The Forgotten Feminists: Older, White, Middle Class Women’s Participation in the American Labor Force and their Defiance of Societal Gender Norms, 1945- 1963
Abstract:
Between the years of 1945 and 1963 the ideal image of the older, white woman in the middle class was a house wife, as dictated by American dominant culture. The irony in this image was that the number of these women who held jobs in the fields of clerical work and teaching was increasing every year, reaching 19 million by 1960. A contributing factor to why these women sought out paying jobs was the rise of consumerism and the invention of credit, which left families unable to rely on just one income to survive. So, more than anything, these women had no choice but to enter the labor force which undermined gender norms and ideas of masculinity. This led to stereotypes that women were destroying their families and led to increased discrimination, such as unequal wage (earning $1.5 to men’s $2). Although the second wave feminism had not yet begun, these women fought for equality in the work force. They achieved only minor success, which pro ved the need for the later movements. On the other hand, their accomplishments demonstrated women’s ability to triumph under unity.