Reply #169: Actually, you're stating a commonly accepted myth [View All]

[stanwyck]

that "most women didn't work." Not true. White women of a certain income were more likely to be at home during the 50's and 60's. However, minority women have always worked. And many women were working but it wasn't considered employment. Like my grandmother and aunts, who were farmers. Trust me. They worked. And our nation used to be largely agricultural. Where I grew up, in Illinois, these 50's and 60's housewives also had livestock and vegetable gardens. Other women assisted their husbands in the family business. They weren't considered "working women". But, of course, they were. Others had beauty salons in their homes. Or sold Avon, Tupperware, or other merchandise.
And there have always been millions of other women in the workforce. Nurses, teachers, secretaries, and factory workers.
The Norman Rockwell apple pie scenario you're presenting is not really accurate.
Not when you take in the full picture of American women.
I do agree with you about people too blithely dismissing the amazingly difficult task of being a homemaker. But any woman who chooses that role needs to know the risks associated with leaving the workforce in today's economy and culture of divorce. It's sad. But that's reality.