In the decades following World War II, as Americans were introduced to modern television, the powerful role of the developing mass media was displayed in the growing popularity of situation comedies and variety shows. The influence of programming and advertisements in the new television realm had a revolutionary impact on the social organization and expectations of families in the fifties and sixties. The media's expanding role in the revival of domesticity and consumerism in the post war period provides the most penetrating example of this power and its eventual result.
As the Second World War came to an end, women who had labored for victory on the homefront were suddenly rejected from the workplace. As husbands, sons, and brothers returned home, the nation began a massive campaign to get women back into the home, leaving jobs open for the returning veterans. This large-scale propaganda ploy instituted by society was the first move towards the domestication that would characterize the period. American women sacrificed and bravely joined the work force, playing an active role in producing supplies and weapons necessary for the eventual Allied victory. No longer needed for the war effort, these same women were sent off to have children and run the household. These housewives, in their newly purchased suburban homes, signaled the nations return to domesticity. .
Women did not immediately accept these transforming gender roles, but the developing media quickly organized massive campaigns to promote the new social ideal. The television programs and advertisements my mother grew up watching as a child of the fifties all focused on promoting the housewife as the epitome of family happiness. Many of the developing television situation comedies acted as deterrents depicted the problems resulting from a wife's desire to work outside the home. The best example of this comes from the fifties sitcom I Love Lucy.
