1950:

• Anna Rosenberg becomes the only female Assistant Secretary of Defence appointed by Pres. Truman
• First time in American history that women are drafted for the Korean War.  In June, there are 13 platoons of Women's Marine Reserves.  Over the next 5 years, more women will join to total 120,000 women in the military.  Most of them stay in the Unted States.  But, 540 of the Army Nurse Corp become one of the first groups to arrive in Pusan.
• Lucille Ball becomes an "overnight success" with I Love Lucy.

• Women's employment is at a new peak:  19,308,000.
• Marion Donovan patents the disposable diaper.  She is turned down by manufacturers who say it is not "cost efficient."  But, she sells them in department stores herself and then sells the business for 1 million dollars.

1952:

• Planned Parenthood Association (originally Margaret Sanger's Voluntary Parenthood League during the War, which usd to be called the National Birth Control League) becomes International Planned Parenthood Association.  Sanger travels in Asia to raise support and money for research for the birth control pill.
• Dr. Florence Sibert's skin test for tuberculosis is reviewed by the World Health Organization.  The test helps to alleviate tuberculosis, but she does not patent it because she does not want to "profit from human misery."
• Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor reports almost 12,000 femal doctors in the United States and 200,000 male doctors.
• Edna Ferber writes another best seller--Giant.  She is the only woman to have a best seller in the 1950's.  One woman will do it in the 1960's as well.  Before that, (from 1852-1052), a woman wrote a best seller an average of every 3 years.

1953:

• Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Behavior of the Human Female is published.
• American Edition of The Second Sex by Simon de Beauvoir is published.
• Ethel Rosenberg dies (with her huband Julius) in the electric chair at New York's Sing-Sing prison on June 19th.  She becomes the only female to be executed for espionage in American History.
• Jacqueline Cochran becomes the 1st female to break the sound barrier while flying for the Air Force.
• Pauline Friedrich is hired by NBC.  She becomes the first woman to report serious news stories, like the UN, the Nuremberg Trials and the Korean War.

1954:

• Ellen A Peters graduates at the top of her class at Yale Law Shool, but no law firm offers her a job.  Instead, she teaches and later beomes Yale's first tenured female professor.  In 1984, she will become a Chief Justice for the Connecticut Supreme Court.
• Amy Vandebilt starts her syndicated column on etiquette.
• Grace Kelly wins the Oscar for Best Actress.

1955:

• Tranquilizers on the market.  Within 5 year, 1.15 million pounds are sold a year, mostly to women.
• The number of illegitimate births increase greatly.  The number of adopted babies is up 80% from the 1940's.
• Esther Friedman Lederer begins "Ann Landers" for the Chicago Sun Times.  Her twin sister, Pauline Friedman Phillip starts "Dear Abby" a month later for the San Francisco Chronicle.
• Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat on December 1st.

1956:

• McCall's cover story entitled "The Mother Who Ran Away" becomes their highest single-issue sale ever.
• The average annual income for women is $2,179.  For men, it is $4,466.
• Bette Graham, a divorced mother without a high-school education, becomes a typist.  She uses white paint to correct a mistake one day, and invents Liquid Paper in the process.  Within a decade, she has a $1 million business.
• For the 1st time since the 19th Amendment 36 years before, the number of men and women voters is approximately equal.

1957:

• Evelyn Wood begins her speed reading classes.
• Betty Friedan begins surveying Smith College Alumnae and finds a lot of dissatisfaction.  She publishes The Feminine Mystique  in 1963 based on her findings.
• Ayn Rand publishes Atlas Shrugged.
• Peyton Place becomes a hit movie with Lana Turner and Hope Lange.  The author of the book, Grace Metalious, is condemned by churches for the content.

1958:

• The Childbirth Without Pain Education Association begins Lamaze classes.

1959:

• Lorraine H. Hansberry is the 1st African American to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award with her play A Raisin in the Sun.
• Phyllis Diller appears on Jack Paar's late-night television show.  She becomes the most popular femal comic of the 1950's.
• A study shows that women earn 34% of the BAs, 32% of the Master's Degrees, and 11% of the Doctorates in the U.S.

From the 1960's to the 1970's

• Women have 65.3% of 11.9 million people added to the work force.
• Proportion of women's jobs rises from 33% to 38%.
• Women fill about 50% of the new jobs.
• In editing and reporting, women make up 40% of the workers.
• Clerical jobs for women increase by 38 million.
• The number of maids drops to 546,000.
• Women are 12% of the nation's insurance agents.
• 75% of new bus drivers are women.
• Contraceptions reach mass acceptance