In this episode of the Journal of American History Podcast, Andrew Cooper speaks with Natasha Zaretsky about her article, "The War on Fatigue: Women, Work, and Energy in the 1980s," which appeared in the December 2024 issue of the Journal of American History. Natasha shows how, during the 1980s, the United States transitioned to a dual-earner economy in which most mothers of young children worked for wages outside the home. Faced with the challenge of balancing wage labor and family responsibilities, working mothers were told that they needed to conserve, manage, and invest their physical and psychic energies wisely. Throughout the decade, employers, advertisers, physicians, psychologists, and fitness and diet gurus waged war on women’s fatigue. Natasha examines this campaign and explains how it updated American ideals of self-improvement and repurposed them to portray individual energy management as the solution to the challenges posed by working motherhood in 1980s America. In this episode, Andrew and Natasha discuss energy, gender, race, and the broader social implications of energy and feminism in the 1980s United States.
Read the article here: https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jaae183
Music: King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band's Mabel's Dream, 1923
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