Learn about the myths and realities of women's lives during the 1950s.
The 1950s were a decade marked by the post-World War II boom, the dawn of the Cold War and the civil rights movement in the United States
Under editor Esme Fenton, by the end of the 1950s, the Australian Women’s Weekly was selling over 805,000 copies a week. More than half of all Australian women read the magazine.
It focused on promoting a vision of the “everyday” Australian woman. Of course she did not represent all women — she was white, middle class, not working in paid employment and devoted to her home and family. Articles on fashion, cooking, homemaking, motherhood and romance supported this image.
How the Australian Women's Weekly spoke to '50s Australian housewives about the Cold War
This video provides a brief overview of daily life in the 1950s, as well as a look at American popular culture during the decade.
Images of Melbourne in the fifties set to radio commercials of the time.