1950s Marketing and the Shifting Gender Landscape

The post-World War II business approach capitalized on family-related market changes. This era modified ideas of who brought home the paycheck, how the children were raised and the evolving notion of stay-at-home mothers. The 1950s advertising industry recognized women as having considerably more decision-making status and used the "cult of domesticity" to market this trend.

1950s Feminization
Postwar years created a tremendous consumption of mass-produced housewares. Consumer designs changed drastically to appeal to this feminine shift, while manufacturers heavily promoted their wares directly to women. Pre-1950 advertisers were not adept at strategic psychological manipulation. However, according to Lapham's Harper's Magazine article, that soon changed as marketing campaigns began to reflect gender-based sales tactics.

Entering the Male Domain
This marketing shift necessitated a greater female presence in the professional sphere to teach housewives how to become informed consumers. Women were quickly learning marketable skills as home economics and consumer science drew them out of the home and into commerce. This push to professionalize consumer culture not only spawned criticism against stereotypical female roles, it also helped women obtain the know-how to enter a male-dominated workforce and establish a new feminist consumer market.

Adjusting Perspectives
The postwar era encouraged advertisers to heed the lessons of a radically shifting consumer landscape by accommodating a much broader female audience. According to Penny Sparke, author of As Long As It's Pink, specific target marketing became a critical component in the 1950s. This helped establish a secure consumer base, which soon became a much greater challenge when defining a feminized postwar society. The upshot was women developed the confidence to make purchasing decisions without their husbands' input.

Shaping the Future
Given how 1950s women were quickly moving away from the conventional social mold, advertisers were compelled to identify with them as unique individuals rather than extensions of their husbands. Men had long been the central point of virtually all advertising campaigns until this significant shift in consumer focus occurred. For women who were bursting at the seams with newly recognized value, the area of social equality was ripe for change.

Originally written for and published on eHow