Title: Suburbanization in the 1950s | World History
Headings: Suburbanization in the 1950s
Suburbanization in the 1950s
The Baby Boom
Creating Suburbia
Popular Culture Glamorized Suburban Life

Content: By the end of the 1950s, 70 percent of all women were married by age 24; in 1940 it was 42 percent and in 1988 it was 50 percent. The average age of marriage for men was 22, and for women it was 20. The fertility rate soared 50 percent between 1940 and 1957, and nearly half of all American women had their first children before they turned 20. During the postwar period, society viewed marriage as an essential ingredient for a full and happy life. According to Steven Mintz, author of Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life, “family togetherness quickly became the national ideal, seized upon by advertisers, ministers, and newspaper editors.” Creating Suburbia
All of these blossoming new families needed someplace to live, and suburbia was the perfect answer to the drastic housing shortage engulfing the nation at the end of the 1940s. With names like “Crystal Stream,” “Robin Meadows,” and “Stonybrook,” suburbia met a need and fulfilled a dream. During World War II, both government and industry played up the image of the suburban house to the families of absent servicemen.