Gendering the Nation Online Museum Exhibit
Created by the class of HIST 465 (Topics in Women's History) 2015-16
Queens University, Canada
Gendered Domestic Consumption in Cold War United States
The emergence of the Cold War in the U.S. saw mass culture and consumption dominate American life. With this new era of mass consumption and culture, there was an emphasis on distinct gender roles for women to purchase and consume only the best products for their households. This exhibit depicts the role mass consumption had on the domestic sphere of the lives of American women during the Cold War. Labour saving devices as well as new forms of employment in the domestic sphere were linked to identity of the housewife. Advertisers during the Cold War focused on targeting women to purchase goods for their households. The explosion of consumerism during the Cold War gave women their new identity as consumers of their households. Women took on new economic roles as consumers for their households and their identity became intertwined with their purchasing power. This new role for women as ‘consumers of the household’ did little to enhance or progress their power. The new role for women as the main consumer of the household, still maintained consumers in their traditional gender roles, thus remaining in separate spheres from that of their husbands. This new consumerism still emphasized separate spheres, as it was primarily a domestic consumerism. Consumption in the United States was essential during the Cold War to exemplify how America was advanced and ‘better’ than the Soviet Union.
Postcard of Eichler home c. 1950s
This postcard of the Eichler home, a single-family house represented Cold War suburban households. The home was the site of new forms of private family leisure. The suburban single-family house represented the surge of Americans moving to suburbs during the Cold War. The home not only represented new forms of leisure, but also of new consumption patterns. The home was not only a site for labour for women, but also the site for entertainment. New products were put on full display in homes to show off to fellow neighbors. The home was now the site of an idealized “American way of life,” that had an abundance of household consumer goods.
Bird, William L. “Postcard of Eichler home,” Holidays on Display exhibition” Smithsonian Insititution, National Museum of American History.
The New Modern Kitchen
The New Modern Home- Domestic Saving food and appliances
Propaganda and advertising techniques in the Cold War promoted the United States as filled with consumption and women as the central icon. Throughout the Cold War, there was a constant promotion from advertising agencies of ‘More is better.’ A modern kitchen not only commented on a more is better aesthetic, but also represented and showed a class identity. This ideal not only exemplified the United State’s capital superiority over the Soviet Union, but also competition amongst Americans to have only the best appliances in their homes. Following the end of World War II, a consumption of household appliances rose significantly. The arrival of new modern appliances allowed for new foods such as frozen foods to be marketed to women to have in their homes. Technological changes allowed for there to be more products created and sold for domestic life. There was recognition of the amount of work women had to complete during the day by advertisers for these new appliances. There was an emphasis on women’s purchasing power to show off all of their consumer goods in their homes. A sense of freedom was promoted in this new form of mass consumption for women, however strict gender roles were still being enforced. The ‘new modern home,’ was not modern, as it did not promote women to veer away from their distinct gender roles. All new products aimed at female consumers were promoted as helping women maintain and ease their domestic duties.
Vice President Nixon and Soviet Premier Khruschev at the 1959 Kitchen Debate
This is an image of Vice President Nixon and the Soviet Premier Khrushchev meeting at the 1959 American National Exhibition held in Russia. The model kitchen was presented at this debate featured a variety of modern appliances and foods that should be a part of the ideal American kitchen. The Soviet Union and the United States had very different conceptions regarding their superiority during the tense times of the Cold War. For the U.S., modern appliances and specified gender roles exemplified their superiority to the Soviet Union. Nixon discussed at this debate what appropriate roles were for women, and how the use of these modern appliances would help to ease their role in the domestic sphere. This new form of household consumption would help the everyday lives of suburban housewives. Nixon is showing Khruschev the modern American kitchen, one full of appliances for housewives to use. It reflects America’s modern and new superiority to the Soviet Union. Women’s identity now incorporated the role of household consumer. This new role of women as the main consumers of the household in the Cold War period, still maintained traditional gender roles, thus remaining in the private domestic sphere separate from the public spheres of men. The housewife’s consumption practices were essential in showing American progress.
