• A little more than 50% of families living in the U.S. owned their own home almost 2 out of 3. (Willis 51).

• “In most suburban developments, the houses were built in a few standard styles. Some houses were constructed in the so-called Cape Cod or Colonial styles and were based on American house designs.” (Willis 52).

• “Suburbanization resulted from the migration of people from inner-city dwellings to homes in the residential outskirts of cities in the 1950s.”(Parson).

• Picture Caption: Bosphorus Ferry
  circa 1950: A ferry at Galata Docks, where ferries leave for points across the Bosphorus and into the suburbs of Istanbul. (Photo by Richard Harrington/Three Lions/Getty Images)

• Fifties women were to perform the jobs of stay-at-home mothers (Kallen 54). 
• Mens were thought to be tough, unemotional, solid, aggressive and the man of the house.  Women's basic needs were to be a wife, a mother, and homemaker (Kallen 54). 
• Women also served society in many different ways. Many women volunteered for charity drives, Boy and Girl Scout Den mothers and on the boards of Parent Teacher Associations. Some women's taught school (Kallen 54). 
• In the 1920s, half of all colleges were college women. Around 1950s, the number dropped to 35 percent (Kallen 55). 
• 19.3 million women had entered the workforce. The most common jobs were low-paying clerical jobs, nursing, and teaching. Some women did pursue careers in medicine, law, and the sciences (Kallen 55). 
• Many women were forced stay home, while other women were happy about staying home (Kallen 55). 

Factory workers, Photo, 1950

• In the 1950s, most people lived in the suburbs as “nuclear” families (Kallen 53).
• “Men and women of the 1950s married at an early age” (Kallen 53).
• Most men getting married were about twenty-two, and most women were about nineteen (Kallen 53).
• The divorce rate was at a low of only 10% (Kallen 53).
• “Nuclear” families were made up of a mother, a father, and their biological children (Kallen 53).
• In the suburbs, “middle-class family activities emphasized togetherness” (Kallen 53). Family was close.
• “... more than 4 million a year after the mid-1950s. This ‘baby boom’ formed a huge demographic category that influenced everything from the sale of diapers and cars to the popularity of rock ‘n’ roll” (Kallen 53).

1. Kallen, Stuart A.. A Cultural History of the United States Through the Decades: The 1950s. Lucent Books, Inc., 1999.
2. Nuclear Family. Photographer. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016. quest.eb.com/search/115_884672/1/115_884672/cite.