Women in the Home and in the Workplace In the 1950s, married women were encouraged to stay at home. Modern appliances like this refrigerator (right) supposedly made housework less difficult, but wives had to spend a great deal of time keeping it fully stocked and attending to other household chores. With all the new devices at their disposal, wives were expected to keep the home neat and spotless, while caring for their children. But not all married women stayed at home and tended the family. Senator Margaret Chase Smith (above) was an influential Republican senator from Maine who took on Senator Joseph McCarthy in Congress and challenged his harsh anti-Communist methods. Here she is engaged in serious deliberations with Democratic Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson at a Senate hearing in 1957. above: Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images; right: Hulton/Archive/Getty Images