“Fig. 3 Vice President Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev spar verbally at the
American Exhibition in Moscow in 1959. Here they engage in the “kitchen debate” as the fight the cold war over the commodity gap rather than the missile gap. (World Wide Photo)” (Note: Found in May, Elaine Tyler. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era. New York: Basic Books, 1998, 17)
Advertisement in Good Housekeeping Magazine c. Feb 1947 for the Kelvinator
This advertisement, featured in a women’s magazine gives the sense of immediacy and pressure to always have the “best” and “newest” home appliances in American homes. The consumption of these modern appliances helped to contribute to superiority over the Soviet Union. This advertisement for the Kelvinator refrigerator and freezer presents a popular advertising strategy during the Cold War of having the most modern kitchen. A woman peers into the fridge while a man peers behind her. The kitchen is seen as a meeting place between the two separate spheres with men working hard outside homes to provide the ‘best’ for his wife in terms of modern kitchen appliances.
Kelvinator: "Get the Best Things First." Advertisement. Good Housekeeping. February 1947: 112.
Sunbeam Mixmaster, c. 1955
Ovens and refrigerators were not the only new appliances being marketed to housewives to have in their homes. Toaster ovens as well as the Mixmasters such as the Sunbeam, were new appliances to have in the new modern kitchen. There was a pressure on housewives to transform their kitchens and fill them with electric labour saving appliances.
“Sunbeam Mixmaster.” National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center. Exhibition American Enterprise.
Toy kitchen from Sears catalog c. 1950s
The culture of consumption was introduced to women at a young age. Advertisers recognized the kitchen as a gendered space, with women primarily occupying it. Toy kitchens featuring miniature appliances reinforced gender roles that women belonged in the kitchen. Toy kitchens featured a variety of appliances for young girls. These toy kitchens were marketed to girls that they could be just like their mother with an abundance of modern appliances. There was a feminization of these products by advertisers to appeal to a female audience. This included having most of the toy kitchen sets being primarily pink.
“Just like Moms! Toy Kitchen from Sear Catalogue, Courtesy of Sears.” The National Museum of American History. http://americanhistory.si.edu/object-project/refrigerators/toy-kitchen
TV dinner tray c. 1950s
TV dinner trays allowed women to prepare meals quickly, while storing these items in their new refrigerators and freezers. Food on the go, or frozen meals allowed women to save time from being confined to their kitchens. These items were marketed towards white, middle class suburban housewives as ‘convenient.’ With American frozen foods originally a luxury product, there was a mass market of frozen foods created in the post World War II period. TV dinners were popular amongst families, as housewives were marketed as being able to escape from slaving away in the kitchen and enjoying television with her family with a ready-made meal.
“TV dinner tray, 1950s “What’s cooking?”” The National Museum of American History.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/object-project/refrigerators/tv-dinner
New forms of work and leisure for women in the domestic sphere
After World War II, many women were pressured to leave their jobs they had taken up during the war and return to their homes. In this postwar period, there was an emergence of new forms of work and leisure were created to make women feel that they were not once again isolated in their homes. More leisure activities were transferred to the home to emphasize the home as an important leisure setting. Work and leisure were promoted as making women feel less isolated in their daily lives in the private spheres of suburban communities. These new forms of activities promoted and instilled an “American way of life,” one in which distinct gender roles were enforced. These new forms of leisure and work for women became emblematic of suburban life. Leisure and work for women were seen as freeing, yet they still promoted the importance of women maintaining their household work. These new consumer practices revolved around the schedule and the completion of domestic chores. These jobs were seen as women taking a more active role in their lives, giving women more agency while not interrupting their roles as mothers and wives. New forms of work and leisure emphasized the “new, modern woman,” one who could balance her traditional gender role while engaging in new work and leisure practices within the private sectors of their community amongst other women, or by themselves. Employment and leisure gave women the false ideal that they were now part of the public sphere.
