A Place in the Sun: America in the 1950s

How Conformity in the 50s was Challenged in America

Following the enforced liberalization of American mindsets provoked by World War II, America launched an effort to turn back time during the 1950s. The progress made in the liberation of women's rights due to women entering the work force during World War II underwent a severe test at the hands of ideological body snatching by the media and the government. Sexual liberation had also been unleashed, and the rise of rock and roll served to inflame the libido of both young men and women. The haunting specter of an overblown communist threat created an easy method whereby to question anything that even remotely appeared subversive, and as a result the 1950s were a time when young people received conflicting messages about when and whether to conform on a variety of topics.

Women in America went to work after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the entry into World War II, and many of them decided that they liked it; American men took it upon themselves in the 1950s to attempt the enforced repression of that desire to remain at work. Until America joined the war to fight the dreaded Hun (and the Japanese) in the latter part of 1941, women as a rule really hadn't had much of a choice in terms of vocation. Women basically had the choice of becoming a wife and possibly mother, or, if they desired to enter the work force, taking a job in one of the male-approved female jobs such as secretary or nursing.

With the depletion of male work force into the service from 1941 to 1945, women all over the country got a taste of what it was like to work in a variety of jobs ranging from factory worker to professionals. Working actually became something of a patriotic duty for women; they took on jobs at the factory or office so that a man could be allowed to take up arms and protect America. The icon of the American woman's liberation was Rosie the Riveter and Hollywood applauded the working woman throughout the films of the early 40s. The only problem was that once the men came home and got their jobs back, many women were not expressing the jubilation of going back home that was expected.