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It's a metaphor for a society as a whole that was very repressive toward women (i.e. the steretypical T.V. housewife in heels cooking her husband dinner). The only thing that a middle-class women during the 1950s could do was cook and clean for her husband and children. If she even received a college degree (very unlikely as the percentage of women who went to college remained flat while the percentage of men attending it spiked during the 50s), she couldn't get a job outside the house. There were also no laws protecting women from workplace harassment and employment discrimination, so it was legal to hire a man over an equally qualified woman just because he was a man.

I gather from your previous posts that you are too young to have experienced the 1950s firsthand. So where are you getting all of your "facts" about life during that period?

Google... There's more than enough papers and stats out there. For instance, there were definitely no laws protecting women from discrimination in the workplace. These were part of the Civil Rights Act which was enacted in 1965. The 1950s represented a major step back for women who had made strides in the three decades before (i.e. winning the right to vote, working outside the home during the Depression and WWII).