Well, the fifties was basically the result of a really traumatised population. I mean, you've got WWI, the Depression and WWII all within someone's lifetime, so there was a conservative whiplash. That conservativism plus the growing recognition that child sexual abuse was happening in the family meant that people did not want to know about it, or even imagine it happening. So in order to get back the idea of a safer world, society went super, super conservative and overprotective in the hope that if everything was controlled, then everyone would be safe.
Or at least that's what my learnings has taught me anyway.