Woman, domesticity and nation: the archetype of American femininity as propaganda at the dawn of the Cold War.

Abstract

After the Second World War, a new family model, based on a return to traditional gender expectations, was reshaped to fit the emerging consumer society and became widespread in the American society. During the Cold War, the archetype of the white, middle-class suburban family, with strictly defined gender roles, was promoted as a symbol of the “American way of life” and used as a tool of “soft power” by US diplomacy.

This article analyses the construction and consequences of this family model, focusing on the role of the traditional housewife. To this end, I have examined the most influential women’s magazines and newspapers of that period, along with data from the Kelly Longitudinal Study, which documents married life between the 1930s and 1950s. The findings reveal how this family ideal functioned as a strategic instrument during the Cold War and the impact this demanding model had on American women.