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Men played a large role in the oppression of women during this time period. Males expected women to be submissive, demure, compliant housewives. It was a societal expectation for men to work outside the home and women work inside the home, leading to many women being neglected by their husbands. There was a disconnect between husbands and their wives, leading to dissatisfaction for many women. The entitlement and lack of compassion from husbands resulted in many married women being extremely unhappy with their lives.
#MenSuck

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“I thought it sounded just like the sort of drug a man would invent. Here was a woman in terrible pain, obviously feeling every bit of it or she wouldn’t groan like that, and she would go straight home and start another baby, because the drug would make her forget how bad the pain had been, when all the time, in some secret part of her, that long, blind, doorless and windowless corridor of pain was waiting to open up and shut her in again” (Plath 66)

In this passage, Esther and Buddy witness a pregnancy. The woman giving birth is laying on a table and drugged. Esther sympathizes for this woman and is disgusted by the lack of compassion the men viewing the event showed. Esther recognizes the complete disregard for the mother’s feelings when, in her society, the production of children was seen as more important than women’s rights.

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During the 1950s, women felt immense pressure to get married, start a family, and become a housewife. This narrative was constantly pushed through media, further enforcing the stereotype. Many women felt dissatisfied conforming to this expectation, leading to mental health struggles such as depression. The housewife stereotype was extremely impactful on women and the way women are seen in society.

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“Ever since I’d learned about the corruption of Buddy Willard my virginity weighed like a millstone around my neck . It had been of such enormous importance of me for so long that my habit was to defend it at all costs. I had been defending it for five years and I was sick of it” (Plath 228).

This quote demonstrates how Esther struggles with the societal expectations and double standards for women during the 1950s. In the beginning of the story, Esther found out her boyfriend, Buddy Willard, slept with women and received no consequences for it. Esther felt betrayed by this because she felt as if virginity and purity were important. In this quote, Esther is planning to sleep with a professor to rid herself of the stifling societal expectation that women should stay abstinent until marriage.

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“ ‘What a man wants is a mate and what a woman wants is infinite security’ ” and, “ ‘What a man is is an arrow into the future and what a woman is is the place the arrow shoots from’ “ (Plath 72).

These quotes exemplify how a women is supposed to support her husband by creating a cleanly home and is to support their goals and ambitions. Esther has a difficult time with this standard, as she’s used to doing these things for her own goals and dreams. Esther was never interested in supporting a man’s interests, because it would stop her from reaching her goals of writing. By not marrying Buddy, Esther would be going against what society wants for her, as Buddy is seen as an ideal mate.

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This image illustrates how a large emphasis was placed on women looking beautiful for the benefit of men. Beauty was exceedingly important to women at the time because it allowed them to attract men and find a husband

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“So I began to think maybe it was true that when you were married and had children it was like being brainwashed, and afterward you went about numb as a slave in some private, totalitarian state” (Plath 85)

This quote shows how Esther has a negative view of marriage and motherhood. She sees it as restrictive and believes it will lead to the loss of her free will and free thinking.

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https://youtu.be/zlnH6V83QRA
After WWII, women were seen differently, and the new expectation of staying home to be a housewife grew more and more common. The women that were seen prior working in factories and with machinery to help support the war efforts, were now expected to remain at home to be with their children, cook meals, and to clean the house. There were mass amounts of propaganda being used to persuade women into thinking that being a housewife was fulfilling and that “dirty work” was meant for men to accomplish. This was seen in magazines, news articles, and television. While men were the main providers during this time, women still made up for 33% of the overall workforce in order to maintain a steady income for their households. The rise of women getting jobs and volunteering in different political organizations lead to the women’s Rights Movements in the 60s and 70s.

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Cultural Shift: Women's Roles in the 1950s

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The concept of “housewife’s fatigue” was created during this time period. Married women were sleeping for as much as 10 hours a day, much more than the average adult needed to sleep. Although well rested, many of these women complained of being constantly tired. Doctors tried many remedies for this, such as tranquilizers, but nothing seemed to work. “Housewife’s fatigue” stemmed from the depression women faced due to the dissatisfaction with their husbands, children, and overall life.

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“ ‘In place of their dreams, they take husbands.’ Feeling they have been deceived, the girls develop a high level of anxiety and aggression that, according to Parsons, ‘undoubtedly underlies the widespread ambivalence among women toward the role of motherhood… and the role of being a women in any other fundamental respect.' ” (Breines 35)

People forcing women into the home ultimately led to unhappiness and disdain for women towards the people who represented their unwanted situation such as their children or husbands.

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Due to women being expected to get married and start a family at an early age, many neglected academic pursuits. Getting an education was of secondary importance compared to becoming a housewife. Very few women pursued careers however many married women held part time jobs to help their husbands or sons through school. Women neglected their own academic and scholarly success due to the belief that male success is of greater importance.

