Housewives in Advertising 

The term housewife can be defined as a woman whose main occupation is caring for her family and doing homework while her husband or partner goes out to work. Although this definition has been constant since the 1950s, both the perception and expectations of the term are constantly shifting. From idolizing housewives postwar and setting unattainable expectations for them to criticizing these same women who use their freedom of choice, the media has played a significant role in the perpetuation behind the expectations of women. My research will be looking at different forms of advertising from the 1950s to the 1970s and analyze how they play a larger part in the perpetuation of societal expectations of housewives in media and their impact on advertising and consumption. I argue that the construct of the idealized housewife grew out of both social and political changes, such as the postwar economy, increasing commercialization of mass media, and was exacerbated by advertisers and media in order to sell products and promote consumption. 

Housewives in the 1950s

During World War II, women showcased their abilities, proving they could not only do the same work as men but do it well. Women’s duties on the home front were critical to the war effort during the 1940s and 1950s. During this time, the percentage of U.S. female workers increased from 27% to nearly 37%, with one out of every four married women working outside of the home. However, women's employment was only encouraged as long as the war continued. Postwar media and advertising highly urged women to return back to their homes, idolizing the perfect housewife. “The postwar economy created the white consumerist domestic goddess, and television shows and magazines perpetually celebrated this constriction.”(1) The concept of the perfect housewife was attached to the idealized structure of what the postwar American family should look like. The nuclear family consisted of a breadwinner father, a housewife who took great care in her housework and family life, and two loving children (2). These suburban middle-class white families were economically stable and centered their lives around their homes and children (3). The perfect housewife took pleasure and pride in the upkeep of her home to the best of her abilities, even if the tasks felt repetitive or boring. Women and young girls during this time were prepared both at home and in school for these roles and were pushed by society to believe that something was wrong with them if they didn’t feel fulfilled by these roles (4). In the heightened space of magazine and television ads, these post-war nuclear families' dream houses became increasingly prominent. 

Although prominent in both media and advertising, the portrayal of the idolized American housewife was not an accurate representation of American women during this time. By 1957, women comprised one-third of the nation’s workforce, with their participation in the labor force rising from 34 to 38 percent from 1950 to 1960 (5). In contrast, the advertising style during this time did not reflect this statistic. It instead heavily pushed for postwar concepts such as nuclear families and suburbia dream houses. This advertising style emphasized the idea that home is the ultimate representation of family life and its importance to a woman’s character. Women were constantly depicted performing simple household tasks with the intention of pleasing their husbands or working hard to become better homemakers and single women were told to purchase products that prepared them for marriage and their future roles as housewives. However, despite these ads being heavily targeted toward women, they were created mainly by males, with the gender differences within them being quite apparent (6). Advertisements for domestic appliances targeted toward women were portrayed as being easy to use and efficient, whereas products for men highlighted more masculine attitudes (7). 

An example of a 1950s advertisement targeted toward females can be shown in figure 1. The ad copy for Alcoa Aluminum’s Bottle opener emphasizes its easy use by stating that opening bottles is so effortless with this product that a woman can open it, even without the help of her husband. The copy implies that the women are the only ones in the household who do the grocery shopping and even goes as far as underlining the word woman. In comparison, figure 2 represents a typical advertisement during the 1950s targeted toward men. The Van Heusen ad for neckties states, “show her it’s a man’s word” in its primary copy calling to the rigid gender roles during this time and the encouragement of men to demonstrate their manhood and dominance not only in their daily life but especially in their home. In the book Advertising Explained, researchers state that women over the age of twenty-five are ‘practical’ and tend to attach great importance to quality and convenience rather than economy. Whereas, women and girls under the age of twenty-five tend to respond strongly to the suggestion of charm, beauty, hygiene, and most importantly, flattery. In order to be successful at advertising, one has to be knowledgeable regarding demographics such as age, sex, and class. “Majority of women spend their time at home or at the shops… they are more brand conscious than men and will buy on an impulse (8).” Advertisers knowingly understood that women consume more than men and therefore went out of their way to target women in mass ensuring that they both directly and indirectly persuade them.

