Women’s Civil Rights: By: Hannah Rohrer, Shelby Pryjomski, Hunter Poser, Alicia Warren, and Becca McAuliffe
1950s, the time of simplicity and a happy life for all. The children outside playing and running around with the other neighborhood children. The husbands outside either playing along or working on their brand new car. But where are wifes you say? Well they were of course inside the house watching everything. All dressed up in their nice floral dress and their face packed with makeup while cleaning the house to perfection and making the perfect dinner for the family. Of course they looked happy on the outside but on the inside they were crying and felt depressed. Where was their freedom? It was somewhere they couldn’t find it. They wouldn’t find them for many years later.
1950s families were like the perfect families to have. Here is the family from 1950s show Leave it to Beaver. They are portraying a happy family from the 50s.
The Daily Routine: The war is over, the men are back home with their families and are ready to get their life back on track and normal again. The men were ready to back to work, women were pushed back to their homes and were expected to live their normal lifestyle before the war, where they had no freedoms whatsoever. But what was the normal lifestyle for women now? Their morning routine consisted of waking up themselves, their husbands, and the children and get them ready for their day. She would already have her day dress ready from the night before laid out for after her shower if she took one. After she would do her hair and makeup to perfection. She would then dress herself and find the perfect shoes to match her dress. If need be she would help her husband tie his tie because of course they can’t do it themselves. Before the husband and children are completely ready she rushes to the kitchen and then makes a nutritious breakfast for the family. They all eat and then the husband rushes to work
A 1950s housewife doing her daily routine of getting the house to perfection.
and the children rush off to school, if it is a school day. She is then left with the house to herself and a mess to clean. She cleans the kitchen to perfection and then is off to cleaning the rest of house. Her cleaning process consists of vacuuming, dusting, making the beds, and etc. But basically cleaning the house to perfection everyday. She has already planned the dinner for the night the previous night before. All she needed to do was get the ingredients for it. She would either take the car, if the husband didn’t take it, or walk to the grocery store. She needs to be home in time and have dinner ready for when her husband walks through the door. Having the dinner ready for when he gets home showed that you were thinking of him and are concerned with his needs. The whole then sits and have a family dinner and possibly talk about their day. She is then left with cleaning up everything after dinner. They are now sitting down as a family in the living room either reading, listening to the radio, or watching television. the evening is dedicated for the husband to sit down and relax from his hard day at work. She is suppose to accommodate to his every care and need for the night. The evening then dies down and the family is off to bed. Women of the 1950s followed a “guide” to making their husband happy and the house clean.
This was the women of the 50s daily routine, they did this everyday 24/7. They usually didn’t have
anytime to themselves except for sleep. The whole day was dedicated to making sure that the house and herself were perfect for her husband. It was always for the husband.
Women’s Rights Before the Civil Rights Movement: Women didn’t have many rights before the civil rights movement. They were put into arranged marriages and had to obtain their husbands because they were dependent on their husbands. If they divorced then the men would get custody of the children because women had no rights.They never worked outside their homes, except during World War II most joined the workforce and worked in factories and on farms. There was such a high demand for people working, most women worked because young men and middle aged men went off to combat. However after the war ended most went back to working at home. If there husbands didn’t come back they would most likely remarry because if they didn’t they would be poor because most women couldn’t work. If they worked outside of the home they were only paid a fraction of what men were paid. Most took care of their families, cleaned the house, made dinner, etc. They were able to vote because of the 19th amendment that was passed before that they fought for a long time. They could also serve in the military by doing the medical things while at combat, most didn’t fight in combat. Otherwise most were home working. They had no property rights. They were not allowed to participate in affairs in the church, with a few exceptions. Most women were outraged with what rights they didn’t have. Most wanted to have more rights and be treated equal like men. They wanted to be able to work outside of the homes and fight in combat this would soon become true to most women. Some women would still have to fight for their rights.
Women feel like they are unequally treated and having a protest
Women Learning to Vote for the first time Women’s Rights After the Civil Rights Movement After the Civil Rights Movement women got many rights that they didn’t have before. They had t fight long and hard, but never gave up There were many movements that helped to make this possible. Most women were given most rights that men have, not all rights were given due to some exceptions. They could fight in combat and they could marry whoever they wanted. They were allowed to work in many places. Today women can divorce their husbands and can have equal opportunity to have full custody of their children. For the most part women got many rights that men, more rights would be added as time went on. This is something that still goes on today there is still organizations that are set up to make sure that women still have their rights and are treated fairly. Today women have the same rights as women with some exceptions. They are treated fairly equal. Women who made the Civil Rights Happen
During the 1950s 1950s Style:
In the 1950s, fashion began to change. The hourglass figure was deemed most admirable. Women’s outfits featured tight tops and loose flowing bottoms. They began to ditch the modest clothing for sexier silhouettes. During the later half of the 50s women began to go for the boxy dress styles. In the earlier days the women wore small hats close to their heads, but it grew into a “flower pot” fad. The 50s is where most credit the idea of skinny jeans. The pants became significantly tighter, resulting in what we now know today as skinny jeans. Poodle skirts were commonly known for, well, their skirts depicting images of poodles, but they featured almost any insect or flower as well. pencil skirts became increasingly popular as to show off the small waistline upheld by many women in this era.Quarter sleeves were also popular during this time. Handbags became smaller in this time period; they were often envelope shaped. the bags featured short hand straps; there were no long straps.