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“Concerned over the Soviet Union’s lead in the space race, scientists noted that America’s greatest source of unused brainpower was women. But girls would not study physics: it was “unfeminine.” A girl refused a science fellowship at John Hopkins to take a job in a real-estate office. All she wanted, she said, was what every other American girl wanted-to get married, have four children and live in a nice house in a nice suburb” (The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan)

This quote exemplifies how little women were taught to value education. Despite opportunities, women favored settling down and starting a family at a very young age. This was due to societal pressures and women being taught that their education was not as important as getting married.

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If a woman pursed a higher education, she most likely became a secretary, bank teller, sale clerk, teacher, or another “feminine” career. Very few women went into the STEM field due to science and math being seen as “unfeminine.” Women mainly worked in “feminine” fields in order to find a potential husband in the workplace.
#WomenInSTEM

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“Despite greater educational opportunities and achievement, many 1950s daughters were encouraged neither to excel in school nor prepare for careers.” ( Breines 73)

Daughters in the 1950s were often better at school but discouraged to go any further in their careers in order to focus on becoming a homemaker with a husband and children.

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"I have a memory of myself at eleven or twelve, trying to imagine my future. There would be a house with grass around it. There would be a woman standing in the backyard, staring over the fence. I knew I would be unhappy. I knew I would not want to be there, but I imagined this future nonetheless."
(Laurie Stone, "Memories Are Made of This" qtd Breines 127)

While many women didn't want to live average housewife life, they often felt trapped and felt like that was the only option, which led to uncertainty and depression for them throughout their lives.

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This is a newspaper article from the 1950s showing how men supported the mistreatment of women. If a woman wasn’t completely submissive and compliant in a relationship, then many men saw physical violence as an appropriate way to silence them.

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“A careful reading of Lynn whites Educating Our Daughters (1950), The key theoretical document on women’s education at the time, suggest that White’s concerns were more complex than feminist critics were able to admit—that he belongs as much in the growing tradition of androgyny as in the sexiest world that wanted to keep women locked in the home. White did not hesitate to attack the eastern educational establishment for being “permeated merrily with indifference but with antagonism towards women.” In order to “fulfill their responsibilities to the feminine part of the population,” he insisted, those who formed the policies of  coeducational schools “must open their facilities to competent women according to their individual merits and abandon the present shameful discrimination against them.’ ”(American Women in the the 1950s: Mothers and More by Eugenia Kaledin pg.49)

This quote displays how during the 1950’s, women dealt with misogyny and sexism in many different area’s, including where they were to be able to receive an education. Education was an area that was uncommon for women to be in, as they were seen as only being needed in the home. Men were granted greater opportunities than women in means of education, which lead to women facing discrimination and sexism in order to gain a proper education.

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“Housewives who live according to the feminine mystique do not have a personal purpose stretching into the future. But without such a purpose to envoke their full abilities, they cannot grow to self-realization. Without such a purpose, they lose sense of who they are” (The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan Pg. 377)

This quote shows how women conformed so heavily to societal standards that they lost their sense of self. All of their actions were based on the male gaze and in the hopes of becoming the ideal wife and mother.
#LiveForYourself

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"Moving back and forth between antithetical worlds separated by subway rids, I never fully was what I seemed or tried to be. I had the feeling I was playing hooky all the time, not from school, but from the person represented by my bland outward appearance." (Joyce Johnson, Minor Characters qtd in Breines 137)

Young girls were often forced into conformity in the way they dressed and acted, which left some unhappy and with a feeling of emptiness due to the fact that they could not express who they truly were.

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https://www.news-medical.net/health/Analyzing-the-Stigma-Surrounding-Mental-Health.aspx

This article discusses the stigma around mental health during the time period. Later on in the article, it is mentioned that the stigmatization lead to people feeling the need to conform to what society thought about mental illnesses, instead of seeking help, which also lead to a lack of research around the topic. This is seen with the character Esther in The Bell Jar, where she deals with the many opinions from the people around her surrounding her mental health. She received negative comments from her mother, who thought that she was a rebelling, and wasn't actually suffering from a true mental illness. She also underwent numerous treatments from her doctors, that were only temporary fixes, and made her less in touch with herself.

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This image was issued in 1944 and depicts a woman confidently managing the home, encouraging people during WWII

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https://daily.jstor.org/what-really-made-1950s-housewives-so-miserable/
This article talks about how women in the 1950s weren't depressed because of their role as a mother or even as a housewife, but how their husbands and society as a whole treated them while they were in that role.

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Why did so many white, suburban stay-at-home moms in the 1940s through '60s struggle with neurosis, anxiety, or depression? Since Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique, a standard answer has been boredom and a sense of meaninglessness.

Drawing from interviews with 35 British women who were "housewives" in the post-war years, about half of whom reported anxiety or depression, Ali Haggett challenges this framing. She argues that these woman valued their role as wives and mothers but were often miserable because their husbands, and their societies, treated them badly.

