Ads from The State for General Electric, Realemonade and Pepso Cola promoting women as efficient homemakers, June 1958
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Document Description:
Many people are familiar with the “Rosie the Riveter” posters that were famous for garnering women’s involvement World War II industries. The poster itself is now iconic, and very telling of a generation of women who traded gloves and corsets for overalls and hard hats. After the end of the war and the return of the soldiers from Europe, the ideal image of the American woman changed drastically. Women moved from laboring to support home front efforts to working to manage her family home. The American woman of the 1950s was no longer illustrated as a factory worker praying for the safety of her sweetheart on a carrier plane, but rather a woman who took joy in cooking, cleaning, and raising her children. The advertisements included here portray women as efficient homemakers, and encourage her supporting role on the domestic front. While this image was widely popular as a cultural norm, not every woman wished to be defined within the confines of this image. Betty Friedan’s landmark 1963 book, The Feminine Mystique, provides an example of the emerging questioning of the ideal of the perfect housewife as the ultimate example of femininity and argued that women could be independent and pursue ambitions outside the home.
Citation:
“ReaLemonade” Advertisement. The State. 5 June 1958, 8C. Newspapers on Microfilm. Published Materials Division, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.
“Pepsi” Advertisement. The State. 5 June 1958, 8C. Newspapers on Microfilm. Published Materials Division, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.
“GE” Advertisement. The State. 4 June 1958, 12B. Newspapers on Microfilm. Published Materials Division, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.
Correlating SC Social Studies Academic Standards:
Standard 5-5: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the social, economic, and political events that influenced the United States during the Cold War era.
Indicator 5-5.2 Summarize changes in the United States economy following World War II, including the expanding job market and service industry, consumerism, and new technology.
Standard USHC-9: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the social, economic, and political events that impacted the United States during the Cold War era.
Indicator USHC-9.1 Explain the causes and effects of social and cultural changes in postwar America, including educational programs, expanding suburbanization, the emergence of the consumer culture, the secularization of society and the reemergence of religious conservatism, and the roles of women in American society.
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