Housewives in the 1960s and 70s

In 1963, Betty Friedan published the book The Feminine Mystique, a nod to the dissatisfaction women were facing in America during a time when the label of "housewife" was viewed as a badge of honor in the media. "Each suburban wife struggles with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night- she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question — "is this all?" (9). Frieden referred to this as the nameless dissatisfaction many women felt in their limited and confined roles as wives and mothers. The Feminine Mystique has been accredited as one of the main forces during the second wave of feminism beginning in the 1960s and as the start of a significant social change.  One may argue that the construct of the idealized housewife was actually created by brands and advertisers in order to promote products, However advertisers and brands exacerbated the political and economical changes post war in America, in order to sell and promote products.

This second wave of feminism was dominated by reproductive rights and sexuality issues with the mission of passing the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution that guaranteed social equality regardless of sex. Many women opposed the idealized social constructs placed on them, like motherhood and marriage (10). In response to the second wave and the push toward more women in the workforce, advertisements stopped displaying women as only housewives. Instead, they began to glamorize the concept of the working woman, referring to them as "superwoman." This feminist movement pushed for new laws that opened up places in the workplace for women; however, even with college attendance skyrocketing, women were still pressured to find their femininity and become housewives, although they were educated at high levels. Figure 3 represents a popularized female supremacist ad portraying the working "superwoman" in a Virginia Slims advertisement from 1971. The copy of this advertisement reads, "We make Virginia Slims, especially for women because they are biologically superior to men," with the campaign's tagline being "You've come a long way, baby." Advertisements during the 1970s, much like the Virginia Slims ones, shifted their language and imagery to realign their messaging with similar language as the Women's Liberation Movement (11). Virginia Slims were targeted toward the newly liberated women of the 1970s whose priorities in life shifted from their homes to their careers. However, the messaging behind these ads is quite far from representative of that. In turn, referring to these women as "baby" is quite contradictory. 

An essay from the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women from 1974 reads, “Advertising is the most insidious form of mass media in its portrayal of wives and mothers… women seem to be obsessed with cleanliness, placing above-normal emphasis on whiteness, brightness and expressing a gamut of emotions at smelling the kitchen floor of the family wash. Housework is rarely viewed for what it is: a necessary task that is performed in order to make the family comfortable (12).” For the first time, it feels as though women were finally in charge of this shift in advertising and portrayal of women in the media. No longer viewed as just housewives or sexual objects, women’s changing attitudes regarding their roles in society had the upper hand, and it was beginning to be reflected in the media rather than the media setting the expectations for women and their roles in society.

Rena Bartos, an advertising executive, was one of the first to call out the under-representation of women pursuing non-traditional roles in advertising. Her research was aimed at exploring the different types of lifestyles and behaviors of various women and creating targetable demographics out of them for advertisers to target to because this male-dominated industry always prioritized targeting what they thought to be representative of all women; however, it was indeed just a minority representation. Barto's new developments completely altered the field of advertising by offering new opportunities for targeting women in media. During this time, traditional housewives dominated female-targeted advertising; However, only 25% of women actually made up this housewife demographic. Barots challenged the traditional representation of women's societal roles and expanded them to showcase the diversity and dynamicity of the 75% of women who did not fit into the housewife mold. She grouped women into four demographics: the career woman, the "just-a-job" working woman, the "plan-to-work" housewife, and the traditional homemaker (figures 4 to 7) (13). "If advertising taught you all you knew about our culture, you certainly wouldn't guess that many American women have jobs, stated Rena Bartos. (14)" In an internal survey conducted by Bartos regarding the attitudes of the new advertising demographics for women she had created, she found that women who lived traditional lifestyles responded favorably to the new demographics depicted in commercials (15).

In Pat Mainardi’s essay The Politics of Housework, Mainardi argued that the expectation of women to do housework and raise children is not innate but rather the result of social conditioning and gendered stereotypes (16). During the 1970s, housework became more dual working however women were still expected to do the majority of housework which was popularly referred to as taking care of ‘second shift’ after working. The second shift was known as when women would come home from work and complete some of the household tasks like cleaning, cooking, laundry, and taking care of the children.This shift in expectations was a result from the second wave of feminism in the 1970s which emphasized the necessity for democracy within the home. Once advertisers recognized this shift in expectations was gaining momentum throughout society, they had to alter the women they were targeting in their advertisements. 

