Moving to the Suburbs
Autumn, Billy, Keegan, Ryan
Baby Boomers Era
Defined as a period marked by greatly increased birth
rate
Statistics
1946: 3.4 million
1947: 3.8 million
1952: 3.9 million
1954-1964: 4 million per year
Boomer Generation
★ Integrated schools
★ Protested Vietnam War
★ Feminism
★ Woodstock
Baby Boomers’ Impact Today
★ 3.5 million Americans will turn 65 this year
★ They provide money-making opportunities
★ They travel to warmer climates (evenly spread out)
Suburbs in the States
★ 900,000 new homes per year
★ Provided more housing
★ Was a safe place for white households to live
Abraham Levitt
★ Founded
Levitts & Sons
in 1929
★ Built upscale
housing in
Long Island,
NY
William J. Levitt
★ Son of Abraham Levitt
★ Father of 1950’s modern American suburbia
★ Constructed suburbans in New Jersey, New York,
and Pennsylvania
★ Only sold to white owners
Levittowns
★ Found in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania
★ Constructed due to housing shortage
★ Landscaping and gardening popularized
★ Peaceful environment
Levittowns Today
★ Few remain
★ Suburbans are not popular
★ Negative qualities highlighted in Desperate
Housewives, Weeds, Suburgatory
Architecture
★ Levitts experimented with the replicated
construction of the perfect home
Architecture
Included four rooms with one bathroom
Architecture
750 square feet
Architecture
Houses featured modernism decor, the artistic movement of early 20th century.
Architecture
★ Timeless designing created an “ideal” family all
people dreamed of having
★ Embodied the effortlessly perfect household
Feminist Movement
★ Society in the suburbs urged women to stay at
home to be wives and mothers
★ A woman’s most important job was to bear children
★ Women yearned for a more fulfilling life
Feminist Movement
Women left the workforce once they moved to the
suburbs
Feminist Movement
Men went to work while the women stayed at home to
cook, clean, and take care of her children
Betty Friedan
“Each suburban wife struggles
with it alone. As she made the
beds, shopped for groceries,
matched slipcover material,
ate peanut butter sandwiches
with her children, chauffeured
Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay
beside her husband at nightshe was afraid to ask even of
herself the silent question-- 'Is
this all?”
Feminist Movement
★ 1950’s are the most popular era for the portrayal of
housewives
Work Cited
"Baby Boomers." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
"What Baby Boomers’ Retirement Means For the U.S. Economy." FiveThirtyEight. N.p.,
07 May 2014. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
"The Feminine Mystique Quotes." By Betty Friedan. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
Galyean, Crystal. "Levittown - US History Scene." US History Scene. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
"Baby Boomer Generation Fast Facts - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
"Levittown, Pa. | Building the Suburban Dream." Levittown, Pa. | Building the Suburban Dream. PA State Museum, n.d.
Web.
16 Oct. 2015.
Kilgannon, Corey. "Change Blurs Memories in a Famous Suburb." The New York Times. The New York Times, 12 Oct.
2007. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.