A Look Into The 50S.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2972884/A-lost-world-womanhood-New-book-lays-bare-different-things-women-Fifties-Britain-not-bedroom.html

I am not a regular visitor to this site but I came across this and thought it may prove interesting to those Ladies who remember the fifties and also to those who are much younger.

[Retrochic]

The fifties weren't that bad for women,compared to the life of their mothers. New labour saving devices were become common place( electric washing machines and vacuum cleaners for example) and post war pre immigration,there was plenty of work for their husbands. It was expected that they stayed at home and looked after their children -no financial pressure to 'have to go to work' and if their children were ill they took them straight to the doctor the same day, waited in line at the surgery and got seen by a doctor. I don't get this 'they didn't expect to enjoy sex' milarky -if that was the case why did so many women have to get married? The article is a gross exaggeration of all the less positive things about the fifties and the same article cold be written about Contemporary womem - financial and social pressure to work outside the home, dealing with debt, lack of work, zero hour contracts,husbands having 'Cyber sex' -every era has ots good and its bad points. I was born in the late 50's BTW so my childhood was 1960's and frankly I wish I could go back to that era I hate what this world has become.

[Mosaic]

'Oh, that crack could do with filling'
A direct quote from one of these 'innocent' articles.
Hnnner hnnner hnnerrrrr

[maggiebee]

I was at primary school in the 50s and have very fond memories. Maybe it wasn't so good for my mum as we had no labour saving devices and everything was done by hand (no electricity in the house until the early 60s).
Not a lot of money as my mum stayed at home, but dad worked with the same firm for 35 years.

[mallyh]

mum going shopping every day for dinner ,no, fridges just a marble block in the pantry and a bucket of water for the milk ,mangle for the hand washed laundry .life was simple and as you say maggie not a lot of money about but we were a happy family and healthy.

[jno]

lol, which site aren't you a regular visitor to - AB or the Mail?

I'm suspicious of the writer's sampling techniques (ie no sampling at all). Agony aunts will recount the worst things that happen. Advertisements push the best things that happen. I imagine the true story for most people was somewhere in between- it usually is.

I remember the scandal about the film of Room at the Top where after the girl first sleeps with Laurence Harvey she says "Joe, that was wonderful!" It was thought outrageous for a woman to think such a thing, let alone say it. But then as now it was actually pretty normal.

[Canary42]

What a biassed view. Virginia Nicholson's "rude awakening" is unimpressive journalism. As Retro says, one could equally write such a pessimistic review of modern times.

[Retrochic]

maggiebee this is interesting. Did you realise as a child you didn't have lots of money or did you just get by like everyone else? I came from an affluent family in another country but we still were quite frugal -I remember mother taking worn beds sheets and getting them made into pillowcases, and we always had hand me down clothes from our sisters. This was not because we couldn't afford new but because it would be wasteful to throw away perfectly good clothes. This lifestyle has basically gone now.