the fifties and sixties essays

the fifties and sixties essays The Unliberated Female the lives of women in the Menzies years, women in the workforce, women in the home The days when women in Australia were the property of their husbands or fathers, were not allowed to vote or work outside the home and were treated as inferior to men are gone. So is the rule of thumb which legally entitled a husband to beat his wife with a stick as long as it was no thicker than his thumb. Even though that the belief in equality for men and women is now part of our law it wasnt till in the fifties, sixties and even seventies till attitudes towards the role of women began to change on a large scale. Until the end of WWI most people thought a womens place was in the home. It was expected that they would take care of their husband and children. While the men were the breadwinners of the family. It was also thought that women were the property of their husband or father. They werent allowed to vote or work outside the house and were thought to be inferior to men. Women were thought to be child-rearers and home makers. The home was the womans domain, where she would work for hours doing boring routine jobs but this was bound to change due to a host of new appliances and gadgets being invented since 1920 to help ease the strain household chores. In the laundry the copper boilers and hand cranked wringers were replaced by washing machines. Electric vacuum cleaners and polishers, pressure cookers, electric irons, kettles and sewing machines were all common items. These appliances made women feel as if there was not enough to do at home to fill up the whole day. However during this period women did a lot of unpaid work to help the men overseas. After the war only a handful of women kept their jobs during the depression but were paid less than men. WWII was a turning point in women paid work, as there was a shortage of labourers because of the men at war. Women worke...