One women, Eileen Bailey, began suffering from depression after discovering her husband's "numerous extramarital relationships" soon after their marriage in 1943. Yet she remained married for 25 years. "It was awful that you couldn't trust him," she said. "And I think it happened a lot at the tennis club. And I knew that other people knew and were probably talking about it. And that doesn't make you feel very good."

After finally getting a divorce, Bailey said, she felt much better, which to her confirmed that the feelings "had been caused by the situation."

Bailey insisted that it was not her role as a full-time mother that bothered her.

"I think I may have been a natural mum," she said. "I think your children need you at all ages. And a lot of people say 'oh I'll go to work when they go to school', but I think they need you just as much."

Other women who had experienced psychological problems attributed them not to their marriages but to childhood trauma. Some spoke of stressful lives with unhappy parents, physical violence in their childhood homes, or terror they experienced living through World War II.

"There was no savouring the experience, there was only surviving it..."

While popular depictions often show tranquilizers and other popular psychological drugs as a tool to help women in the post-war era stay in otherwise intolerable situations, some of the interviewees said just the opposite. Ann Coles, whose husband suffered from a personality disorder that made him difficult to live with, said that beginning antidepressants helped her to see her situation more clearly. Once that happened, she took her children and left him.

Coles said some of her trouble had to do with having five babies in seven years, with no control over her fertility. But she reported that she was happy to be a mother, and would just have preferred to do it on her own terms.

"There was no savouring the experience, there was only surviving it, and that was to do with my particular circumstances," she said.

Of course, there's no doubt doctors overprescribed psychiatric drugs in the 1950s and '60s. It's also clear that many women were-and still are-angry at living lives limited to taking care of home and family. But Haggett's research suggests that we should be careful to distinguish between misery at the simple fact of being a housewife and misery that stems from specific problems in how individual husbands, and society at large, treat housewives.

Resources

JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. JSTOR Daily readers can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR.

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What Really Made 1950s Housewives So Miserable - JSTOR Daily

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Why did so many white, suburban stay-at-home moms in the 1940s through '60s struggle with neurosis, anxiety, or depression? Since Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique, a standard answer has been boredom and a sense of meaninglessness.

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This video tells how the pressures put on the nuclear family in the 1950s to be happy and "normal" ultimately led to families unraveling in the later decades.
#SmileForthePicture

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She Says Why The Good Old 1950s Are A Myth

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This image is an example of war propaganda from World War Two. Women were necessary to the workforce in order to provide resources to the war. Many of the gender stereotypes in the 1950s were a result of this development. Men felt emasculated by women entering the workforce and society desperately tried to restore pre World War Two society by confining women to the home.
#WomenInTheWorkforce

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The gender roles seen in the 1950s were strongly correlated to the Cold War. During the Cold War, women played a vital role in keeping the family unit strong. Additionally, the term nuclear family, a family group including parents and their children, was used to describe the traditional family structure.

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"Of course they would try to persuade a girl to have sex and say they would marry her later, but as soon as she gave in, they would lose all respect for her and starting saying that if she did that with them she would do that with other men and they would end up by making her life miserable " (Plath 81)

This quote shows how Esther has been reflecting on the double standards regarding sex. It was socially acceptable for men to sleep with people but if a woman did it she was considered unfit for marriage. This double standard haunted Esther throughout the book as she struggled with the way virginity played a part in her identity.
#Misogyny

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This ad was marketed as a drug to relieve symptoms of depression and mainly targeted towards women. The fact that women were not happy was becoming more wide-known, so instead of thinking society is the problem, they just gave women drugs so they could still perform their housewife duties.

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This ad shows what men and women look for in a vehicle. While the items on the women column were about aesthetic, the men column was full things that actually mattered like the mileage and how it drives. It personifies how women were looked at as only caring about looks while men were smart enough to care about quality.

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"All my life I'd told myself studying and reading and writing and working like mad was what I wanted to do, and it actually seemed to be true, I did everything well enough and got all A's, and by the time I made it to college nobody could stop me" (Plath 31)

Esther is a very ambitious and intelligent woman who succeeds academically throughout the novel. However, Esther lacks a sense of identity and clarity involving her future career and life path. Esther is seen contemplating whether she wants to be a mother, professor, or another career completely. Many women also struggled with this during the 1950s. The struggle between education and motherhood was a common problem for women during the time period.

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"Born of the contradictions between a conservative family and gender culture and new opportunities for work and education, the women's liberation movement [of the 1960's] embodied the grievances of white, middle-class girls, their hopes for equality and freedom." (Breines 82)

Because of the societal pressures put on daughters in the 1950s, they often wanted to make use of the new opportunities given to them to vouch for equality and freedom, which sparked the women's liberation movement that started in the end of the 1950's and took off in the 1960s
#Girlboss