In the September 16 edition of Parade Magazine, Marilyn vos Savant of the "Ask Marilyn" column answered this question: "My mother is famous for saying that no women worked in the '50s. Is that actually so?" Marilyn stated that "according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 34 percent of women . . . were employed." This was accurate but to a point. In the 1950s the majority of black women worked outside the home. I e-mailed Marilyn and was informed that my e-mail would be published on-line. It was published this week here.
In Black Working Wives: Pioneers of the American Family Revolution, Bart Landry noted that in the 1950s and 60s almost 75% of black families were headed by two parents. In studying the movement of white wives into the workforce, he found that "employment rates for black wives were about ten years ahead of those of white wives" (p. xi). He argued that middle-class black wives initiated the trend of working outside the home "long before white middle-class wives embraced it" (p. 5). The 1950s image of the woman in the home and the man at work was predominantly for whites, but not for most African-Americans.
In Black Working Wives: Pioneers of the American Family Revolution, Bart Landry noted that in the 1950s and 60s almost 75% of black families were headed by two parents. In studying the movement of white wives into the workforce, he found that "employment rates for black wives were about ten years ahead of those of white wives" (p. xi). He argued that middle-class black wives initiated the trend of working outside the home "long before white middle-class wives embraced it" (p. 5). The 1950s image of the woman in the home and the man at work was predominantly for whites, but not for most African-Americans.
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