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Original poster

Can I ask a question about women's history.....a bit embarrassed that I don't understand it

89 replies

susannahmoodie · 27/12/2014 11:35

I'm reading a book at the minute set in 1920s....there are a lot of references to women having to give up work when they got married. I know this happened, a lot later than the 20s to I think but I don't really get why- what was the rationale behind the idea that you couldn't be married and work at the same time? Also was it related to social class?

Sorry for being ignorant....

OP posts:
noddingoff · 27/12/2014 12:57

Well, you carry on bilbodog. Let us know how it goes. Just don't catch your fingers in the mangle.

PoinsettiaGordino · 27/12/2014 12:54

My grandmother says that she had to give up her job because once you married your job was to look after your husband (she doesn't agree with that, it was just a fact of life when she got married) - she was a nurse so it was one of the marriage bar jobs I think

I'm not sure how making household chores more difficult would mean that children are better cared for, so that's rather a fatuous comment

FunkyBoldRibena · 27/12/2014 12:32

I sometimes wonder if we went back to a bit of that there would be better care for children and more jobs for men and young people

There's always one. resisting the temptation to tell someone to fuck off so shortly after the alleged season of goodwill

Original poster
susannahmoodie · 27/12/2014 12:28

Research not reach!

OP posts:
Original poster
susannahmoodie · 27/12/2014 12:10

But because didn't lack of labour saving devices mean children weren't 'better looked after' because women were working hard to keep the house??

I'm sure sheryl Sandberg quotes reach in lean in where the difference in the amount of time a sahm spent with her dcs in the 60s and a wohm spent with dcs now isn't that great, because of such labour saving devices.....

OP posts:
perplexedpirate · 27/12/2014 12:09

I recently read that there is something of a myth around this and that that vast majority of married women worked outside the home in the Victorian era (read it in How to be a Victorian, so not quite the same era, but may reflect).
There's also an episode in Sex and the City when Charlotte marries Tray and gives up her amazing art gallery job. Grin

LordEmsworth · 27/12/2014 12:05

bilbodog I'm not married, should I give up my job so a young man can have it instead? Presumably my lack of male partner indicates I have failed at life, so don't deserve a roof over my head or food on my table?

Not a risky post, just a stupid one. Why do I have less need of paid employment than a man or "young person" does?

bilbodog · 27/12/2014 11:59

Don't forget that there were no household gadgets then either and wood or coal fires so everything took a long white to cook clean wash etc. I sometimes wonder if we went back to a bit of that there would be better care for children and more jobs for men and young people ............. Risky post

PenguinsandtheTantrumofDoom · 27/12/2014 11:46

Yes. Keeping the home was meant to be your job. Plus you were meant to have babies ASAP, so you would Obviously give up then.

You also weren't meant to take jobs away from men who had a family to look after.

acrabadabra · 27/12/2014 11:44

Not sure but perhaps so you wouldn't be taking a job from a man with a family to support?

Middleagedmotheroftwo · 27/12/2014 11:44

I think also people thought that
a) a womans place was at home, running her home and looking after her husband and children
b) men were concerned that people would think they couldn't provide for their wife and children if the wife went out to work.

These sort of attitudes were common until relatively recently (my lifetime)

LittleBearPad · 27/12/2014 11:43

This from the Spectator is quite interesting on thinking behind it in the 40s

Spectator

Artifexmumdi · 27/12/2014 11:42

I think it was because being a wife was supposed to become your job and you couldn't do two jobs at once. But I am not sure.

LittleBearPad · 27/12/2014 11:39

It was largely due to social class, many working class women would still have had to work due to needing the money, but many professions had a thing called the 'marriage bar' eg civil service, police etc - which meant married women were not allowed to continue in their jobs after marriage.

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