Women who fought for their rights
How Women Fought to Get the rights they have: Alice Paul One woman who fought hard to get women’s rights is Alice Paul. She was born in New Jersey into a Quaker family. She then attended Swarthmore in 1905, and then attended the New York school of philanthropy, and then the university of Pennsylvania, and then a training school for Quakers in England. She then remained in England from 1907- 1910. She then started working on Women’s rights and trying to get freedoms. It was then in 1912 when she fully launched her suffrage career. One things she did was led pickets at the White House and refused to abandon these tactics. Her and her colleagues were then arrested and imprisoned. Paul helped shape Women to fight for their rights and she even was a great force in the ratification of the
nineteenth Amendment. She then kept working hard out of the National Women’s Party headquarters in Washington D.C., but then her health declined. When her health declined she was then relocated to Connecticut in 1972. She did not let any man push her around or try and tell her what to do. She was a great example of a woman who stuck to her gun.
Women chose to Gain Weight:
In 1950 most people chose to gain weight. This showed that most women were well fed and had money to spend on food. So, more men were into women that were not super skinny because they knew they had a lot of money and didn’t as economical
support. Whereas people today try to lose weight. How times have changed. They would do anything to be a little bigger, so men would notice them.
African American women in the 1950 are at the beach. They didn’t care what they looked like because they were already treated differently, so dressing different didn’t matter. African American Women and their Struggle For a normal white woman in America, there were many expectations. However, African American women had the same expectations including more. African American women were not only discriminated against, but they were expected to fulfill all of the house work, take care of the children, and also raise money to help support the family. As families grew bigger, more stress was put on women. Several African American women were fed up with all of the pressure and stress. These women made changes that are still influential on people today. On December 1, 1955, one of the most famous African Americans, Rosa Parks, refused to move to the back of a segregated bus. For this she was arrested but she stayed in the minds of many people who were against segregation. On December 21, 1956, Rosa Park’s action was ruled unconstitutional. Also in 1956, Mae Jamison was born. This woman changed the way people looked at their lives. Despite the fact that she was African American, she still became an astronaut and physician. She wasn’t going to let people stand in her way of accomplishing her goals. Another African American women, Florence Griffith-Joyner was born. This woman was an olympic track athlete. She was the first African American to win four medals in one olympics. All
of these women were black. They did not let this segregate them or make them any different from the white women of the 50’s. They still accomplished their goals and changed lives for many people all over America.
The leaders of a women’s suffrage movement gathering together. Feminism originated from a group of women who gathered at Seneca Falls to discuss women’s rights in 1848. SInce this period in time, there has been waves of feminism where it has been stronger at some points than others; feminism was very strong in the 1950’s. This strong feeling resulted in changes for women in later years. Because men were working overseas, women began to work outside of the home. The women wanted higher paying jobs. As they moved into the men’s work area, they realized that they could do most things a man could do. There were no majors gains for women in the 1950’s, even though equality was so strong at the time. Even men were beginning to realize that women could do the same thing as them considering the women took over the men’s jobs. So why were women so discriminated against? This question was brought up more and more.
Most women of the 1950’s were supporters of feminism. They believed they were equal to all men. Today feminism takes on a whole new meaning. It takes one person to start a movement that could result in another wave of feminism just like there was in the 1950’s.
How Women were expected to act in the Household Women were expected to treat their husbands with the utmost respect. They were expected to do everything in the house and take care of the children. Their day consisted of working to make and prepare dinner for their husband. They were expected to have a meal ready for him when he got home. They were also held responsible for making sure the house was kept clean before he arrived. The children were to be cleaned up before the husband arrived at the house also. If the wife had a problem going on in her life she had to act as if everything was perfectly fine when the husband arrived home. Women were to also take a 15 minute rest before their husband
arrived home from work. To relax the husband after a long day at work women were suppose to turn all the noise down. If the dishwasher was loud, you had to turn it off. If the washer or dryer was loud, then you had to turn it off to minimize all loud noises. Wives also had to look their best, and that meant adding a ribbon to your hair and touching up your makeup. Women had it hard in the fifties, for they had to be a slave to their own husband.
Citations:
"1950's." - Women's Roles. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2015 "Women's Liberation Movement." Women's Liberation Movement. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2015. Lewis, Jone Johnson. "African American History and Women - Timeline 1950-1959." About Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.
"Feminism in the 1950s | The Classroom | Synonym." The Classroom. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2015. Pictures:
Lesson Plan and Activities. Digital image. PBS. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2015. Women's Suffrage in the United States. Digital image. Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2015. The Collegian. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2015 "How to Dress in the American 50s." N.p., n.d. Web.