guide, the 1950's Homemaker we think we know today is also a fraud; she never existed as anything other than a midcentury fairy tale.
Dedicated full time Homemaking, even in the golden age of 1950's America, remained a luxury- just one expanded to include a larger, and overwhelmingly still White, Middle Class than it had in previous eras.
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