How ads affected women of the 1950's

All of the pictures are at this link: http://neatdesigns.net/35-extremely-sexist-ads-that-you-should-see/ 

I couldn't copy or save pictures so you will have to go to the link.

Ketchup ad

Hardee's ad

1947 Office ad (towards the bottom)

The article that I chose to cover is the Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, it begins with saying that there was a problem with no name, women of the era were focusing on getting married and, starting families that they weren’t getting any personal fulfillment out of being a stay at home mother. This epidemic went on for 15 years.

                The argument that I am making is that the reason most women were going through this because of the use of ads, and the pressures from society caused these women to invest in a lifestyle because it was the “thing to do”. It was thought to be unfeminine to want to be a doctor or be a psychiatrist, it was frowned upon to have hopes that were bigger than being a housewife. Girls were getting married at an incredibly young rate, and not going to college at an alarming rate. Colleges were building married couples dorm rooms, but the university had mostly male students. Women were living in these couples’ dorms, working to get their men through college. There were classes women could take where they could learn skills to help their man through college. There were ads targeting women and telling them “you are not happy, unless you’re doing what these women are doing.” It wasn’t just female ads, but male ads as well. In my opinion male ads were just as bad as or worse than the female ads. Usually women would be looking smiley and happy while doing some cleaning task, serving or supporting their man and when women see things like this it makes them think that “it’s the thing to do.” There are ads targeting women teaching them how to “snag” a man further increasing the stereotype that women have been placed here to do nothing more than catch a man and have kids. So instead of women focusing on careers of their own, they were having kids and turning that into a career, and instead of women having only two or three children, they were having 5 or 9 children.

The American girl wanted nothing more than to be a suburban housewife. The suburban housewife lifestyle was made to seem glamourous to the target audience, which was American women and sway them into thinking that the suburban housewife lifestyle was a dream, and it promised the true feminine fulfillment if they chased this lifestyle. Initially women thought that if their home didn’t have all of the nice things that they saw in the media then they would not be truly happy at home. Even if women would follow this lifestyle, they would soon find that they were much unfulfilled. Most of the ads were incredibly sexist and were insulting to women.

One add showed a women holding a ketchup bottle, looking surprised saying “you mean a woman can open it?” was the add saying that woman aren’t strong enough to open ketchup bottles? Or that they need a man’s permission to open anything? I’m not sure what the ad was going for 100% but either way, it doesn’t sound good.

There is an ad from 1947 in the http://neatdesigns.net/35-extremely-sexist-ads-that-you-should-see/ link that I have posted, in the ad from 1947 it pictures a man and a woman, married obviously in the man’s office. It reads “Should a man let his wife visit his office?” The woman looks like she has never been in an office, and looks happy just be there. The office is incredibly cluttered with papers and mess everywhere. The bottom part of the ad shows the man smiling because the woman has decided to take it upon herself to clean his office, without the man asking apparently. The end result is that women should be allowed in the office because you could get your office cleaned. The tone that I picked up from this ad is that woman should not be focusing on careers and self-fulfillment, they should be focusing on their man, starting families, and taking care of their home and family.

There is another ad on this list from Hardees that shows a woman looking out the window at her man who is in a car, she is looking at him lovingly and the ad reads “Women don’t leave the kitchen. We all know a woman’s place is in the home, cooking a man a delicious meal. But if you are still enjoying the bachelor’s life and don’t have a little miss waiting on you, then come down to Hardee’s for something sloppy and hastily prepared.”

Sexist ads were a major problem in the 50’s and had major effects on women in society. Women today aren’t just being housewife, they are going to school, forming careers, and starting families all at the same time. It’s ok if you just want to be a housewife but, it’s also okay to follow your passion.