Levittown

Nicknamed America’s first true suburb, the district of Levittown played one of the most influential roles in the growth of women's rights. After the aftermath of WWII, the United States were entering into a new age. The winning of the Allies ushered in a wave of nationalism, and a new breed of American Spirit. Many veterans who returned home from the war wanted to be a part of the expanding industry in major cities, but wanted a more rural setting where they could raise their families and live the American values that were held high post-war. However, many veterans with dreams of living this idyllic lifestyle after the war were unable to achieve it due to a severe housing shortage in many major cities, including New York. Enter Abraham Levitt, and his two sons, William and Alfred, a family of entrepreneurs who specialized in commercial housing. Seeing the desire for a low cost, protected, and perfect family home, the Levitt’s bought huge plots of farmland in New York, and began to construct a commercial town that would be the answer to these prayers. Dubbed Levittown, the new community was constructed with intense detail, an integrated traffic system so there would be no noisy streets, and completely identical housing. From the outside, Levittown seemed to be an outwardly perfect community.

Levittown and other depictions of early suburbia perpetuated racial and gendered discrimination. One important part of the Levitt family’s ideal society was that it did not include black people. The Levitt’s refused to sell their homes to any black families, which changed the generations of families growing up in these communities. “By 1953, the 70,000 people who lived in Levittown constituted the largest community in the United States with no black residents” The immense growth of the community was representative of the large impact the new suburb had on the public eye, and the media. Television ads for many of America’s most popular shows began being set in suburban towns like Levittown, which began to pop up more and more. Advertisements and television shows like these depicted the ideal American family, a family man who worked and provided for his two children, and a caring and concerned wife who aimed to please her husband and family with housework and cooking. The modern “mother” role was thrust upon the wives of men who returned home from the war and went to work. These were the same families and men that found themselves in Levittown, wanting to have a safe and reliable life away from the turmoil of the war. More than ever, women were represented in the media as homemakers, and if not working at home, subordinate to their husband or romantic interest in advertisements and television. Through places like Levittown, women were able to be conditioned to the standard of living that was considered appropriate at the time. These factors all contributed to the large drop of women attending college in in 1950’s, and the issues women still face today as a result of the perpetuation of this image.