. Popular shows like “Father Knows Best” showed the U.S, that men are taking on new roles as the father and have become more family oriented in their time spent in the home. American society in the 1950’s was less stable then it seemed. The Depression, World War II, and the unpredictable growth and prosperity of the postwar period brought fundamental changes in American life. According to the book “American Decades”, by 1956, 35% of all adult women were members of the work force, and nearly a quarter of all married women were working. Times have changed since the 50’s, and although as a society we will hold onto some of the family views that were present in that time period, we, as a whole, have begun to limit the roles less of both male and female. Such as television was a contributor to the stereotypical views we had on society, television is even a larger part in our society today. Over 90% of the community has a television in the U.S. Thus, television is a huge source of our conditioning not only as individuals, but also as a society. More and more programming is setting the stage for what is OK for us to do. Since the 50’s, women’s parenting on the television has dropped from 69.2%, to 28.3% in the 80’s. (Sex Roles: a Journal of Research) Women are depicted now in a wider range of jobs and found in greater numbers in the workforce. The depiction of the various sex roles in our society has changed to a more liberal attitude. Although boundaries are still set, and the female remains to be the overall person thought of when the question of who should stay home comes up, the numbers are decreasing. The male has taken on more of a fatherly role in the sense that he stays home with the kids. Programming has depicted the single father role more and more often. It has now become the norm for women to work outside of the home, and OK for the man to stay home. Our roles as male and fema...
