Paper 1 Section A
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Analyse
Paper 1 Section B
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Layout
Images
Text and Language
Mode of Address and Methods o f Persuasion
Colour
Representation of Women
Paper 1 Section B
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Research
1950s Consumer and Technology Boom
- A majority of consumption was done by the generation that wishes to lead a new life in he suburbs.
The Stereotypical Housewife
- Marriage and having children were apart of the national agenda for a woman.
- Many women felt the pressure to get married.
- Despite the fact that employment for women increased during this time, the media tended to focus more on a woman's role in the home.
- If a woman wasn't married or engaged by her early twenties, she was in danger of becoming an 'old maid'.
- Being single and pregnant was totally unacceptable - girls who got pregnant were forced to drop out of school and were often sent way to relatives or homes for wayward girls.
- Large families were typical - from 1940 to 1960 the number of families with three children doubled and the number of families having a fourth child quadrupled.
- This was the era of the 'happy homemaker' - in the 1950s young mothers were encouraged to stay at home if they could afford it and women who chose to work when they didn't need the money were considered as selfish.
The American Dream of Success and Upward Mobility
- Set of ideals (democracy, rights, liberty, opportunity and equality) in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, as well as an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers.
- "Life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth. - James Truslow Addams
- Immigrants could come here and live the 'American Dream'
- In the post war period, the US secured its position as the world's richest country.
- GNP (Gross National Product), a measure of all goods and services, jumped from about $200 thousand-million in 1940 to $300 thousand-million in 1950 to more than $500 thousand-million in 1960.
- Housing boom - affordable mortgages for returning servicemen
- The major corporations grew larger - new conglomerates led the way - large corporations were developed overseas, where labour costs were often lower.
- Workers found their lives changing - fewer produced goods and more provided services.
- By 1956, a majority held white collar jobs, working as corporate managers, teachers, salespersons and office employees.
- Some firms granted an annual wage, long term employment contracts and other benefits.
- Farmers, on the other hand, faced tough times. Gains in productivity led to agricultural consolidation, as farming became a big business. More and more farms found it difficult to compete and eventually left the land.
- Americans were leaving the inner cities to live in the suburbs, hoping to find affordable housing for the larger families spawned by the postwar baby boom.
The Growth in American Suburbs
- Having your own car meant you could live further away from where you worked.
- The suburbs grew 47% in the 1950s as more and more people claimed their own territory.
- New housing , which had dropped to 100,000 a year during the war, climbed to 1.5 million annually.
1950s Fashion and Film Imagery
