50's most women stayed home to be with the children and have that sort of partnership
in a marriage, but those decisions were not because women were in slavery, it's because
society had enjoyed that type of life for many years, .
Here I agree with you. I have already said that those were the tranquil, peaceful time, everybody knew their place. Women knew that their place was at the feet of their Lord and Master and they liked it that way. They had not yet begun to be dissatisfied with their empty, unfulfilled lifestyle, that was still a few years into the future.
, and in the 50's that slowly began
to change, some women worked part time, some full time, but the choices were there,
women were just slow to grab the change and run with it, and we are creatures of
habit, and our stay at home life was comfortable and what we were used to, and
some did not want to change (me), and some were glad to go to work, as the money
was there to be made, and those couples had much more money coming into the
house than we did, it was a CHOICE, you talk as though we were being held down
like a 3rd world country. I was living the life, I was there, I remember what it was
like. Some men didn't want their wives to work, that was their problem, men also
were in a process of changing, and some liked the fact that their wife could bring
in extra money
That may be your experience, Talloola and I am not trying to minimize it. I have no doubt that your memory is correct. However, that is anecdotal evidence. I have a running disagreement with JLM about this, I think anecdotal evidence is terrible evidence, one has to look at statistics. Anecdotal evidence is not scientific evidence.
Unfortunately what you say was not borne out by what happened in the 70s and 80, when women were trying to enter all walks of life, not just the kitchen and the bedroom. If situation was as you say, they would have just walked into universities, factories, corporations etc. would have got the education, would have become doctors, lawyers, busyness executives etc., without any trouble.
But it did not happen that way. Feminists had to fight hard for each and every gain they made, they had to fight every inch of the way. They were opposed by the white male establishment at each and every step. They had to fight to get into the universities, they had to fight to get into the companies they had to fight for equal pay for equal work, they had to fight to get equal credit (same as man) and so on. It was a struggle all the way.
Women had to fight to raise the awareness of spousal abuse, sexual harassment in the workplace etc. I remember when the subject of wife battering was first mentioned in the Canadian House of Commons, it was greeted with laughter, to most MPs, it was some kind of a joke.
Women’s struggle of equality was fully as prolonged, as difficult as painful as the struggle by blacks for equality (of course, conservatives would claim that blacks had full equality way back n the 40s and 50s, that Civil Rights act, Voting Rights Act etc. were not necessary and Rosa Parks and MLK were simply trouble makers). It started in late 60s, continued at full speed into 70s and 80s, and it still continues to this day, to some extent.
So your personal experience notwithstanding that is not the experience of most women, if it had been women’s movement would not have been necessary.