The 1950s were an inauspicious time for women. It was an era that birthed the ideology of living the post-war suburban dream, in which a woman’s place was to serve and obey their husband, often suppressing their needs and desires to marry, bear children, and run a household. Women’s social standing at the time was that they were submissive and inferior beings to men. The play The Season in Sarsaparilla written by Patrick White explores the theme of living the ‘suburban dream’ as well as women and their sexuality and desires.
The home was seen as a sanctity that women had the role to upkeep, White cleverly unmasked this sanctity as being a prison by revealing the inner turmoil locked inside the minds of three separate housewives, and the next generation of women to follow. These characters are of different classes, living side by side, but sharing the same inescapable fate.
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We are introduced to Girlie Pogson, a neurotic woman who is seemingly complacent with her role as a housewife. However, as the play progresses we see the effect entrapment has on her overall wellbeing. She is perplexed by her two daughters who are beginning to question the societal structures they have been raised into. Living next to Girlie is Mavis, who spends the entirety of the play feeling uncomfortable due to being heavily pregnant, showing the repercussions of sex that only befalls the woman.
Before the days of contraception, women did not have sexual freedom unless they were barren, which we see in the character of Nola who bears no risk of falling pregnant, allowing her to sleep with multiple men with no string of offspring to show for it. However, a woman with sexual desires like this suffered severe societal stigma, as we see with Nola being the brunt of town gossip.
We also see the repercussions of being a harlot in the character of Julia, a young woman working as a model. She endures the consequence of casual sex as she is impregnated and left to fend for herself. She is labeled as damaged good, unable to fit into society’s idea of what a woman should be, leaving her no choice but to commit suicide.
Patrick White cleverly portrays these women as true victims of the post-war 1950s ‘suburban dream’, struggling to conform to the harsh push for order within Australian society. He raises the issues of educational opportunities for women, pregnancy and the lack of contraception, and marriage and the role of the homemaker.
Educational Opportunities
Educational opportunities in the 1950’s were limited for women. The view generally accepted within society was that higher levels of education were wasted on girls because they would not enter the workforce, and the only certificate they would obtain after school was their marriage certificate. This was mainly due to the Australian government trying to restore order after the chaos of war, and order meant domesticity.
During the war employment for women greatly increased. They were able to work in fields that had previously been male-dominated, giving them a taste of the workforce. However, once the war was over, the men came home and reclaimed their jobs, pushing women back into the home. It was after the war that the strong preference of women for full-time housekeeping was established. (Elkin, 1957)
Up until the year 1956, there was a marriage bar, restricting women from teaching after marriage. Women’s teaching status was restricted to temporary, as after marriage they were thought to be more likely to follow a career path in the home rather than the education department ('Australian Gender Equality Milestones', 2019). After extensive lobbying by the Temporary Teachers Club, the marriage bar was lifted for women teachers in schools. This was a vast improvement, however the social stigma attached to these women was gruesome.
Mothers who chose to work, not out of dire financial necessity, were subjected to cruel judgment within society. They were seen as selfish, putting their own needs before their families. People attributed teenage delinquency to mothers who had ‘neglected’ their family home and responsibilities.
Marriage and Role as a Homemaker
On average, women in the 1950s would get married at twenty years old. This left very little time between graduating high school and becoming a full-time housewife. Due to the lack of contraception, women once they were married faced over three decades of childbearing years, securing their jobs as a mother and homemakers. The man was considered the head of the household as he was in charge of all legal documents, like the mortgage, however, the woman was in charge of the budget, which was an allowance given to her by her husband. The budget would cover everything from groceries to new appliances, anything to aid her role in running an efficient household.
The day-to-day of a housewife primarily consisted of cooking and cleaning. According to an ABC article, a typical 1950s housewife did up to 15 times the amount of housework Australians do today. (ABC) At least four hours a day would be spent cooking to ensure three meals were provided for the family. Shopping needed to be done daily as there was no refrigeration which made storing food difficult. There was no one-stop shop for groceries at this time so they would need to walk to several different stores to purchase their groceries, like the local butcher or bakery. They would go on foot as most families did not own a car.
The convenient household items we know today like washing machines were considered luxuries for women in the 1950s
The Contraceptive Pill and Pregnancy
One of the main components of a woman's life in the 1950s was to produce children and start a family with her husband. Before contraception, women on average faced three decades of childbearing. The social stereotype of women being the ‘babymaker’ became very quickly apparent in the “fifties with the highest birth rates of the century labeled the ‘baby boom’, along with the age of marriage rapidly decreasing for both men and women.” (Martin, 2003)
Mavis Knott’s character is a perfect portrayal of the discontent within the women of this time during pregnancy, with the real status quo bubbling underneath the surface of the placid peaceful society. Mavis's character is written as a very loving and caring young woman who continuously puts her husband’s needs before her own even whilst heavily pregnant.
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