What's so great about 1950's America?

About this episode

The episode discusses the complexities of women's lives in 1950s America, contrasting societal expectations with personal struggles.

What's so great about 1950s America? We admit this is a trick question. It might have been great for men, but at least according to Anne Macdonald in No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting, for many women, particularly young mothers, it felt like being "trapped in a squirrel cage" of modern appliance-packed houses that feminist writer Betty Friedan would later describe as "comfortable concentration camps" (p. 323). More women dropped out of college to get the coveted "Mrs" degree and then devoted themselves to cleaning their houses and popping out kids. And they succeeded--the birth rate at the time was close to India's. But they also struggled to meet impossible and opposing expectations, as one woman memorably described it: "I've been married ten years and I still feel my husband expects me to be a combination of Fanny Farmer and Marilyn Monroe." --Quoted in Anne Macdonald, No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting, p. 323. With little time and mounting resentment, the 1960s and 70s unsurprisingly ushered in Women's Lib and the era of "Jiffy Knits" with giant needles. No one is knitting for thrift anymore, but knitting still offers cures for the…

People in this episode

Hosts: Bootie, Bossy

Topics covered

• 1950s America
• women's roles
• feminism
• knitting
• social history

Keywords

• 1950s
• women's liberation
• knitting
• social history
• Betty Friedan

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting

More episodes of Bootie and Bossy Eat, Drink, Knit

• Pippa Latour, a Portrait in "Cool and Lonely Courage" · May 4, 2026 · 40 min
• The Great Catering Adventure · April 19, 2026 · 37 min
• What do Knitting and Espionage have in Common? · March 29, 2026 · 31 min
• We Salute the Knitlympians · March 13, 2026 · 30 min
• A Dream Afternoon with Keeley Richardson · March 2, 2026 · 46 min
• Got Red Wool? · February 13, 2026 · 10 min