Forks of the Ohio
Sergeant
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2019
In my opinion, the idea that women traditionally got to stay home and let the man bring home the money is a myth.
Both my husband and myself came from a line of women who HAD to work in unglamorous jobs (pre- 2nd wave feminism) due to early widowhood, unemployment of the husband, extenuating family circumstances, etc.
I read about a lot of women who HAD to work - in the nineteenth century - for the same reasons. (And not just "glamorous" jobs. I read about women who HAD to work in housekeeping, childcare, food preparation, factory work, hospitality, etc. This wasn't just something that they did in order to be "liberated.")
For instance, I'm a fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder. The Little House on the Prairie books kind of put a positive spin on the family's lean years in the 1870's / 1880's, but even in the books, the family depended on the income that she brought in as a teenager. The books don't even mention the year that Pa Ingalls managed a boardinghouse. (Wilder wrote that "adventure" out of her book series.) The entire Ingalls family had to work in food preparation and housekeeping at that boardinghouse in order to pay for their own room and board.
Even after she married Almonzo Wilder, her husband's farm experienced crop failures and she had to contribute to bringing in an income.
This is just my opinion, and I used LIW as an example in order to keep it on the subject of the 19th century.
Both my husband and myself came from a line of women who HAD to work in unglamorous jobs (pre- 2nd wave feminism) due to early widowhood, unemployment of the husband, extenuating family circumstances, etc.
I read about a lot of women who HAD to work - in the nineteenth century - for the same reasons. (And not just "glamorous" jobs. I read about women who HAD to work in housekeeping, childcare, food preparation, factory work, hospitality, etc. This wasn't just something that they did in order to be "liberated.")
For instance, I'm a fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder. The Little House on the Prairie books kind of put a positive spin on the family's lean years in the 1870's / 1880's, but even in the books, the family depended on the income that she brought in as a teenager. The books don't even mention the year that Pa Ingalls managed a boardinghouse. (Wilder wrote that "adventure" out of her book series.) The entire Ingalls family had to work in food preparation and housekeeping at that boardinghouse in order to pay for their own room and board.
Even after she married Almonzo Wilder, her husband's farm experienced crop failures and she had to contribute to bringing in an income.
This is just my opinion, and I used LIW as an example in order to keep it on the subject of the 19th century.