1950s: Home From the War

When the men came home from the war, the women were sent home from their jobs. Their patriotic duty done, women were to retreat to the home and hearth, settling into a peacetime life of ranch houses, all-electric kitchens, and swirling Christian Dior—style skirts. Instead of chauffeuring in military brigades, they ferried their children around the suburbs in station-wagon carpools.

“Once considered only a giddy band of footloose playgirls, Junior Leaguers are now obsessed by such dedication to duty that their benefactions make the philanthropy of the average heiress look like a miser’s gestures.” -Coronet magazine, June 1954