In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Journal of Women's History 13.3 (2001) 151-152



[Access article in PDF]

Ambivalent Dreams: Women and the Home after World War II

Elaine Tyler May


Jane Levey's work points to some intriguing ambiguities about gender and family life in the post-World War II era. Americans were rushing into family life as never before: the marriage age dropped, the marriage rate rose, the birthrate skyrocketed, and after a postwar spike the divorce rate actually declined. This demographic explosion prevailed for nearly two decades among all groups of Americans, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, or education. 1 Yet many pundits and professionals fretted over the demise of the American family, and worried that as the family goes, so goes the nation. Why this high anxiety at a time when the popularity of family life seemed to be at its peak?

Levey's insightful analysis of two popular memoirs provides important clues into this apparent paradox. She builds upon recent historical scholarship on the postwar era that shows the many ways in which Americans embraced, rejected, tweaked, transformed, resisted, or resigned themselves to the much-touted nuclear family ideal. She also contributes to the burgeoning scholarship on the popular culture of the era, demonstrating that it was complex, rebellious, and nuanced. The two books she examines illuminate the ambivalence middle-class Americans felt toward the nuclear family.

World War II set the stage for this ambivalence. A dizzying array of new possibilities opened up for women, and then quickly shut down when the war ended. Employment in "men's jobs" ended, but women's aspirations for work outside the home did not. Married women continued to work in the paid labor force, and did so in increasing numbers. Edith Speert, a working wife during World War II, no doubt reflected the sentiments of many when she wrote to her husband overseas, "Sweetie, I want to make sure I make myself clear about how I've changed. I want you to know now that you are not married to a girl that's interested solely in a home-- I shall definitely have to work all my life--I get emotional satisfaction out of working; and I don't doubt that many a night you will cook the supper while I'm at a meeting. Also, dearest--I shall never wash and iron --there are laundries for that! Do you think you'll be able to bear living with me? . . . I love you, Edith." 2 Speert looked forward to the return of her husband and the resumption of their married life. During the eighteen months of their separation, she and her husband exchanged thirteen hundred loving letters. But she intended to embrace family life on her own terms. She would probably resonate to Betty MacDonald's frustrations [End Page 151] on the chicken farm as well as the quirky innovations in the Gilbreth family.

Levey notes that the two books she considers focus on white middle-class families. But contemporary popular culture also suggests why Americans outside the white middle class might aspire to the nuclear family and mold its meanings to their own unique experiences. For example, postwar prosperity made it possible for some African American men to earn enough to provide for their families, allowing their wives to stay home with their own children rather than tending to the houses and children of white families. Celebrating that possibility in 1947, Ebony magazine's editors proclaimed, "Goodbye Mammy, Hello Mom." World War II "took Negro mothers out of white kitchens, put them in factories and shipyards. When it was all over, they went back to kitchens--but this time their own." For black women, domesticity meant "freedom and independence in her own home." 3 Black artists expressed this yearning for a new life. Lorraine Hansberry's powerful 1959 play, A Raisin in the Sun, articulated with great eloquence the postwar dream of a home in the suburbs, not to assimilate into white America but to live as a black family with dignity, independence, and comfort. 4

Levey's analysis...

pdf

Share