Women Working? Did it work?

Did it work? Yes. There was no choice but for women to fill jobs during WWII.
Unfortunately it sent us down a rocky path of making choices that are debated to this day. We still haven't figured it out yet!
The debate is still on, the fight is still waging. That's how humans roll......unfortunately.
 

It was interesting, though, that even when we did bring home the bacon, it was still a man's world.

My husband went back to school full-time for his doctorate and I got a very good-paying job to support the family.

I applied for our first charge card and got it....but it was issued in my husband's name. Oh, I got a card, too, but it had his name on it. It was MY paycheck paying the bill, but......

And when we bought a house ($17,500) later that year, *I* had to sign a statement that I didn't plan to have any more children. I very seriously doubt that if *he* had been the sole wage-earner, he would have had to sign a similar document.
 
The OP makes an assumption that women working caused inflation. I don't see that. Men came home from WWII when the economy was good because of the war and people said, "Great ! Now the men are making enough money that the women can stay home and raise the children and keep house."

I don't think feminists messed up things for the housewives. How does equal pay for equal work hurt them?

I don't know why people started thinking a 2000sq ft house, two cars, and daycare, was a better life than 1000sq ft house, one car, and mom home for the first five years., but they did.

When my son was a baby my husband made $3000 a year doing seasonal construction work while he finished college. We lived in a very old house, had one old car and wore the same clothes all the time. When the baby was four, I went to work at K-Mart 5 to 10 after my husband got home so we never had to put my son in daycare and I think it was well worth living on less money.
 

What was once called day care is now early education. I volunteer at a child care centre run by my church. I also have two great grandchildren who have been in child care and I am very impressed by how much the littlies know and understand.

Children who do not have the experience of day care are actually disadvantaged when they start school. Apart from educational advancement they also miss out on developing social skills.
 
It IMO is not a man/ woman thing but a parent spending more time with kids. I wish i had been able to attend more school and hobbies time with my kids.

It a vicious cycle of more work or chasing raises to cover paying someone else to be there for a child. Many women I worked for when subtracting day care costs etc. took home from 25-40 percent of take home pay after daycare cost. It would actually bring more cash into house with a part time job with no daycare need.
Day-cares vary greatly...... the educational advantage IMO is not there.. My son in law and daughter taught kids basics at home prior to entering school and the kids far exceeded many with "pre"- school crowd etc. Schools now deal with many items of a parental nature taking time away from basics of actual teaching.

They were same people who complained about not buying a house as they wanted New construction and pick out their floor plans, paint colors etc. I bought a older home and worked over years to make it better. One former "friend" actually said she was not settling for a fixer upper but it was OK i did not have her standards.

Almost every place I worked had divorces often involving the "work" spouse . That was someone they were spending more time with instead of the real spouse. People miss that divorce often wrecks havoc on family/ parents and your wealth building just halved.

Just my observations.
I worked, we built a good foundation, now I hope kids getting inheritance think that was worth me missing school events and sports etc.
 
OldFeller said:
My brother moved out of the city and into the suburbs around 19 77 because a house was $74,000 then.

That house today is $524,000. Its older than it was when he bought it. Makes perfect sense.
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Heard that. Back in 1987, I bought a brand new house in Santee Ca. My 40 hr a week paycheck was $26,000 a year. (overtime helped that figure some). House cost $106,000. Today, the same house, now 38 years old last sold for $939,000. 😲
Wife stayed home with the children.
Something is definitely skewed.
 
MACKTEXAS said:
In Texas, 2025:
Average annual cost of infant care: $10,706
Average annual cost of child care for a 4-year-old: $9,664

From CNBC: How much child care costs in every U.S. state—it’s more than college in 39 places
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I'm actually surprised that the discrepancy isn't bigger. The mandated staff:child ratios for infant care are much lower than for older children, so it's much more expensive. At least, I thought it was. But apparently not, at least in Texas!
 
Divorced mother living in city with 2 little girls and having no training other than farm work & breadmaking, etc. found any kind of work she could. I remember in the living room of our first rented home we had only a couch. No carpeting and anything else. 3rd husband helped pay bills, plus babysitting money my sister and I earned paid for clothing.
 
