It's actually a misconception that women didn't work. Women worked for the short time between univeristy and having kids and returned to work after having kids. This is particularly the case for college educated women married to college educated men.
I said that most college educated women married to college educated men worked before having kids and once their kids were in school (elementary school or maybe middle school depending on the mother)
College education rates were much lower in the mid 20th century. If you focus that 34% figure on college educated women it would increase. In particular, it would further increase if you excluded women who have a child below age ~10.
These days mothers would return to work, atleast in some form such as part time, much before the child reaches school age.
Also the main occupation that the aforementioned women entered were education (teaching in some form), social work or sometimes administrative work. It was easy to return to the workplace with such occupations even with a gap in employment.
Women working while the couple is young and no kids isn't that surprising. The significant shift is whether the couple could afford for one parent to fully stop working for 12-18 years or so while raising kids.
They also only see photos or videos of these people because they were the freaking only ones able to afford photos of their families like this. Photos used to be insanely more expensive than the almost costless level they are now
yep, my grandmother worked in a diner. carried a switchblade when walking home alone at night after closing. didn't have a choice, her husband was drinking his paycheck and she and the kids had to eat.
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u/Fun_Pop295 Jun 04 '23
It's actually a misconception that women didn't work. Women worked for the short time between univeristy and having kids and returned to work after having kids. This is particularly the case for college educated women married to college educated men.