“Woman adjusting sunglasses” was a part of the Anthony Angel collection held in the Library of Congress. The photo was taken in 1957. Like everything else in the collection it was given with no restrictions on its use. This is the second portrait in my series of women photographed around the time by Angelo Rizzuto. Although I don’t know these women personally, I am creating a backstory for each woman and exploring the limitations and opportunities they faced through the lens of history.
The original photograph shows an impeccably coiffed woman looking in a shop window. In my imagination she was shopping for the perfect pair of shoes or maybe a scarf. At that moment in time she would have been dating, or possibly engaged. She was able to shop in the middle of the day because she didn’t have the responsibility of children and was able to earn a paycheck to pay for the purchase. It was a short window of independence for this young woman. A few years after the photograph was taken, that same woman would have much more control over her choices.
- [Woman adjusting sunglasses] Rizzuto, Angelo, 1906-1967, photograph
1957
In 1960, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the birth control pill, freeing women from the restrictions of pregnancy and childbearing. This launched a new era for women. In that decade women had the option to put off marriage and children. Because women had the freedom to make this choice there was a steep drop in the birth rate for women under twenty five over the decade. By 1975, this trend was ingrained in the culture. Birth rates rose for women in their 30s resulting in smaller family sizes and an increasing number of women in the workforce.