These Uber-Feminists like Gloria Steinem sold their audience a bill of goods.

She's worth $20,000,000 while most of her followers are now working low paying retail jobs...because they have to in order to make ends meet.

Steinem was a hypocrite self-promoter. One of her famous quotes is..."A fish does not need a bicycle"...in regards to a woman needing a man. And then what?? She gets married! Do as I say, not as I do.
 
Beezer said:
"A fish does not need a bicycle"
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Before Gloria was born, her mother had a nervous breakdown, and eventually became an invalid with delusional fantasies - afraid to be alone -couldn't hold a job, - years in and out of sanatoriums for thementally ill. Her parents separated when Gloria was 10 years old.

The impact of Gloria's childhood had a formative effect on her personality and development, and her opinions were influenced by the belief that doctors had a general apathy towards her mother. Those perspectives largely influlenced Steinem's pursuit of women's rights for social and political equality.

"A fish does not need a bicycle," if Steinem said that, isn't something she gets full credit for. It's more often attributed to Irina Dunn, who said, "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle."

Apparently, Ms Steinem seemed to either need or want a man back when she was age 22, because she admits to having an abortion in 1957.
 
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Beezer said:
These Uber-Feminists like Gloria Steinem sold their audience a bill of goods.

She's worth $20,000,000 while most of her followers are now working low paying retail jobs...because they have to in order to make ends meet.

Steinem was a hypocrite self-promoter. One of her famous quotes is..."A fish does not need a bicycle"...in regards to a woman needing a man. And then what?? She gets married! Do as I say, not as I do.
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Hateful and ridiculous, not worth answering. Don't think she made the quote, either. Totally offensive.
 
AI overview says:
"The phrase "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" is attributed to Irina Dunn. While often mistakenly credited to Gloria Steinem, Dunn, an Australian filmmaker and writer, coined the phrase in 1970. The phrase is a well-known feminist slogan. "

What does Gloria Steinem have to do with this anyway? She is just one woman she was not the movement.

The feminist movement of the 1970's was about women getting the same pay as the man working next to her doing the same thing, it was being able to have her own bank account and being able to get a loan without her husband or father's signature.

If you think women are lesser humans than men and shouldn't have the same rights under the constitution then just say so, but don't pretend it's all about some particular woman named Gloria Steinem.
 
Both of my parents were in the military, so I've always known what it's like having a working mother. Plus, I couldn't imagine being 'provided' for. That's just spooky and dangerous being dependent on another person. No way I could live like that.
 
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A fish doesn’t need a bicycle but that doesn’t mean that a fish shouldn’t be able to choose and enjoy a bicycle. 😉🤭😂

The feminist backlash in the 70s probably wouldn’t have been necessary if the world had been a more equitable place for women.

Being a homemaker can be a wonderful choice but it should always be a choice.

"A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" - Irina Dunn
 
@Beezer …you need a break. If I had not worked my son would of starved. If my mother had not worked my family would of starved. If my grandmother had not worked my mother’s siblings and herself would of starved. And my great grandmother?? I do not know. Women work like men work…because they either have to or need to. Always has been…always will be. Interesting that your mother knew Gloria…what a privilege.
 
It had to work. My son's father (1st husband) spent most of his adult life in prison. I was on my own for much of the time and didn't remarry until I was in my late 40s. That being said, these days, it really takes two incomes to make it, unless one spouse (or S.O.) makes a lot of money. My grandmother always used tell me, since I was in my early 20s..."Be INDEPENDENT!" And she would put just that much emphasis on the word. My mother told me "Never let a man know what you've got". Both of those pieces of advice worked well for me.
 
Beezer said:
More like telling it like it is...concise and on point.

Steinem and her ilk told my mother she was a failure for being a stay-at-home-Mom...and made millions preaching this garbage. I have nothing to apologize for in my above statements
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That's not "concise and on point". It is a ridiculous fabrication. Maybe take a chill pill and think about why you have such a problem with this.
 

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