The 1950s was a time of great economic prosperity for many Americans and the United States as a whole. During this decade, the middle class became a larger and more powerful force than it had ever been before. Many middle class families moved to the suburbs. Suburbs often were less crowded than urban areas which made it attractive for families to move there. They also offered much larger home than they could hope to find in the cities. These reasons and others contributed to an unprecedented demographic shift. By 1960, a third of the nation’s populations were living in suburbs.
The demands of the Cold War created a culture of conformity for America during the 1950s. Conformity was a central role in suburbia. Houses in suburbia were often built in the same manner as the others in the community- same floor plan, same number of rooms, same color of paint, etc. People living in these communities were often of the same age group and background. This made it easier for them to form friendships and social circles than in urban areas. Women valued the presence of other non-working mothers living nearby to share the tasks of child rearing. Conformity also played a huge role in that there was just one race of people living in suburbs in the ‘50s.
There was a cultural emphasis on family life in the 1950s. The gender roles from the past remained reinforced throughout suburbs and the rest of America. For professional men, suburban life meant a division between their working and personal worlds. For women, it meant an increased isolation from the workplace. Many middle-class men considered it degrading for their wives to be employed. Also, much of society thought of women, the majority of them housewives, as people that should stay at home full-time and raise the kids. However, some suburban women wanted to leave the home and go to work. As expectations of material comfort rose, many middle class families needed to a second income to sustain their current standard of...