Kairos powerfully affecting a Civic Artifact

Looking deeper into my civic artifact from last week’s assignment, the concept of Kairos was a powerful element in the rhetorical situation. To refresh, my civic artifact was an ad from the early 1950s that provoked the commonplace that women’s position were inferior to men and they must be submissive to them. About right after World War 2 ended and women were used to the roles they had in factory jobs, they felt an enormous amount of pressure to either continue working or quit to go back to household duties. The idea of the woman being at home became a cherished and self perpetuated core of contemporary American culture according to Betty Friedan in her book the Feminine Mystique. The time period this advertisement came out was in perfect Kairos effect. The advertisement, while putting women down, also persuaded them to remain in the home environment instead of acquiring jobs in factories or getting an education to have a professional job. The urgency that Kairos presented in this rhetorical situation was powerful and achieved its purpose of keeping women locked in the housewife atmosphere rather than making a living for themselves. It is even evident to see that the ability of kairos was powerful because it was not until the late 1960s that women’s labor force participation went up almost forty percent. The advertisement heavily resonated with the audience of both males and females, encouraging men to go back to work and for women to stay stagnant and maintain an orderly household. At the time, the only part that the use of Kairos was not successful in was acknowledging both sides of the arguments made available by the rhetorical situation. The audience did not realize the problem of putting women down in society and suppressing them for going out and earning money for themselves. Kairos is a powerful tool and was heavily utilized as a smart move with the release of this advertisement in its time period.