To think many have a stereotyped idea of women in the 1050's?

[abacucat]

I have bought a copy of the magazine Housewife from 1950 at my local charity shop out of curiosity. It is really interesting. The articles include -

• recipes
• dressmaking instruction
• how to make a tea tray
• some funny stories
• poems to read aloud
• reviews of new published books
• an article about whether you should have a pram or get your toddler to walk - article recommends a pram and your toddler walking sometimes
• DIY - replacing a broken wall switch
• an article about the importance of doing things every day for yourself and not just being a mother and housewife
• gardening tips
• an article about bird watching
• things to see in London this month
• How shopping centres are planned by architects and planners
• A light hearted article about what to wear if you are serving on a committee

Some of these fit into our stereotype views of 1950's housewives, but some clearly don't. The magazine makes women who are housewives sound like they are capable women with lots of skills and interests.

"In 1974 I made a tray cloth at school - age 7. Embroidery. Each afternoon the boys did football and the girls did sewing." Crikey that brought back memories!

These days I still do cross stitch but this reminded me of sitting in primary school singing hymns and learning embroidery stitches - cross stitch, running, back running, French knot... Using Aida that was maybe 4 holes per cm!

"the law didnt alliw married women to work" you talking uk law? Because I don't think that's true. Many working class married women worked legally.

eddiemairswife

My sister was born in the 1950s. My mother was asked to leave when she got married in the 1950s. She was a line supervisor in a manufacturing plant. Funnily enough, nobody asked my father to leave the same job when he got married...

When i was at school in the 1970s/1980s, We had a flat attached to the home ecconomics department where the girls learned to iron, sew, cook and clean. The boys took other lessons such as metal work, wood work and technical drawing.

@Unobtainable it wasn't illegal for a married women to work though. My grandmother worked as a teacher throughout her marriage from 1948 onwards.

Not illegal, but many jobs and employers had rules that they would not employ married women. So the jobs married women could get was fairly narrow.

abacucat, how much of that is as late as the '50s, though? sometimes I get the feeling people think of the '50s as a very, very long time ago

By the 1950s a lot of places no longer had the marriage bar, but some places did still have it. The Foreign Service only lifted their marriage bar in the 1970's.
There was a marriage bar for teachers in Wales until 1944.
In Ireland the marriage bar was slower to disappear and it took till the 70's for it to be abolished in many places.

Yes, this was the West Midlands so not at all progressive or enlightened. As I said, she was asked to leave as were other women once they married. You were seen as taking a man's job if you married but still kept your job. Things haven't changed much to be honest, certainly not around here!

I dont buy magazines but I have an affection for those 50s_60s 'womens magazines'. All pretty much as described by OP. Bill Bryson, "Notes from a Small Island" describes being surprised by them - mid 1960s? - as they were so different from their American counterparts which were a lot more focused on beauty and sex, pleasing your man and sex, true confessions and sex and maybe some more sex. More similar I think to the stuff on sale here today.

My Gran went back to work once the children were at school. She was a teacher until her retirement.

Back then, being a housewife was respected. Running a home was more physically tiring. But many working class women also found work outside the home as a necessity.

It's only recently that women began being sheepish about introducing themselves as a SAHM.
I'm a feminist but feel that respect for women or men needs to return.