According to social critics, what were the weaknesses of American society in the 1950s?

Question

US History..Society After World War II

Answer 1

Don't forget racial segregation, inferior role of women in society (sexism), and laws against homosexuality.

Answer 2

Where do I begin?

Women, ethnic and racial minorities were pigeon holed into negative and restrictive roles in society.    The former role of the extended family was replaced by the nuclear family, therefore modularizing people, and setting the country up for a cultural generation gap.  

Technologies were being picked for their immediate contribution to the wealth of industrialists as opposed to the long term good of the country.  Street car systems were being torn up, public transportation systems were not being built at the same rate in suburban communities as they should have been.  Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind were put aside for more immediate profitable energy production such as oil and nuclear energy.   Rachel Carson's Silent Spring launched a concern for the pollution that was becoming rampant during the 1950's.  

Funding for research was geared towards big military projects without much attention of focusing on staying a head of the USSR technology that launched Sputnik ahead of the US.  We fell asleep on that one.  

White flight was commencing leaving cities with large populations of urban poor and large and expensive infrastructures to maintain without a tax base to support either, creating also a further division of people of different races, and creatinging a disparity of opportunities.

Lots of focus on boogie men like communists in Hollywood.  It did not help the American entertainment industry, and ruined many talented people who were either entirely innocent or just merely wooed as young people in the 1930's by socialist ideology on a whim.  It was preposterous.  

There was a seething underclass of Americans who did not fit the white male with a domestic wife and 2.5 children.  It was an ideal that few people actually fit.

Times were good in many ways.   Most childhood diseases that regularly killed children, like polio, scarlet fever, whooping cough and yellow fever were part of the past with the discovery of cures and preventive innoculations.  Most americans could afford to buy an automobile, something their parents were not able to do.  Americans were eating better and living longer.  Employment rates were low.  Homes were affordable for most.  Agriculture as a career that paid well.  Entertainment opportunities like TV were becoming standard in every home.  The workplace was growing and demanding  more workers.  More people were attending college than every before.  More people were graduating high school than ever before, and more people were literate than ever before.

However, in many ways those benefits highlighted the inequities and lack of opportunities for all americans.  Women wished to move up in the workplace beyond servile jobs like nurse or secretary.  African Americans desired the same opportunities too, but in many parts of the US, just working for a simple wage, voting, access to adequate healthcare or education were denied to them for no other reason than being black.  Farm laborers were being regularly sprayed with DDT and denied fair wages.  Many coal miners of the appalachian areas were still tied to company store policies, and their children were denied access to schools.  Union organizing was very controversial at this time.

It's sort of like the US government was wearing rose colored glasses during this period, because the big economic picture was pleasing.  The country was at peace, unemployment was low, the economy booming, new wealth was being made and a new sense of luxury was being enjoyed.   Lots of pictures of Eisenhower, a beloved President, playing golf.  

However, there was a lot more than that going on, and in the late 50's and 60's, the pot boiled over and exposed many of issues that were ignored in the 1950's.    

We're STILL suffering from some of the policies of the 1950's particularly in terms of energy and the dire need to renew our infrastructure.

Answer 3

Lockstep conformity, inability to effectively criticise or complain, various "anti-American" Witch Hunts, hypocricy with regards to civil rights and women's issues, growing arrogance in internation affairs.