Generation T

Women and Work | Social Networks | Innovation and the Cold War   Seeking the American Dream | Consumer Culture

Fifties society did not offer the American Dream -- a secure job, a car, a home of one's own and a lifestyle with room for leisure -- equally to all.

Segregation, lack of education, a working-class background, and prejudices against specific ethnicities and races were common barriers to advancement. Yet they were not barriers to entry into direct selling. Dependent on social networks, the Tupperware business offered determined individuals a way up the ladder.

General Motors sales consultant Kenneth McFarland promised Tupperware dealers success if they would "sell Tupperware with your left hand and sell America with your right hand."

I never met with any prejudice... my accent had become my calling card."
- Li Walker

Meet Li Walker

I was brought up in a society in the Philippines where women were supposed to not talk and just be quiet, be in the background... not even supposed to eat together with your husband. You know, you feed them first... but I didn't believe in those ideas. I feel like we are equals. You just, you have to get out there and you can do what a man can do most of the time, or sometimes we do it better.


We got married in '46 and stayed in the Philippines about eight years. I really didn't want to come because I was scared, but his parents wanted us to come... we had the three children in the Philippines, two boys and a girl.


When we arrived [in Florida] we lived with his mother and father... at the time, the place was not built up, just orange groves. But then in the daytime I met people through the church, and the neighbors came to meet John's bride and the kids in the neighborhood came to see if my children can speak English.


The rallies at the time [were] in Sarasota. And I took the bus. And at the time all the black people sit in the back. And I guess they considered me black, so I was told to sit in the back. And I always get car sick, so that was horrible for me to go to the rally to sit in the back of the bus.


I think it was the right opportunity at the time because I didn't have any other prospects, you might say. I didn't have any other.

Women and Work | Social Networks | Innovation and the Cold War   Seeking the American Dream | Consumer Culture