The ideal middle

The ideal middle-class family was epitomized by fathers working, mothers at home, cheerful and loving, and successful children.

Marrying earlier and having more children than earlier generations.
Whatever was happening outside, the home was a place of refuge where one could not only forget the worries of work, but the possibility of atomic warfare.

By the late 1950s and early 1960s problems arose:

Demands on men to support expensive domestic paradises

Adventure and freedom arose in popular culture, (Westerns)

Contrasted the regimented suburban, corporate lifestyle of many men.

Demands on women to be all things:

Sexy wife, caring mother, budget-minded shopper, creative cook, and a neighborhood volunteer

To find satisfaction in a shining kitchen floor produced anxious feelings of dissatisfaction.

Concern grew over teenage delinquency high pregnancy rates, and rock and roll.

All were blamed on inadequate parenting, mom.

The ideal suburban life could be a place

of great love and stability OR

Where teenagers were bored

Married women became isolated and self- sacrificing

Men were harried by the pressure of providing the consumer products of the "good life."

Children, who were pressured to conform became rebellious

The Beat culture, civil rights movement, and the antinuclear movement signaled coming rebelliousness of 1960’s

Period of unparalleled prosperity in the US.

Factories were busy filling orders from a war-torn world. Mortgage and tuition money was available thanks to federal support

Goods were relatively cheap.

More Americans became middle class.

By 1960 the U.S. has 6% of the world's population but consumed roughly 50% of global goods and services.

The majority of Americans owned a home, a car, and a TV.

In 1957 (peak of the baby boom) 4.3 million babies are born--one every 7 seconds!

Atomic fear caused a movement toward conservatism, back to the familiar.

The 1950's seems static and boring, but actually

all of America was holding its breath.

Bomb shelters and drills.