Let me begin by introducing to you Zinaida the Happy Soviet Housewife, a smiling woman in an apron, baking pies with her little girl in time for Papa to get home. This image of domestic bliss was printed in the Soviet press a day after the American National Exhibition, presenting America as a consumer paradise, opened in Moscow's Sokol'niki Park in July 1959. What is Zinaida so happy about? ‘“Our kitchen”, she says in the caption, “is as good as the American one shown at the exhibition in Sokol'niki.”’ Indeed, Zinaida's Soviet kitchen is modern and rational, if rather modest. It boasts such stepsaving conveniences as wall-mounted units and a drying rack over the sink, which is fitted into a continuous worktop and has a mixer tap, indicating both hot and cold running water supplies.

Happy housewives, showing off their modern homes and dedicated to providing a happy homecoming for their hardworking husbands, are better known, in the post-war period, as the symbol of the good life on the other side of the Iron Curtain. The Happy Housewife did service in the global politics of the Cold War as an advertisement for the benefits of ‘people's capitalism.’ She was particularly closely identified with the American dream, as represented in advertising images of suburban domestic bliss, although numerous examples may also be found in European and British publications from the 1950s. Surrounded by gleaming appliances, the professional western housewife reigned over her segregated domain, keeping a serene home.