Feminism in the Cold War Understood

 In the 20th Century, when the Cold War was ramping up and the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR) were beginning to drift further and further away in ideologies, the fear of communism was at a peak in the US. When men were out joining the military to fight, women were at a crossroads, should they get more involved than in WWII, or should they get sidelined once again? The rise of women's oppression began to pick up again as women were influenced to return back to their roles as caretakers of the house and to be with the family as men traveled off to war. 

Throughout the war, fear of the loss of masculinity led to prolific anti-communist sentiment in the US which ended up spiraling into something large, known as the "red scare". In a different lens, the Red Scare affected women rights and feminist movements heavily because as women continued to push back against these societal norms, they were looked at as "suspicious" or "commies" for something they had been doing for decades now. This left men powerful leaders in office to be seen as incapable or weak for not making a change and taking control of their country. This idea of hypermasculinity was detrimental to the feminist movement because a common trait of the Western patriarchal ideal is to be a busy, hard-working man. This idea was preached by K.A. Cordinance, and Robert Dean when describing the American way of life as, "elite masculinity subcultures constituting a central element of political and cultural life, especially in foreign policy and high culture."  When all of these men came back from war, they did as predicted, and pushed all of these women out of jobs and began to take full control of the job market just because they wanted to be seen as strong and capable. This slowly brought women back to square one which I could only imagine how frustrating it must've been. 

As women were back to being stuck in what it seemed to be an everlasting loop of a housewife, the media wasted no time to integrate this into the press. From commercials about how making a GOOD cup of coffee was a woman's desire in life, to posting pictures in newspapers about a woman's favorite place to congregate being a laundromat, the media didn't exactly help the fight for equality. On the opposite side of the spectrum, it worked out greatly for the hypermasculinity trend when about all you can find in magazines and newspapers is pictures of men and sports cars, or men drinking fine liquor while taking the edge off by golfing. This contrast is what continually made gender roles so divided and put a blanket on what women thought they could and couldn't do. In a positive twist, you did see some women taking a stand such as Aretha Franklin and her spin-off on the song, "Respect". Being sung by a woman then made waves and almost converted the song into an anthem for women's rights. Lines such as, "I ain't gon do you wrong while you're gone", "And, all Im asking in return, honey - is to give me my propers when you get home". 

As you can see, throughout the Cold War, gender roles became increasingly more divided and the push for gender equality became stagnant. With the rise of anti-communism fear combined with severe hypermasculinity, there was never really a chance for women to thrive. Being almost home-ridden and with the media spin on it, this was a tough time for gender equality in America and even the world. It seems to me as I learn more and more about gender equality, there is a common theme of almost, two steps forward and one step back.