The Position Of Women

Question 1

How were women viewed in 1950s

Answer 1

-seen as housewives
-ideal woman was wife + mother
-75% all women married
-only 1/5 women worked 1951
-many believed it would damage children to see their mothers working

Question 2

What was a woman’s daily life like

Answer 2

-Mass observation survey (700 working class women london) found
-morning — cooked breakfast, dressed children, cleared breakfast, tidies + cleaned
-afternoon — started cook lunch, ironing, bathed + put children to bed, cleaned up

Question 3

What ways did the lives of women remain the same

Answer 3

-family allowance paid to women to ensure they didn’t have to work
-welfare state based on nuclear family + full employment men
-mortgages + banks in men’s name so women financially dependant
-unions didn’t support female workers
-1964 still uncommon women working despite numbers rising

Question 4

Ways in which experience of women changed

Answer 4

-for women who did work equal pay teachers 1952, civil servants 1954
-lives in home improved by new labour saving devices e.g. 1957-59 households owning washing machine up 54% + refrigerator by 58%
-washing machines soon called ‘the liberator’
-without these things it took whole day wash clothes + had buy fresh food daily
-but this saved women lots of time + were growing bored with home life