What can this children’s storybook from the 1950s tell us about the role of men and women at home?

What was life like for most women in the 1950s? Learning Outcomes Describe what life was like for most women in the 1950s [C] Explain what the impact of the war was on women’s work in the 50s [B] Evaluate sources and consider the extent of change [A] Key Phrase Domestic Responsibilities

Cult of Domesticity After WW2 women were still seen as belonging in the home; few people believed that a woman could be the main breadwinner. Even the forward thinking Beveridge Report was based on the assumption that the average family consisted of a working father and a non- employed mother. This meant that the 1950s saw a pervasive “Cult of Domesticity”, with the traditional view of women as home-makers being supported by advertising.

Activity - The ideal family Use the paragraph about “What was life like for most women in the 1950s?” in your booklet to create a snapshot of one thing which made an “ideal” 1950s family. Use post-its to help highlight certain aspects if you need to.

Questions - Women’s Jobs After the war the men returned and took back ‘their’ jobs. Women were forced back into “women’s jobs”. What sorts of jobs do you think these were? How do you think women at the time might have felt about being forced out of “men’s” jobs? Do you still think the idea of men’s jobs and women’s jobs exists?

Activity – War-time Gains for Women Use the booklet to list/mind-map the war- time gains for women in the 1950s. Say why part-time work was popular with women and employers in the 1950s.

Source Question “How far does source 12 challenge the view of 1950s home life shown in source 10?” Make notes about how you would answer this question. Pass the iPad round the room adding to the mind map if you can. “The lives of my mother and grandmother remained unchanged. They continued to be devoted to their domestic responsibilities. But when my turn came they pushed and cajoled me through the education system and into the job market to which they believe I had every right. It never occurred to me, because of their encouragement, that I was anything other than an equal citizen it was much later that I discovered that, even for a girl born in 1950, there was no equal access to education.”

Plenary Just a Minute One pupil starts to speak about the topic covered. At the first repetition, pause or mistake another takes over - and so on until the minute is up.