Gals, your hubby is going back to work!
A collective sigh could be heard from housewives across the country when Donald Trump announced in Michigan “We are getting your husband’s back to work!’
Finally, the ladies can tend to their real duty of being a housewife and mother and let the breadwinner do what God intended. No need to worry their pretty little head about how the bills are going to get paid!
Hubbys are back to work and back to being the head of the family.
Trump’s out of touch mid-century scenario seems to jive perfectly at life at the Amy Coney Barrett house where the man is always in charge, even if the little lady of the house is a supreme court justice.
And what gal wouldn’t want to go back to that time.
The mid-century suburban Housewife was the most envied woman in the world…smart…yet easy-going with never-you-mind freedom; that was the new Mrs. America!
A time when the ideal wife was someone could balance a checkbook, get out of a restaurant without losing her gloves, wear a pair of stockings twice without developing a run and prevent the Chinese laundry from smashing his shirt buttons and spraying on too much starch.
Crossword puzzle enthusiasts when presented with the clue “Head of a Household, 7 letters,”could confidently fill in the letters in their square neat handwriting HUSBAND.
Women dutifully filling out the 1960’s census form while sitting at their Formica kitchen tables wrote in their husband’s name as “the head of the household” on the first line, after proudly filling in “homemaker” in the blank for wife’s occupation- it was the new modern term for housewife.
One of the questions on the census form concerned whether any member of the household other than the husband worked: “Did this person work anytime last week?” the government asked.
You were instructed to include “part-time work such as helping without pay in a family business or on a family farm.”
“However, Uncle Sam stated very clearly- “Do not count housework.”
As if any woman would ever consider that work.
Envisioning The American Dream 
It took me a long time to get past that notion. In my prime marrying time, my income was insufficient (I felt) to marry, have a family, etc., so I put it off till I felt secure in those matters. Of course, by the time I was, I wasn’t interested in doing a family when I’d be old by the time the family grew up, left home, etc. All of that nonsense came out of the notion a wife shouldn’t have outside work! I understand Trump’s understanding of male-female roles, and he’s full of sxxx, too!
I’ve sister 10 years older than I who fell for that fallacy, too, till she finally realized her knothead husband’s priorities involved going to the bar and other “male recreations” no wife would approve of. So, in her mid-forties, she decided if she was going to have a washer and dryer (!), she was going to have to earn the money on her own. That was the start of her blooming into a liberated woman, someone who knew she could leave Knothead and survive just fine, which she did one day when he was drinking with his buddies.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There are classic ads from the 1930’of men boasting they got a job and a raise so now they can get married. That is such a long-ingrained idea but its hold on expectations has certainly been lessening. If nothing else it’s highly impractical and most need a 2 income family to just get by. I’m glad your sister found a more satisfying life eventually.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Me too!
It is amusing \, now, to read business magazines and they seem amazed that women can be in charge (CEO’s for example, or other high end jobs) of companies on the fortune 500. It’s almost like women are another species or something!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow, like a time machine, I was transported me back to my childhood! Loved this!
LikeLiked by 2 people
So glad I can take you to that wonderful place of childhood!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hope Trump doesn’t succeed. After thousands of years of evolution, men have suddenly had their ‘2001 – monolith’ moment, woken up and realized “What have we been doing? Why have we been slaving our guts out for the last few milennia? Want that new car / holiday whatever? – get out and get a job, miss!” ;-)))
But anyone who’s had to stay home, keep house, manage bills, help with homework etc, mind kids – especially, mind kids – will tell you, the so-called ‘workplace’ is a doddle by comparison, not to mentioned one doesn’t get paid for all the stuff one does at home. And it’s 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week. At least when you leave the office you can more-or-less forget about it. You forget you have kids at your peril.
LikeLiked by 1 person