Marcia Zug Chapter 7. Mail Order Feminism
Marcia Zug Chapter 7. Mail Order Feminism Marriage in the 1950s was treated as the be-all and end-all of a woman’s life.1 However, as feminist historians have persuasively demonstrated, this idealization of marriage created incredible stressors and deep unhappiness for many women. When the popular women’s magazine McCall’s, ran an article in 1956, titled “The Mother Who Ran Away,” it was the most widely read article in the magazine history. “It was our moment of truth,” said a former editor, “we suddenly realized that all those women at home with their three and a half children were miserably unhappy.”2 Similarly when Redbook ran an article asking readers to explain “Why Young Mothers Feel Trapped,” they got 24,000 replies.3 By the 1960s, it had become clear that the marriage model of the male breadwinner and female homemaker was not working and that marriage was not providing the promised path to personal happiness.4 Women, in particular, began to rethink their desire and expectations for marriage. They started postponing marriage to complete college or to establish careers; they used the pill to control their child bearing and commit more of their lives to work; and they fought for and won greater legal and 1.Coontz, Marriage, a History, 227 2Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (New York: W. W. Norton, 1963). 3.Coontz, Marriage, a History, 242. 4.Ibid., 250. civil rights.5 During this same period, women also began to reform marriage and the traditional roles of husband and wife. The ideal marriage was slowly transformed from the traditional male-headed household into the modern association of two, equal individuals.
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