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"A woman's role consisted of making her family happy by serving them, providing all of the best consumer goods, and then taking her pleasure in there happiness" (Young 10).

As stated here, women in the 1950's were mostly expected to stay home and care for the family, being a caretaker to the house and getting her happiness from her family's satisfaction.

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"Most advertising agencies consisted of men, a discrepancy that led to copy written by males but meant for women" (Young 47).

As pointed out by Young, the advertising that occurred during this era was mostly spread by men. Leaving women out of the picture meant that they were unable to give their own opinion on the matter, leaving the stereotype in advertising to run wild and free.

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As the 1950's went on, the stereotype of women went wild, with books and advertisements running free.

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Women filled the role of taking care of the children while carrying out their duties as a homemaker.

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Media reinforced the idea of male/ husband superiority. The wife was portrayed as submissive and obedient.

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During the 1950s, “the prevailing wisdom was that men and women were so different as to be members of separate species” (Kallen 56). The stigma surrounding gender was so strong, these roles defined the very nature of people’s existence.

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Women held the role of pulling the family together. One book, The Women’s Guide to Better Living, went so far as to claim, “‘The family is the unit to which you most genuinely belong. … The family is the center of your living. If it isn’t, you’ve gone far astray’” (Kallen 56). The integrity of the household was placed on a woman’s shoulders, leaving no room for thought, otherwise.

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Women were expected to marry right out of high school or early on in college (“Mrs. America”).

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Women were led to believe, through advertisements and other media, that a husband was more important than a college degree (“Mrs. America”).

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The idea of the 1950s was that women went to college to find a husband, not necessarily to get an education. In other words, “women went to college to get a "Mrs." (pronounced M.R.S.) degree” (“Mrs. America”). Women were rarely seen as educated individuals. Rather, they were simply future mothers and wives.

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“I still have the makeup kit they gave me, fitted out for a person with brown eyes and brown hair” (Plath 3).

Esther’s gifts exemplify the stereotype of women’s need to be presentable, clean, and pretty for the public, especially their husbands.

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“I had always imagined myself hitched up on the delivery table after it was all over … reaching out for my first little squirmy child and saying it’s name” (Plath 67).

The expectation of women to simply bear children and care for them reached girls even at a young age.

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“I sat on the pink velvet loveseat in Jay Cee’s office, holding a paper rose and facing the magazine photographer” (Plath 100).

If presented in the media, women were pampered. They were portrayed as perfect and beautiful, forcing that image on any watching eyes.

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Women were expected to appear clean and presentable for their husbands. This was paired with the expectation to keep the family healthy and fed.

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Many women in the ‘50s preferred the easy life of housework, compared to a paying job. As stated by Kallen, “Aside from pronouncements in magazines, many women with young families simply did not want their own career” (57).

Paired with the gender-biased social norms, the allure of a relatively stress-free life caused many women to choose not to have jobs.

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Most women worked in teaching or clerical jobs if they worked at all.

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"You ought to read French and German," Jay Cee said mercilessly, "and probably several other languages as well, Spanish and Italian — better still, Russian. Hundreds of girls flood into New York every June thinking they'll be editors. You need to offer something more than the run-of-the-mill person. You better learn some languages" (Plath 33).

Women were expected to take extra measures in order to stand out in the competitive work environment during that time. Constant comparison to a man's perceived potential forced more competition on women.

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Many women chose not to work due to a lesser known stigma: selfishness. If there was no inherent financial need, women were not ‘supposed’ to work. To do so would be considered an act of selfishness, as she was supposedly neglecting her family’s needs to pursue her own desires (“Mrs. America”).

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"At the close of the war, employers reestablished the prewar sexual division of labor. To justify the discriminatory practices against women, popular culture began to create the concept of the proper role for women. “Studies of postwar culture found that government propaganda, popular magazines, and films reinforced traditional concepts of femininity and instructed women to subordinate their interests to those of returning male veterans" (Holt).

By creating this role of an "ideal woman" many women then began to follow this societal standard, and may still do so to this day.

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"Evidence also shows that many aspects of gender are simply not innate, as evidenced by children who do not exhibit a gender-based preference for such things as friends, clothing or toys when placed in gender- neutral settings. Only after negative reactions from peers, the media, or social institutions like schools do many of these children begin to “like” or take on the gender roles they have come to see as appropriate for them" (Holt).

As people get older they normally don't have a grasp on what a women or a man should do really, people see everything through more of a gender neutral sight, not really giving a care as to who should do what. It's what societies expectations bring upon people that make them feel forced to fit in these roles.

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

This quote in particular describes how women were to look for men who will take support and take care of them financially and offer them security and how men were supposed to be the sole caretakers and supporters for their wives.

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The magazine photograph showed a girl in a strapless evening dress of fuzzy white stuff, grinning fit to split, with a whole lot of boys bending in around her. … ‘No, it’s not me. … It’s somebody else’” (Plath 207).

Esther does not want to accept her own image after all that has changed in her life. She can’t come to terms with her own image. Society deems both the mental and physical changes she experienced as unacceptable, leading to her own dissatisfaction.