Views of Women in 1942:

Most people would think of views of women in the 1940s as pretty straightforward. She is the homemaker while Dad is at the office chasing the American Dream. They'd be wrong. They would be forgetting that at this time we are in World War II. While the men are off fighting the war, the women are behind trying to help keep up with the mass production demands the war they fought necessitated. This same year actually was when the first song for Rosie the Riveter was made. This view of women as strong support for our whole nation was definitely different than the views of women earlier in the century, but I think it gives great context to the narrative and formal analysis. One would think there's absolutely no way the film is not bashing women sexuality. Maybe to some small extent it is, but I think it is so seemingly reductive in order to incriminate everyone and be progressive of the system this movie entails, when outside the theaters women are plying a crucial role not only in our nations economy but also in society (Anderson).

Views of Women in 1982:

The eighties were also a time of empowerment for women. This was the time of the New Woman. Feminism was gaining a lot of ground in the political arena and social equality was becoming realized more and more. This is a time where, like during World War II, women were being empowered and going out to change conditions for themselves, and all that was actually mostly realized by now. Second wave feminism started in the sixties and was winding down in the eighties. (Gilmore) That's why a film like this being progressive to show the problems of a system that tries to encage a woman's sexuality was wrong, and filmmakers had no problem being just as reductive of males and their sexuality as films had been for women's in the many years preceding this.