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dwellordream · 1 year ago

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“Suburban developments sprang up all over the country in the wake of World War II. As developers rushed to meet the postwar demand for housing, banks, government subsidies, and private investors poured funds into new, single-family homes. In 1946, for the first time, a majority of the nation’s families lived in homes they owned. Over the next 15 years, 12 million more families became homeowners. These new houses in expanding suburban areas were built with young nuclear families in mind. Builders and architects assumed that men would be away at work during the day and houses would be occupied by mothers and children. Most houses were designed with open floor plans where children could wander freely and safely.

Kitchens usually opened into family rooms, with windows facing backyards, so that women could do household chores while watching their children. Living rooms featured picture windows, also to make it easy to keep an eye on children. The one-story design gave the home an informal look and was practical for families with small children, since there were no stairs, which could be dangerous. Houses were built with plenty of closet space to hold numerous consumer goods that went along with suburban living. Families did not have to be wealthy to buy houses in suburbs. But they did have to be white. Racial minorities were not allowed to purchase homes in the suburbs, even if they could afford them.

…The home was also the center of family leisure. Postwar Americans spent a good deal of their incomes on items that would make the home comfortable and enjoyable: appliances, automobiles, backyard barbecue sets, and of course, televisions. By the 1950s, televisions were selling at a rate of more than 5 million a year. In their living rooms, ordinary families watched idealized families in enormously popular shows such as “Ozzie and Harriet,” “Leave It To Beaver,” and “Father Knows Best.” These television families all had certain features in common: they were white, they lived in comfortable suburban homes, full-time homemakers had down-home wisdom and patience, and fathers always knew best.

Curiously, although the fathers in these programs were the breadwinners of the family, we rarely if ever saw them at work. They were home, presiding with kindly, fatherly authority, clearly the head of the household. Nevertheless, mothers were the ones in charge of the daily routines, the running of the home, and the supervision of the children. Television shows that featured working-class families were often continuations of radio comedy shows from the pre-TV era. Shows like “The Honeymooners,” starring Jackie Gleason, depicted working-class men with real jobs (usually undesirable ones like bus drivers or sewer workers), wives who tolerated their husbands’ explosive tempers and rolled their eyes at men’s foolishness, and neighbors who shared their struggles.

…The suburban ideal often promised more than it delivered. Obviously, appliances alone would not make a housewife happy. Women in Levittown often complained about feeling trapped and isolated, facing endless chores and tending to children. For them, suburban life was not a life of fun and leisure but exhausting work and loneliness. Time-consuming commuting reduced the amount of time men could spend with their families, and for the suburban women who held jobs outside the home, the burden was even heavier. They faced work on the job, a long commute home, and then all the chores considered to be “woman’s work” in the home.

The struggle to achieve the ideal suburban life took its toll on men as well as women. Since the primary goal of the “breadwinner” was to provide for his family, it was expected that he would work for the best steady pay, regardless of whether he enjoyed the job. The reward was in the quality of life that the man’s income could buy--not the intrinsic satisfactions of the job itself. The woman’s part of the bargain was to keep the home cheerful and clean, and to be content with the homemaker role. If either partner believed that the other was not keeping the bargain, trouble brewed.

…By 1950, 41 percent of all employed black women worked in private homes. Another 19 percent worked in office buildings, restaurants, and hotels as scrubwomen, maids, and housekeepers. Of the remaining 40 percent, many worked in farm labor. In spite of the migration to the North, as late as 1950, 68 percent of African Americans still lived in the South. The lives of southern black women largely resembled that of their female ancestors during slavery: living in shacks, working sun up to sun down, forced to obey local white people or risk severe consequences.

In the North, as whites continued to move to the suburbs, blacks became more concentrated in the cities. By 1960 blacks were more urbanized than whites. North as well as South, black men earned less than half of what white men earned, and black women received less than half the amount that white women earned. Black women continued to face the most dismal prospects for paid employment, but they continued to take whatever jobs they could get. In the postwar years, white women faced pressure to become full-time homemakers, and were often stigmatized if they held jobs. But black women faced no such stigma.

…Suburbs fostered tightly knit nuclear families in loosely knit communities and extended family networks. People moved often, and ties to neighbors were often weak, since the nuclear family was expected to be self-sufficient and self-enclosed. People did come together in a number of associations, most notably in the churches and synagogues that sprang up across the country. The suburban landscape was dotted with religious institutions, as Americans joined congregations in record numbers. People also came together in local civic institutions. Women joined local PTAs, women’s clubs, and charities, and they organized scout troops and other enrichment programs for their children.

These efforts provided women with community ties, and gave them the opportunity to shape social, religious, and educational institutions in their neighborhoods. These were important tasks. But deep sources of mutual support and tight networks based on kinship and friendship were difficult to achieve in the suburbs. People moved in and out too quickly, and many left their relatives and ethnic communities when they moved to the suburbs. The isolation of the nuclear family also inhibited the casual visiting that took place on the stoops of urban apartments or the streets of the cities. Those outside the suburbs were more likely to develop strong ties of support with relatives and friends. It was both more possible, and more necessary, to do so.”

- Elaine Tyler May, “Suburbia: The Homemaker’s Work Place.” in Pushing the Limits: American Women, 1940-1961

#gender #elaine tyler may #1950s #history #20th century #american #class #race #pushing the limits

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