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As with everything, it depends. Some were happy, some were not, some were miserable and trapped with no way out.
I was born in the 1950's and my mom (and all the grown up women I knew) were SAHM's. When I was a teen some of them started taking part time jobs becasue they didn't have kids around all day to care for anymore. Much of that rubbed off on me and I'm probably in the age group where being a SAHM vs being a completely self supporting career woman was a toss up. I did a little of both, working for 15 years or so then being a SAHM. I was happy I had the choice and didn't have to work in order for us to eat. It's different now. Everything is.
Were stay at home moms and wives in the 1950s actually depressed? I see pictures of how they look all happy and everything, but I hear how in the 1950s the pressure to marry and have babies by the time you were in your early 20s was so intense that women who chose not to do that were considered sick and neurotic. Many of the women wanted to go to college and have careers but because of the pressure, they just got married and had children anyway. And I can imagine they had to stay home all day long and cook and clean the house, thinking about how their life would have turned out to be like if only it weren't for the intense pressure. I know there is still some pressure today but it's not as intense as it was in the 1950s. I also read that many women had more than one babies in diapers at once and, I just picture a woman looking like a slob with a bunch of babies crying and having to feed them and running back forth to each baby. And in the 1950s, the average woman married when she was just 20 years old, and 47% of weddings for women were under the age of 20! And at one point in the 1950s, half of the women at age 19 were already married, this is like India or something, my gosh. Imagine being 19 and 20 years old and already married. WTF! It just seems depressing how their life had to turn out to be.
My MIL was a 1950's housewife. She had a mothers helper who came in after school and took care of the kids until bed time and she still needed "Mother's little helpers" to help her through her day and then took up drinking.
I'm voting for miserable. When you have no options in life, life can seem limiting. Her lot in life was to please a man. To keep his house and kids the way he wanted them kept. I'd be on "Mother's little helpers" too.
I wouldn't feel "trapped" if my lot in life was to be devoted to my wife and work a job to make a life for ourselves. I don't even need the sanction of marriage to welcome that sort of relationship into my life. I don't want or need for her to work--it's my JOB to take care of her.
My mom was a 1950's wife who worked full time while my father went to college in the first years of their marriage. My mother had a ball working while my father was in school. Then they moved to California when my father got his degree and my father started working out here as an engineer. Then after ten years of marriage, they started having us kids. My mother had worked in the corporate sector of a well-known department store, and when they moved out here, there were just little mom and pop businesses, nothing like the big company she had worked in. My mother had tons of energy, and wasn't a drinker or a pill-popper, but today all us siblings agree she should have worked outside the home while we were growing up. She was fastidious about the house and was a championship yeller. If she had worked, she would have been too tired to yell at us. She did provide some excellent after-school snacks, though.
"Were 1950s housewives actually depressed instead of happy?"
I was only 15 when I began to notice neighbor couple in our 22 unit apartment building. They were in their early 40s. The housewife was known as a 'homemaker' and stayed at home all day. To keep herself happy she often received visits from men during the day while her hubby was on the job. What I noticed was that none of the men came back more than 3 times. Then about 3 - 4 days without visitors, followed by a new face. All my observations were during summer school vavcation. Maybe she was happier when I was at school.
The couple moved away when I was 17.
Were stay at home moms and wives in the 1950s actually depressed? I see pictures of how they look all happy and everything, but I hear how in the 1950s the pressure to marry and have babies by the time you were in your early 20s was so intense that women who chose not to do that were considered sick and neurotic. Many of the women wanted to go to college and have careers but because of the pressure, they just got married and had children anyway. And I can imagine they had to stay home all day long and cook and clean the house, thinking about how their life would have turned out to be like if only it weren't for the intense pressure. I know there is still some pressure today but it's not as intense as it was in the 1950s. I also read that many women had more than one babies in diapers at once and, I just picture a woman looking like a slob with a bunch of babies crying and having to feed them and running back forth to each baby. And in the 1950s, the average woman married when she was just 20 years old, and 47% of weddings for women were under the age of 20! And at one point in the 1950s, half of the women at age 19 were already married, this is like India or something, my gosh. Imagine being 19 and 20 years old and already married. WTF! It just seems depressing how their life had to turn out to be.
They were every bit as happy with forced domesticity as people are today with being forced to work long hours and raise families.
there was a great deal of unhappiness in the 1950's among women and men. we had trouble measuring up to our ideals. we are not happier now, but we have more freedom.
freedom does not = happy.
antelope are not really happy-- they are relieved but only if they are faster than the slowest lion. we all sort of live that way now. no real protection of the herd, just lots of really successful antelope track stars and a whole lota baked antelope---lion dinners.
Recent studies on the topic have shown women rate their lives less happy today than they did back then. It makes sense when you really think about it. Taking care of the home, sending the kids off to school in the morning, and making dinner isn't exactly rocket science. Between all that you have most of the day to yourself, even with less home automation back in the 50s or 60s as compared to today. Women still do a huge chuck of taking care of the home, so coupled with doing all that AND working a 9-5 job it's a no-brainer women are less happy overall. Ah, the joys of feminism and "having it all". And for the record a few years ago when I was changing jobs I had 2 full weeks off to stay home and do the whole deal. I LOVED IT!!!! I can only hope to ever be "oppressed" like that again.
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