In the text "What we really miss about the 50's", Stephanie Coontz relates to us facts and satistics concerning the forementioned decade. These statistics cover a broad range of subjects, from divorce rates to domestic violence. not only does she relay this information from the 50's, but she also compares it to many other decades before and after. People were polled about which decade was the best time for kids to grow up in America.
The most fascinating, well maybe not the most, but one thing that I found interesting was it seemed as though at first Stephanie gave facts that supported the poll, then towards the end she gave facts that almost seemed to point towards later decades as being more ideal. She stated that "commentators are being misleading when they claim that the 1950's was the golden age of American families". The golden age and improvements actually continued up until sometime in the early 70's.
The thing that probably interested me the most was how Stephanie attributed the good economic times and bigger salary for blue collar workers to the government funded programs of the time. She compared the progams of the 50's to the programs of the 90's, and how we don't have near the programs now, such as the new deal, compared to the 1950's.
Last but not least, was the often mentioned subject of gender roles and the vast change that has taken place from decade to decade. In the 50's many women quit thier jobs and became a homemaker. The media, tv, and even board games showed support of the wife always answering to the husband. Such phrases as "he criticizes your hairdo, - go to the beauty shop", and "Are you after a job or a man? You can't have both". Ha I just think its funny how much different it is now. Women were just thought of as sort of inferior back then. I just hope people realize now how wrong that was. We all know that women are eqaul if not superior. How would it have been to grow up then and still be alive to see how things are today?
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Yeah, I felt kind of the same way, like she was pushing for the 50's at first and then switched over to the 70's. Or at least that she was most nostalgic for the 50's but that when she analyzed it the 70's were actually better. And I must agree that the way women were pigeonholed was terrible. I saw some of that in Korea, largely stemming from the Confucian influence there I think. Korea was actually very equal in rights between men and women, or actually a bit on the matriarchal side, prior to the influence of Confucianism during the Three Kingdoms Period. It makes me wonder how different our society would be if women had fought harder to keep their jobs and new position in society when men returned from war instead of letting themselves get pushed out, or in Korea if women had held on to their position there.
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