Giving up work after marriage in the 50s

[BooBooDooDoo12]

Or whenever really. Does anyone know anyone who did this to stay home and look after house and children when they got married?

I'm watching a series right now where a character has done this and is really struggling with her identity not being a working woman. My grandmother continued working so I've never heard other people's experiences of it?

Does anyone have any stories if the person loved it or struggled to cope giving up work? I'm just genuinely curious. And I don't mean to be a SAHM as i'm on about when a woman didn't have a choice but to stop working.

My mother insists there was no child care available at all in the late 70's early 80's when she had her children so she had to give up work. It seems unlikely to me that would have been the case

My mil worked in a bank before she married in the early 1950s. They didn't employ married women so she had to leave before her wedding.

Incidentally I used to work in a large business and it was as recent as the late 1970s that women were no longer allowed to work there if they married. I think the civil service were similar.

My MIL gave up work after her 1st baby and never went back. Her DH wouldn't allow it, He wouldn't 'let' her learn to drive either. She used to cycle every where once the kids were all at school.

My grandmother had to give up work when she got married (civil service didn't employ married women.) She never worked again but did do a lot of voluntary stuff. She was a highly intelligent woman and I think later in life she regretted not having worked (she had her children young and was widowed in her early fifties.)

My DGM got married in (I think) the 30s and had to stop teaching then. When I knew her in her 70s she was ok but apparently she'd really struggled when younger and 'ran her home like a business' because she needed to work and it was her only option.

My Nan didn't give up work when she married and had children (40s-early 50s) she ran a section of a factory in north london and was in charge of both men and women - she actually earned more than my grandad for most of their marriage. He was very proud of her and always made a point of telling us that.

My grandmother had to give up her job when she married in the 1930's. My mum continued to work after her marriage but had to stop when she was expecting me - no statutory maternity leave/pay at that time. I was able to work when married and maternity leave was available, but only of you'd worked for your employer for two years, which I hadn't, so I had to stop when my dc1 was born. That was in the 1980's. Childcare was definitely not as easily available as it is now, mostly, it seemed to be grandparents, friends or the occasional childminder.

A generation earlier, DGM was a teacher when she married near the start of WWI. As the war had resulted in a shortage of teachers, she was given special dispensation by her school board to continue working... but apparently they were surprised to discover that she still expected to be paid! I'm glad to say she set them straight on that.

My paternal grandma gave up work when she married in 1949. Her husband was a well paid council official so there was no need. She’d been privately educated in Iran as an expat as a child so was well read and a very interesting person. She never seemed unfulfilled and luckily had a very happy marriage and was well provided for when her husband died.

My maternal gran had no choice but to work as many jobs as she could as her feckless husband refused to financially support his three children when she eventually had him put in prison due to violence. She always told me never to give up work and never to financially rely on a man.