Chapters 18
through the Epilogue, of Gail Collins’ America’s
Women, cover the “evolution” of women from the 1950s to the 1970s. Women seemed to gain some freedom and
independence in the first half of the twentieth century, but lost traction in
the 1950s. After World War II, returning
veterans replaced women in the workforce and sent them back to the home. The economy was still booming and, due to generous
governmental benefits for veterans, couples were able to marry, have children, and
purchase a home in suburbia; experiencing all this at a much younger age. The role of women suffered a transition back
to wife, mother, and homemaker. As the
decade went on, television communicated the tightening of gender roles and
McCarthyism stifled any efforts towards social progress for women. The cultural and social revolution was slow
to arrive, but when it did it was with a vengeance. With the publication of Sex and the Single Girl, which approved of sex prior to marriage,
and The Feminine Mystique, which
urged married women to work outside the home, there was a huge shift towards liberating
women. With the governmental benefits of
the 1950s and the new legislation and political turmoil of the Vietnam War
during the 1960s and 1970s, women’s roles were primarily influenced by
political factors over this 30 year period. 
The 1950s was a
cornucopia of economic and cultural changes.
The American Dream became a reality for the 60 percent of middle-class
families who were able to purchase their own home in Suburbia,
USA.[3] Housekeeping became easier for women with the
invention of the automatic washing machine and dryer, frost-free refrigerators, and
dishwashers.[4] The television became a critical addition to
American homes and considered “the single greatest cultural influence of the
postwar era.”[5] Consumerism was promoted with advertisements
for bigger and better appliances and gender roles were simulated by TV families
such as the Cleavers in Leave It to
Beaver and comedies such as I Love
Lucy. While abortions were easier prewar, the 1950s made it more difficult
for women; forcing them to obtain illegal abortions by untrained
individuals. 
Senator Joseph McCarthy
was a political force in the 1950s who terrorized and frightened the American
people. So widespread were his
accusations of Communism that people were in fear of being different. Societal pressures of McCarthyism forced
women into silence and helpless conformity.
Margaret Chase Smith, a Republican Senator from Maine,
told the Senate: “Freedom of speech is
not what it used to be in America,
it has been so abused by some that it is not exercised by others.”[6] 
Civil rights
groups were forming and tensions accelerating when in 1955 women were ready to
take on the bus system by organizing a boycott. The Women’s Political Council
called for a one-day boycott of the city buses as a result of the arrest of
Rosa Parks for not relinquishing her seat so a white person could have it. The boycott ended up lasting a year.[7] Many African American women fought
discrimination and suffered violent consequences as a result of their courage.
The FDA approval
of the first contraceptive pill was probably the most significant and
influential factors in the liberation of women.
The pill allowed women to have the same sexual freedom as men. “Things still might have moved more slowly if
the civil rights movement had not sensitized people to issues of fair play and even handedness.”[8] Gloria Steinem’s first magazine article, “The Moral Disarmament of Betty Coed,” in
1962 shared women’s rejection of sexual discrimination with letting the world
know that “nice girls do.”[9] The
subsequent publications of Sex and the
Single Girl and Betty Friedan’s The
Feminine Mystique, paved the way for both feminism and the women’s
movement. Women were hearing a different
message and on the brink of substantial social change.
“For young
middle-class whites, the core of American political and cultural activity in
the later sixties and early seventies was the war in Vietnam.”[10] The
growing opposition to the war led to conflict with political leaders and
authority in general. “Anti-draft
protesters marched with signs that announced ‘Girls say yes to men who say
no.’”[11] This highly publicized political
rebellion helped to test the possibilities of “women’s right to all the chances
for careers, adventures, and choice that men had.”[12]
Political, economic, and cultural factors
have influenced women’s role to varying degrees during the 1950s, 1960s, and
1970s. The booming economy of the 1950s
would not have been so robust without a social system based on individual
rights and free-market. With the
governmental support of capitalism, free enterprise, and freedom of speech
(other than the McCarthy years); women have slowly moved forward to achieving
legal equality and a well-earned social and cultural respect. “The nation had accepted a radical new view of
women’s place: that it was everywhere.”[13]
[1] Stephanie Coontz, A Strange Stirring: The Feminine
Mystique and AMERICAN WOMEN at the DAWN of the 1960s (New York, NY: Basic Books, 2012), 112.
[2] Gail Collins, America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and
Heroines. (New York: HarperCollins, 2003), 399.
[3] Collins. America’s
Women. 399.
[4] Collins. America’s
Women. 403.
[5] Collins. America’s Women.
410.
[6] Collins. America’s
Women. 413.
[7] Collins. America’s
Women. 417.
[8] Collins. America’s
Women. 425.
[9] Collins. America’s
Women. 425.
[10] Collins. America’s
Women. 429.
[11] Collins. America’s
Women. 427.
[12] Collins. America’s
Women. 444.
[13] Collins. America’s
Women. 447.
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