Analyzing the Baby Boom
There are many reasons that account for this sudden growth, and one of them is that the adults must have wanted to settle down after experiencing the hardships of the Great Depression and the second World War. This desire went hand in hand with the growth of suburbs, and couples were able to raise a family in cheap, prefabricated houses. As for the soldiers that did not have much money to begin new lives, the GI Bill helped pay their mortgages and it provided educational opportunities so that they would be able to earn a respectable salary in the future. At that time, consumerism was in full swing due to America’s massive industrial production and the advent of the credit card, and couples must have sensed a bright and prosperous future ahead of them. Thus, they would have been more willing to have children since they knew they could care for them.
An effect of the baby boom impacted women in a major way. Having to raise children, they were confined in their suburban homes, and this created dissatisfaction with an unfulfilling life. In 1963, a housewife named Betty Friedan would make these feelings public in her book “The Feminine Mystique,” and she would go on to spark the modern feminist movement.
Sources:
http://www.history.com/topics/baby-boomers
http://www.bbhq.com/bomrstat.htm
Sources:
http://www.history.com/topics/baby-boomers
http://www.bbhq.com/bomrstat.htm
great summary of the Baby Boom! I liked how emphasized just how dramatic the increase in babies being born was. I agree, how a major part of this baby boom was because there was ore money and help going around and people were now able to afford having children. It is interesting to see how the baby boom played a role in leading to the feminist movement.
ReplyDeleteThis was really interesting because you connected what we learned from the documentary in class, to another topic we haven't discussed much about. You lined the causes of the Baby Boom clearly and it made more sense because of the stability and overall yearn for happiness in life for Americans after the war. You talked a lot about economic stability and prosperity being a factor for this boom. Do you think that soldiers returning from war would have had babies with their wives even if the post-war conditions were not as permissive?
ReplyDeleteThis is a very well-written and fascinating post. You clearly possess an advanced knowledge of the time period of the 1940s-1950s, and I am now able to learn more about the overall impact of the baby boom both in the mid-twentieth century as well as current time and its connection to the reinforcing of traditional gender roles as well as the major precedent for modern suburbia. I would also like to know if this was the first instance in which the American population grew this rapidly or are there other instances in American history, perhaps after World War I, that this similar trend occurred? Were there other causes similar to Betty Friedan that helped spark the American Feminist Movement of the 1970s? Overall, great work, and do you think that the baby boom intensified American feelings of conformity during the same era?
ReplyDelete