The Stepford Wives

The film, The Stepford Wives, is a parody that stems out from the idea that housewives were machines rather than humans. These Stepford wives were expected by their husbands to be beautiful and obedient. This parodies the misconception that many men in the 1950s had of women and how society sought to make sure that women remained in the house, while men were the ones with jobs.

The film takes place in a fictional town of Stepford, Connecticut, where white upper middle class men owned beautiful homes and their “perfect” wives. Things change when Joanna Eberhart, a successful photographer from New York City arrives with her husband and children, to start a new life. Joanna begins to notice the robot-like, submissive Stepford wives, especially when she sees her independent friends turn into submissive housewives overnight. Her husband, who seems to be spending more and more time at meetings of the local men's association, mocks her fears because like the rest of the men living in Stepford he attended these meetings in order to turn his wife into a robotic- housewife like the rest of the women living in Stepford. Therefore, this film parodies how men in the 1950s wanted to women to remain submissive and not have minds of their own. 

Party planning!

A parody is a defined as the mimicry of someone's individual manner in a humorous or satirical way. There exist many parodies of 1950s housewives that intend to remind us of the many misconceptions people had about housewives in the 1950s. People perceived housewives as the modest or shy observers when hosting an event or attending an event, basically housewives were not allowed to participate in any conversations that the men would have at these events. Housewives were expected to be shy, have good manners, and look flawless. Below I have attached a parody from an episode of Saturday night live, which pokes fun at how society in the 1950s viewed housewives. 

The above video caused me great laughter because I am aware that women do not act like this in todays society. It mimics some of the exchanges between men and women from the 1950s sitcoms where woman had to depend on the permission of their husbands to plan out a party and it mimics in a very exaggerated way how housewives were expected to behave when hosting a party. The housewife in this parody is also depicted without having any brains as she finds hosting a party to be very challenging and  the fact that she is not allowed to read the newspaper because it may "give her ideas." Also, this parody shows us how men were highly regarded and their social status were above their wives. Besides, pointing out how sexist society was during the 1950s it also shows us how middle class families rejected and were prejudice of single working women and African Americans. The scene where the housewife waits till her guest are gone to go to the bathroom is hilarious because in a very exaggerated way it shows us how insane the expectations of society were of these housewives who had to constantly appear flawless and behave proper at all times.

Women's education in the 1950s

In the 1950s education played a huge role in gender construction, as the ratio of men to women going to college was 9:1. The number of women attending college was low because many women married soon after high school and for those who did pursue a college education eventually dropped out because they got married and even after they graduated from college many women did not obtain jobs because they planned to live as housewives.
Female students would take special courses that prepared them for home life such as cooking class, interior decoration and family finance. Many 1950s women looked at college as a good place to find a spouse. Many women attended colleges near men colleges where their main goal was to marry one of these men before they graduated.

Many women did not make it to college because in high school they were taking many home education courses in which would prepare them to be good housewives.  For example, if you click on this link:http://www.snopes.com/language/document/goodwife.asp you will find a list of ten steps on how to be a good wife found in a 1950s high school textbook. Basically, women were to taught to attend their husbands every need and facilitate their husbands lives in every way possible such as minimizing the noise in the house while he is at home and having dinner prepared before he arrives from work. Therefore, women were expected and encouraged before they even considered attending college to become housewives.

The film, Mona Lisa smile, accurately portrays the roles that college educated women were expected to fill in the 1950s. The film takes place in one of the most prestigious women’s college, Wellesley, where a feminist-liberal professor attempts to teach conservative 1950 Wellesley students to question their traditional societal roles. The film does this by depicting examples of how an educational institution like Wellesley allowed married students to take days off schools so they could attend their marital duties at home and how many students were expected to be married before and after graduation. Many of the women in this film married men who attended neighboring colleges and took many home education courses where they were taught how to be good housewives.

Above I have attached a video from the film, Mona Lisa Smile, portraying the societal roles that college students from Wellesley were expected to fill.