Women wanted to succeed, but in order to be acceptable in society, they weren't really supposed to; they were supposed to be wives and mothers and little else. In this article, Marylin Bender paints a picture of Susan Wood that is somewhere in between (and, therefore, of little threat to either desire) as a successful woman who cares very little about her success and who is, most importantly, "a bride" . .
American society, as a whole, was having trouble thinking of women as independent, powerful figures. In Lewis Funke's 1962 review of a June 21st production of The Tempest in Ontario for The New York Times, he is quite complementary about the performance as a whole, stating that "one of Shakespeare's most beautifully poetic plays has been given a most regal and enticing production on the Stratford Festival Stage." It was a traditional staging of the play, and was well received by audiences. Mr. Funke spends a great deal of time describing how wonderful William Hutt's performance of Prospero is. He describes the character as "stern and determined" , and, in general, quite masculine and powerful. However, the reviewer is most charmed by Martha Henry's performance as Miranda. She is "a vision of young beauty" and Mr. Funke seems quite taken with her. Of course, in the play, Miranda is almost totally helpless and her entire experience of life has been molded by her father, as she has never met any other humans. She is certainly living in a man's world, as there are no other women in the play. The fact that Mr. Funke is so enraptured with her "open-eyed innocence" hints that he may, as so many of that time did, want all women to be so trusting and loving and, in a word, dependant. .
But women of this time period were decidedly independent, or at least they were on the verge of independence. More and more women were working: in 1960, 30% of married women were working, compared to only 15% in 1945.