Photograph of Brownie Wise demonstrating Tupperware to group of ladies, Tupperware advertisement c. 1960s
Advertisements emphasized housewives economic independence while gaining a new job. This new form of consumption allowed women to ‘have fun’ while ‘earning money.’ Combining work and leisure in the domestic sphere allowed women to attend these parties in other women’s homes. Saleswoman Brownie Wise thought that Tupperware was a suitable product especially for suburban housewives. Wise developed the “Party-Plan system” for Tupperware with a door-to-door sales technique. Tupperware parties not only incorporated Tupperware demonstrations amongst women, but also party games as well as food. Games such as ‘Clothes Pin’ ‘Waist Measurement’, and ‘Game of Gossip’ were games that were played at these parties while women shopped for new Tupperware goods. Communities were created amongst women as suburban housewives got together during the day to socialize at these parties. Despite creating these new social groups, Tupperware parties further alienated women, from the public realms in which men occupied. The parties encouraged for women to engage in leisure activities that were only between other women from the same middle-class, white background as them.
Brownie Wise Papers, 1938-1968, “In this publicity photo, Brownie Wise leads a Tupperware party.” Courtesy of Brownie Wise Papers, 1938-1968, Archives Center, National Museum of American History. AC0509-0000003.
Photograph of woman watching television while ironing, c. 1950s
Daytime television viewing became a big part of suburban housewives everyday lives. Programming was structured around the ideal housewive’s typical day. It offered women leisure time while still being productive in their domestic roles. Consumption of television sets increased with the emergence of soap operas. Soap operas allowed women to take the role of spectator while attending to their duties in the household. These new programs first emerged on network television in the 1950s and consisted of minimum action storylines that enabled women to view television while still attending to their domestic work. Programming featured during the daytime often took place outside to make women feel as if they were part of public life will remaining in the private comforts of their home. Television programming not only provided leisure for women, but also featured narrative segments instructing women on how to make informed consumer choices for their families. This reinforced the importance of women’s role as consumer of the household.
Nina Leen/Getty Images/Time & Life Picture (Note: Found in Arnot, Chris. “Did 1950s women watch daytime TV?” The Guardian. 2011.
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/sep/05/fifties-women-daytime-tv
Tupperware c. 1954
This is an image of Tupperware from 1954. Tupperware was seen as a new form of labour for suburban housewives in the domestic sphere in postwar American suburban households. Tupperware became a symbol of postwar suburban homes. It not only kept leftover food fresh longer, but it also provided women with informal jobs outside of the home. Tupperware parties enabled women to gain more flexibility within their domestic life. This household item was marketed towards women to have in their homes to provide independence and enable them to leave their homes during the day while remaining in the domestic sphere of life. Corliss Levitt, a working-class single mother with three young children said: “This is really a wonderful business with a wonderful product. Now, I’m so happy, my children are so happy.”
“Corliss Levitt to Brownie Wise, in “Corliss Levitt Celebrates Her First Anniversary with Tupperware,”” Tupperware Sparks, June 1953.
Tupperware, 1954 Gift of Glen O. Tupper, The National Museum of American History.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/object-project/refrigerators/tupperware
Hotpoint Advertisement c. 1950
The consumption of modern appliances for postwar kitchens were advertised as not only saving women from domestic work, but also allowing them to engage in leisure time with their families. This Hotpoint Advertisement shows husbands encouraging their wives to not be isolated in their kitchens away from the leisure area of the living room in their house. Even though this advertisement is encouraging women to be a part of the leisurely living room, there is a distinct partial room divider, which shows women having a specified space for their work, away from her husband’s television viewing space.
“1950 Hotpoint Advertisement prescribes corrective cycle of commodity purchases” (Courtesy General Electric). (Note: Found in Spigel, Lynn. Make Room for TV: Television and the Family Ideal in Postwar America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992, 93).