The Power of the Purse: Gender, Consumption, and Politics in Mid-Century America

Speaker: Dr. Amy Rutenberg, Assistant Professor of History
Rutenberg will discuss how the Cold War politicized male and female gender roles, particularly with regard to mass consumption. Ideals of domestic containment pushed men to be breadwinners and women to be consumers in order to combat the threat of communism. These ideals, however, excluded broad swaths of the American population who were denied access to suburban homeownership, jobs that paid a family wage, and the consumer goods that came with a good income. This event is in conjunction with Designed for a Modern Life Exhibition at the Christian Petersen Art Museum.