Miltown Research Paper

In the 1960s and 1970s, psychopharmacological medications were starting to be well-known in American and became very popularized by mothers, single women and other females . These women were dependent, typically, on one specific medication, an anti-depressant known as Miltown, or ‘Mother’s Little Helper’ . Miltown is advertised as a way to cure all women’s day-to-day problems and continues to work all day . Women were encouraged to take this anti-depressant because it would help please the other people around them . Women were also encouraged to take Miltown with or without a mental disorder, because it cures that all day unpleasantness . This paper will discuss why women thought they had a need for a ‘Mother’s Little Helper’ and where those needs come from. In the years, post-wartimes, women were removed from their wartime jobs and placed back into their homes to raise their new born

Women were actually feeling some of the positives to the medication, more energy, less anxious, happier, etc., therefore it must be working and good for them . During wartimes women had their taste of freedom, with men being off at war women were running the businesses and working for a living . However, now that they men are back, women have been forced out of their jobs and back home to take care of the new children, from the baby boom that happened post-wartime . Along with the women being pushed back home, comes the sadness of being independent and all of a sudden becoming dependent again, this taste of freedom still lingering in their head . With the women being forced to stay home, they have minimal to no time to themselves . Being a housewife means doing housework and taking care of children is a 24 hours job, seven days a week, a never ending job, unlike when these women had jobs outside of their homes