Social Constructs in the Age of Affluence

The 1950s, also known as the post war era, and the baby boomers’ era. The name most important to this is “The Age of Affluence”. According to the Webster dictionary affluence is the abundance of property, wealth, or riches. The reason this fits is this is the Americas economy that was lifted from the depression from the war time economy. All of the money other countries spent to gain supplies from our economy in full gear, which eventually kept up because the men went to war, and the women took over factories to supply the men at war. With everyone back, and the veterans with free college, and new appliances to help their women in the home, everything fits back into place, and people can enjoy the hard work of their grandparents. Of course, everyone wanted to be rich, because at that time money was power, because money could buy a car, to evacuate in emergencies, and for fast transportation, a maid to help around the house, a nicer home, supporting unions, you name it. Of course, through this democracy not everything is equal, and for every high someone else is at a low. Here we are going to find the pros and cons of different social constructs, affecting who gets to enjoy affluence, and who doesn’t. more specifically who did a persons gender, race, and class affect who got to enjoy the wealth of that time period

In this time of affluence, a common social construct that affected people was gender. After WWII, the men came home and needed jobs. Propaganda kept encouraging women to go back to the home, so employers were more likely to hire men workers. In addition, if women did get a new job, it would be in a couple, women friendly jobs. No matter what field they get, they get paid less. The large masses of ladies that were in home usually were wasting their skills they learn during WWII and the younger women would have been wasting money, time, and work that they put into colleges to get their degrees. Men were expected to come and support their families with most of their free time that they had received from the worker unions. Many men were expected to earn all of the family’s money that gives them a house, a car, food, extracurricular activities, and bomb shelters. All the younger men without families were expected to marry quickly because they needed their own families. Even though there are many negatives, there were a couple positive affects for men. Men were receiving good paychecks and jobs. In addition, many jobs were opened to men since most were veterans and the government was supporting them with loans for private businesses, and homes, and free college education. With the Cold War going on, the government still wanted a federal military defense, which allowed a good amount of men stay in the army, navy, or air force. Plus, with the fear of atomic bombs, the government wanted to continue to expand the highway programs to have a safety plan, so many more men, seen as strong and muscular, were hired to construct highways, and have executive jobs in the program. Sadly, even though some progress was made for women’s rights, there was no social benefits that helped women enjoy affluence. So during the 1950’s, there were many negative affects and a couple benefits, depending on your gender, that helped factor out to decide if you got prosperity.

Race, a common construct then, heavily affected how much wealth someone would gain during the 1950s. During the time period, the only “American Race” was white, (even though they just witnessed what happens with white supremacy in Germany). This meant other races were immigrants, that are trying to take jobs that belong to American. While most of the time the races were the minority, the black population was very large. The white communities were more familiar with the black community, they were more comfortable hiring black women for their home jobs. These jobs were usually something close to being a substitute mom, which was describe as by a magazine, so bad that no woman or man in their right mind would apply for. Some went as far to call motherhood being a household slave, which means the people who applied were desperate for a job. Which fit the black community, since most families had both parents working to keep their middle-class status. Sadly though, most Japanese citizens released from the interment camps, couldn’t earn enough. When they came back to their homes and stores either destroyed or ignored, with many in such a condition that was nearly impossible to restore. This being added on to the fact that most were making little to none, so they couldn’t afford restoration. So they were essentially starting from scratch, which was hard for many. The Native Americans were in a similar boat with the large amount of kids they were supporting, and little idea of what they could or should do, many ended up in a similar poverty to the one they left at the reservation, and some even returned back, but very few made it