Questions of racial integration and equality were concerns for most young people. Perhaps most significantly, boomers experienced the rewards and strains of school integration, which gradually followed B ROWN V. H IGH SCHOOL enrollment rose due to boththe sheer quantity of TEENAGERS and an increasing pressure to keep all teenagers in school through graduation. In their teens, boomers continued to transform institutions and culture. B ARBIE, for example, introduced in 1959, just as older boomers headed into adolescence, modeled a teenage lifestyle of carefree consumerism rather than an idealization of motherhood or family. T OYS also shifted from parent-directed play to advertiser-led consumption. The growth of children's programming, such as The Mickey Mouse Club, which began in 1955, allowed direct toy advertising to children, cutting parents and educators out of the loop. The media quickly recognized the potential to reach the boomer child market via the new phenomenon of TELEVISION. Churches enjoyed a rise in membership from 64.5 million in 1940 to 114.5 million in 1960 and especially in the suburbs churches developed recreational and youth programs. During the 1950s and early 1960s, elementary schools could not be built fast enough to keep up with demand, and membership in Little League and the Boy and Girl Scouts exploded. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, critics grew concerned with the potential lack of limits that could result from what scholar Richard Hofstadter called "the overvalued child."īoomer childhoods were filled with vast institutional, social, and media attention. B ENJAMIN S POCK, who encouraged positive reinforcement and full-time parental devotion to affectionate child-raising. In an age of technological innovation, parents turned to experts such as Dr. Such attitudes made it possible to formally and informally deny young, poor women of color access to a variety of health and social services throughout the 1950s and 1960s.Ĭommunity displacement due to wartime and postwar mobility and suburbanization decreased the role of extended family networks in providing parenting advice and support. Black female household heads were frequently held accountable for their own poverty, and their children were marginalized. Those who did not fit into the ideal suburban, middle-class, married, white family structure faced stigmatization. The Early BoomersĪs Cold War anticommunism and pro-corporatism merged with the suburban ideal, the nuclear family became charged with symbolic and practical meanings for the health of the individual, community, and nation. ![]() Liberalized immigration policies also contributed to increases in the birthrate, especially for Mexican and Chinese people in the United States, throughout the late 1940s and 1950s. Though suburbanization was a predominantly white, middle-class phenomenon, the boom crossed nearly all categories of race, class, ethnicity, and religion. From 1950 to 1970, the suburban population doubled, from 36 to 72 million, becoming the largest single sector of the nation's population. Governmental policies encouraged particular models of suburban family life, from expanded veterans' benefits and easy housing loans to the replacement of many women in wartime jobs with men in peacetime employment. Government, industry, and society all fueled the boom. Following World War II, a fertility surge coincided with rapid economic expansion. The "baby boom" changed and affected many aspects of the 1950s society.Born between 19, the baby boomers represent the largest generational birth cohort in U.S. As the "baby boomers" grew up, many began to leave the suburban lifestyle after being surrounded by it for years, and they began fighting with disadvantaged groups for equal rights. The "baby boomers" had a big impact on merchandise and manufacturers because babies and children became the main target for customers during this time the Barbie, hula hoops, and frisbee became popular toys, as well as children wearing Mickey Mouse ears. The "baby boom" had a large effect on women, causing more women to leave their jobs to become stay-at-home moms this placed the "baby boomers" in the center of life during the 1950s. ![]() Many people also waited until after the Depression and World War II to have children because they wanted safety and security for their family, so when the war ended, even older Americans were eager to finally have a family. The "baby boom" probably occurred because after the war, people were confident that the United States would experience prosperity and growth and they believed they would be able to support their family. The "Baby Boom" started in 1947 and lasted until 1964, placing the 1950s in the middle of this large growth of the population. By the time the "baby boom" ended, there were over 76.4 million babies that had been born, making up more than 40% of the United States's population.
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