Family and Working Life

During the 1950s wages rose constantly and in 1958 unemployment was practically a thing of the past.

The nuclear family was the centre of everything - an ideal family with father, mother and children. In the ideal family the man worked to support his family, while the woman stayed home, taking care of the house and the upbringing of the children..

Until the mid 20th century childcare was thus an individual responsibility for most families, with day care centers for those rare families with both parents working outside the home. However, the demand for labour during the prosperity of the 1960s meant that women were needed as part of the work force, including married women.

Women met this demand. They increasingly became wage earners, not only out of financial necessity but also out of desire. The full time housewife was being terminated.

This was only possible because the municipalities were willing to shoulder part of the responsibility of childcare. The 1960s became the decade when thedevelopment of care institutions such as childcare centres and old people’s homes really gathered speed.

Many women with outside jobs were employed in these care institutions, but the demand for female labour was also strong in office, trade and industry.

Industry, in particular the food, beverage and tobacco industries, which took over the manufacture of many kinds of food and drink from the household, employed many women as wage earners.

The new electronic factories did also, where radios and televisions for home use as well as radars and measuring equipment for the cold war were mass-produced.

When women entered the labour market in large numbers in the 1960s, work was often marked by tempo and routine. Women now worked two jobs, as even women with outside jobs still held the responsibility for children and housework. But women wanted to stay in the labour market - even when they got married and had children.

Women also benefited from the educational boom in the 1960s. Many of them spent more years in school and achieved higher levels of education than earlier, and the number of female pupils and students rose distinctly. This reflected the need for educated labour, but also the current idea of equality through education.