Thesis advisor: Seth Jacobs / The 1950s and early 1960s witnessed a dawning awareness throughout many sectors of American society that women were good for more than simply bearing children and tending house. The threat of communism, epitomized by the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik in 1957, created extreme anxiety in the United States, an anxiety that manifested itself in two contradictory fashions. First, American women learned that the nation's best defense against communism began in the home, which was decidedly women's domain. The second message that American women received during this time is unquestionably the lesser known. The federal government and much of American society identified women as an untapped resource in national defense, a source of innovation and advancement in science and technology, thereby implying that with the help of American women, the United States could match Soviet achievements in these fields. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2005. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History. / Discipline: College Honors Program.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BOSTON/oai:dlib.bc.edu:bc-ir_102124 |
Date | January 2005 |
Creators | Pabst, Elizabeth Skelly |
Publisher | Boston College |
Source Sets | Boston College |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Text, thesis |
Format | electronic, application/pdf |
Rights | Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. |
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