One of the most iconic television advertisements of the late 1970’s was for Enjoli perfume which idolized the 24-hour woman, depicted in figure 8 (17). The advertisement sold women on the ‘you can have it all lifestyle’ which was something that had never been seen before in the media until the second wave of feminism. Advertisers immediately pounced upon the opportunity to target the new demographic of ‘the independent women’. “I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in the pan, and never let you forget you’re a man because I am a woman,” states the commercial. Although this advertisement is a nod to the new independent women of the 1970s, It still calls upon the idea of women being homemakers. The commercial depicts one woman; however, she is shown in the three different states that make her 'a woman'. These three different states show her in her house wear, wearing a robe and holding a pan. Then she is shown in her workwear, wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase. Her final look depicts her in her luring date night look, where she is all glammed up as she sings, "I'll never let you forget you're a man." The Enjoli commercial is a great representation of the newly ‘you can have it all’ type of woman who's expected to work full time, take care of the home, and still keep their husbands happy. 

Another advertisement that showcases the shift in creativity that advertisers had to manage to target this new demographic of women is Revlon’s Charlie perfume advertisement in Figure 9 (18). The glamorous young woman in the commercial, Charlie, is shown at a massive party on a yacht in the city where all the men recognize her and are very happy she came. The commercial sings, “Kind of young, kind of now, Charlie, kind of free, kind of wild Charlie,” portraying the Charlie perfume for the newly liberated woman who is young, free, and independent. “A different fragrance that thinks your way, Charlie,” directly speaks to the demographic of women these advertisers are trying to target in order to sell this product to. The end of the commercial shows the bottle of perfume on the screen while starting, “Now the world belongs to Charlie by Revlon.” Charlie is not just the new Revlon perfume; it is the embodiment of the newly liberated young woman. Much like the Enjoli Perfume commercial, we see a push toward targeting this new demographic of women; however, the way these commercials do so is quite different. The Enjoli commercial represents the newly liberated wife emphasizing the idea of having it all as in being a mother, worker, and ideal wife. In contrast, the Charlie commercial represents the newly liberated young woman who is just entering the world and making her own way in a very fun and independent manner. 

Citations

 (1) Bjelskou, Peter. Branded Women in U.S. Television : When People Become Corporations. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2014. Accessed May 4, 2023. ProQuest Ebook Central.

(2) Blower, Brooke L. “Mothers” Lecture

(3) Ibid,

(4) Ibid.

(5)  William H. Young, The 1950s, American Popular Culture through History (Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2004).

(6) Ibid.

(7)  Ibid.

(8)  Caton, Dennis. Advertising Explained. Routledge Library Editions: Advertising ; Volume 3. London ; New York: Routledge, 1949.

(9)  Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (New York: Norton, 1963).

(10)  Gwendolyn Delaurier, "Four Waves of Feminism," Pacific University, accessed April 2, 2023, http://gdelaurier.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/134554611/Four%20Waves%20of%20Feminism%20_%20Pacific%20University.pdf.

(11)  "Women in Advertising: From Housewife to Superwoman – The Evolution of Advertising to Women," Duke University Libraries Exhibits

(12)  Galey, Margaret E. “Promoting Nondiscrimination against Women: The UN Commission on the Status of Women.” International Studies Quarterly 23, no. 2 (1979): 273–302. https://doi.org/10.2307/2600245.

(13)  "From Housewife to Superwoman: The Evolution of Advertising to Women," Women in Advertising Exhibit, Duke University, accessed April 2, 2023, https://sites.duke.edu/womenandadvertising/exhibits/women-in-advertising/from-housewife-to-superwoman-the-evolution-of-advertising-to-women/.

(14) Ibid.

(15)  “Consuming Women, Liberating Women: Women and Advertising In The Mid 20th Century, Duke University Libraries Exhibits

(16)  Mainardi, Pat. "The Politics of Housework." In Feminism and Youth Culture, edited by Angela McRobbie and Mica Nava, 35-45. London: Macmillan, 1994.

(17)  "Enjoli Perfume 'I'm A Woman' Commercial (1979)." Bionic Disco. January 1, 2018. Video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_kzJ-f5C9U.

(18) "Revlon Charlie Commercial (April 2, 1979)." Darian Glover. May 14, 2009. Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1WX9znN7CE. 

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