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U.S. History 1877-Present 10.9: Changing Gender Roles 13 Views
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Description:
Women were vital to the workforce during World War II. Of course, when the men came back from war, there was a sudden, urgent need for elaborate pot roasts and vacuumed floors... Sounds questionable.
Transcript
- 00:00
the cold war was stressful. maybe it was that whole constant threat of
- 00:07
nuclear annihilation thing. with total oblivion an all too real possibility [woman frowns from the kitchen]
- 00:12
many Americans wanted to retreat into a safe space where they wouldn't have to
- 00:16
deal with the new problems of this ultra-modern nuclear conflict. in America
- 00:21
that safe space was both a real place and an imagined one. the suburban home
Full Transcript
- 00:27
yep the suburbs were for real. those cookie cutter houses were spreading like [model home pictured]
- 00:31
butter. they became home to more than just moms and dads and kids. the
- 00:35
middle-class suburban home became a fantasy Kingdom where the modern world
- 00:39
went out the window. there weren't any dragons in this
- 00:42
fantasy Kingdom which is kind of lame but there were kings. it's true within
- 00:47
ply wood panelled walls of suburbia men were kings. they were fathers who knew
- 00:52
best. children were all important little princes and princesses whose needs were [man reads his paper]
- 00:57
satisfied. and then there were the women of the land of Suburbia. they were a
- 01:01
weird kind of cross between Queens, mothers who were to be treasured for the
- 01:06
care they provided their children, and serfs .people in aprons whose only
- 01:11
purpose in life was to serve others. this was a very new identity for American [man with crown smiles, woman frowns]
- 01:15
women because they were used to work. female workers even dominated some
- 01:19
industries like textiles. during World War two millions of women had been
- 01:23
recruited to work in factories and been told that women had always been part of
- 01:28
any American fight .however as the Cold War began women were told they had a new [woman shows muscles]
- 01:33
role to play in America's new war, wife and mother. without women competing with
- 01:38
them for jobs men could more easily bring home the bacon for the whole
- 01:42
family, and the US would have a strong Society where families were well
- 01:46
provided for by men and well cared for by a new race of super moms, and a lot of [man and kids smile in front of house]
- 01:52
women were totally cool with all this let's face. it working in the World War
- 01:55
two factories probably wasn't all that fun. compared to working on an assembly
- 01:58
line all day a life spent in sunny suburban homes with fun new appliances
- 02:03
probably seemed pretty sweet. however as the 50s wore on the whole suburban mom [woman stands in 50s kitchen]
- 02:07
thing lost its charm for some. according to feminists
- 02:11
such as betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem women were more limited in every part of
- 02:15
the public and private lives than they been back in the 40s.
- 02:19
there weren't bars on suburban windows but well still it was getting a little
- 02:22
creepy. Well, by the end of the decade some women began to publicly challenge [man with crown keeps woman behind bars]
- 02:25
what they viewed as a crisis of feminine passivity. they made it their mission to
- 02:30
remind all women that fulfillment didn't come from buying shiny new appliances or
- 02:35
from getting whites their whites.t women they said needed to shed the complacency
- 02:40
that post-war consumer culture had encouraged in order to gain freedom [feminist Freidan shown]
- 02:44
equality and satisfaction beyond the suburb. of course some people weren't
- 02:50
into the feminist movement of late 50s and early 60s some feared that by
- 02:54
encouraging women to pursue careers outside of the home feminists threatened
- 02:58
to dismantle the very foundation of the traditional family structure. these crazy
- 03:02
feminists were like wicked witches threatening to destroy the magical land [ woman wears witches' hat]
- 03:06
of suburbia forever. well actually if a feminists eventually
- 03:09
gained a lot of ground expanding opportunities for American women, and
- 03:12
instead of crumbling into the sea suburbia expanded too. which would seem to
- 03:17
prove that ultimately working mothers were at least a part of what the magical
- 03:21
land of suburbia needed to increase its sprawl. only those modern moms could [men in lab coats draw equation on white board]
- 03:26
figure out how to summon dragons, boom. then all would be complete.
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