Homeward Bound: American families in the Cold War

Homeward Bound: The Politics of Womanhood

Elaine Tyler May's Book, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era, traces the strikingly parallel journeys of domestic and political life in the 1950s. As any examination of this time period must, the book begins with an examination of the family during the depression of the 1930s and the changes it went through during the 1940s and World War II. May notes that, "in tune with the nation's reformist politics, young adults would strive to restore health to the family, while policymakers struggled to restore health to the economy. Both situations called on Americans to abandon the constraints of the past..." (May, 31). She goes on to detail the two types of family models that developed during this period -- that of the dual-breadwinner, with little differentiation of gender roles, or the more "traditional" model of father/husband/money-earner and mother/wife/homemaker. In general, however, marriage was on decline in this decade, largely due to financial constraints and worries about providing for a family.

The New Deal programs of the thirties did more to combat male unemployment than female, and despite the oft-lauded entrance of women into the workplace during Word War II, the gender-biased G.I. Bill and other factors contributed to a far-more gender differentiated society. Marriages surviving this period and those starting near the end of the 1940s tended to have "traditional" male and female roles. May ties this to the fear of Communism and nuclear reprisal that dominated much of the 1950s, equating feminine sexuality with nuclear energy in reminding us that "During these years a slang term for a sexy woman outside the house was a bombshell" (May, 110). "Domestic containment" is a phrase that May uses to denote the control that was placed on the family, specifically the wife, as a counter-measure to an increasingly chaotic world. Eventually, May contends, the family became a sort of trap in the 1950s, principally for the housewife who had little chance to find satisfaction outside the home, and not always much opportunity inside.

To believe that the main value of this book is rooted primarily in what it reveals about women's history, however, is to miss the point. Though the book focuses on femininity and gender division, it explores these topics as a window to the larger issue of a society dealing with the fact that it could be instantaneously annihilated. This fear was used to fuel rampant consumerism, much of it directed at the housewife -- the proper way to stock a bomb shelter, how to cook with makeshift tools, and other emergency measures were common parts of contemporary advertising -- but reflective of society's worries and businesses capitalization on fear.