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17. The roles of American women
Films depict the evolution of women in American life over the decades. 1947’s Miracle on 34th Street, considered a Christmas film today, first appeared on theater screens in May. It was revolutionary for several reasons, one of which was the character portrayed by Maureen O’Hara. O’Hara played a divorced mother, raising a child on her own. The Catholic Legion of Decency rated the film “morally objectionable in part” due to the character’s marital status. Divorced women, especially those with young children, still bore a stigma in some quarters at the time. Through the ensuing decades the roles of women, and attitudes toward them in films began to change.
During the 1950s, the marriage rate reached an all-time high in the United States. The ages of women marrying dropped to an all-time low. Marriage and children – the nuclear family – was considered the primary aspiration for young women. Films and television programs of the fifties portrayed women as married, or trying to find a husband, as the norm. They were produced in response to the pressures from society on women to make having a husband and raising a family their goal. In the 1960s changes in public attitudes appeared in films and on television. Often when divorced women appeared in films, it was as a plot device leading to remarriage to her husband.