They are just wives and we learned enough about them in The Right Stuff (1983). They did nothing to contribute to space exploration. In fact, their only real accomplishment was marrying a successful military officer who later became an astronaut. I guess that was the 60s equivalent to releasing a sex-tape.
This is another weak attempt at a feel-good show for women.
The 1950s and 1960s were different from what we see today. In some respects, it was a better time.
During the 1950s and 1960s, women didn't work outside the home. It was expected that women would be homemakers, with their husband the bread-winner and head of household.
Women stayed home and cared for the children, cooked, cleaned, and their focus was strictly on the family. If they had any sort of money making "job" outside the home it was very minor.......hosting Tupperware parties in other people's homes, with two or three afternoon or evening parties a week, or selling Avon cosmetics. Other than that, women volunteered in their children's classrooms, or did volunteer work in the community.
In some ways, life was better in that time frame. There were fewer divorces and fewer problems with children. With a stay-at-home parent, teens had less opportunity to become involved with drugs or other bad influences. In fact, drugs wasn't a issue during that time.
In the 1970s women started working outside the home with married couples trying to make ends meet, and by the mid-1980s more and more women were entering the workforce.
Really? So if women went back to not working outside of the home all would be well? And there were no drug issues in the 1960s? Or maayyybe there were fewer divorces because women didn't have options to support themselves other than those Avon parties you mention and had to stay in unhappy marriages. And I'm pretty sure teenagers found ways to misbehave in the 60s even with Mom sitting on the couch watching her stories!
shareDid you see Saving Private Ryan? The blood on the beaches? In the Pacific, it was like that every week for almost two years. Husbands and wives spent years apart, and most women wanted to feel "normal". That being said, there were true pioneers becoming Police Officers, business execs, scientists and doctors. I think it's Gordo's or Deke's wife was an air racing pilot?
shareTrudy Cooper had been an air racing pilot.
If they stick with the source book through the Gemini and Apollo programs we'll see the wives becoming more independent and taking on interests outside of being housewives. Rene Carpenter went on to become a fairly famous political advocate and journalist. We'll also see the wives dealing with the major social changes that erupted in American society in the late 60's. Unfortunately, we'll also see almost all of them going through divorces.
I didn't state absolutes. I said fewer divorces and fewer drug problems. Every decade in the 20th century had it's social standards and in the 1950s and 1960s most married women were homemakers.
Drugs weren't the big issue they are today, but did exist. Teenagers misbehaved, but in ways very minor to the violence we see in many major cities today. There's a big difference between mischief and violence.
There were jobs available for woman that would support them and their children if there was a divorce, but often a man or woman would opt to stay in an unhappy marriage until the children were grown, on the belief that children needed a mother and father in a two parent home.
Life was different during the 1950s and 1960s, and in many ways better.
I agree with you, misssyron. The family unit had structure back in the 50s and 60s. Wives were creating a home for their husbands and children and doing volunteer work, unlike today where oftentimes both parents work and let daycare raise their chidren, then bring home fast food for dinner.
(Of course there are situations where the mother has to work, which is different than wives wanting to work so they can afford a bigger home, nicer car, etc.)
Having lived through them, the 50's & early 60's were in no way better than today. I'd never relive them. There's just not much record of the misery and discord of that era because the media didn't regard such things as fit for public discourse. We were supposed to be living the dream of suburban America, every family ensconced in their little green-grassed, white picket-fenced box. The truth was the plague of alcoholism that left few men untouched, infidelity, and women tearing around suburbia hopped-up on methamphetamines to stay slim and busy. Or maybe that's just where I lived...
shareThe show isn't sexist, the era was. There's a difference. It would be stupid for them to contradict history and the cultural norms of the 60s just to make it appear modern, when it is obviously a scripted period piece...? It's accurate to what these wives would have actually lived like and that's the whole point. If that makes the show sexist then I guess The Help was a racist movie? And Downton Abbey must be sexist too by your standards.
I like the way that Trudy (and now maybe Rene) defies cultural norms and represents a feminist viewpoint for the era. Sure, she isn't living just like women live in 2015, but she captures the brand of feminism that was beginning to emerge in her time. Anything beyond that would be wildly off-base for what they're portraying. If you really want to watch something about the modern liberated woman, I suggest you tune in for the hour afterwards and indulge in whatever the heck is going on with Mistresses.
The show is accurate in showing that these women were facing barriers.
It would have been unrealistic to pretend that every single woman in that era liked/went along with it just because it was the rules though. Yes, there were women who disagreed with the rules and this is why they did march and picket...etc so Sally Ride could go up in space.
Maybe you should look in the mirror to discover who's being sexist here.
shareI'm ashamed that you're a Spurs fan and saying women are less important than men. Becky Hammon just coached a championship summer league team for the Spurs, and you call yourself a fan? Stupid moron. You have a mother don't you, maybe she was a *beep* mother. Maybe you had very unsuccessful luck with women. I'm betting it's all of that little man, comic book boy.
I find it that all these comic book lovers complain about women, which whom they probably never been in contact with one. I bet you're keeping the lotion company very profitable on a date with your hand.
State champ in martial arts, trained with firearms, I eFF'n dare you!
Back then you didn't worry about your kids staying outside late. That's what I remember.
Grands...Glad to see you come and glad to see you go