1950s Women

Women in the 1950s.

WWII

During the war, women experienced a greater amount of social freedom. Due to the number of men fighting, they often took up traditionally male roles in the household. 

By 1943, almost 90% of single women and 80% of married women were employed in essential work for the war effort. Women made up one-third of the total work force in the metal, chemical, ship-building, and car manufacture industries.

However, once the war was over, women were expected to return to domesticity. By 1951, the number of working women had fallen almost to the pre-war level.

Education

At school, girls learnt things that would ‘prepare them for their future in the home’, such as cooking and sewing, and most feared engaging in ‘unfeminine’ occupations, such as engineering. In the 1950s, only 1.2%…