1945 To 1970
During the late 1940s to about 1951, some dresses featured a soft, smaller shoulder pad with so little padding as to be barely noticeable. Its function seems to have been to slightly shape the shoulder line.
By the 1950s and 1960s, small padded shoulder pads appeared only in women's jackets and coats—not in dresses, knitwear or blouses as they had previously during the heyday of the early 1940s.
Read more about this topic: Shoulder Pads (fashion)