ABSTRACT
When I was born, just after World War II, most people wanted a house in the suburbs. From there, Mom was supposed to watch the kids and Dad leave for work. He was supposed to compete with other men to produce
goods and services, make public policy, interpret God's will, and cure the sick. It was a "Father Knows Best" world. Indeed, in the television series of that name, Jim Anderson left each day in the family car to sell insurance, while Margaret remained at home, isolated and dependent. She had no job and probably not even a driver's license. Her tasks were to watch the children, clean house, order deliveries of groceries, prepare dinner, and do anything Jim needed. In fact, his company assumed that she provided support services. On arrival home, the children presented their father with minor problems, which he resolved prior to the end of each show. The point, of course, was that "father knows best"; in retrospect it seems like a (very) bad after-school special. But this show suggests how people thought married life ought to be: One sex was supposed to serve as domestic servants for the other. Or to put it more charitably, married women's family duties were supposed to be the center of their lives. In contrast, men's economic abilities were supposed to be the center of their lives.l
Many families, of course, could not live up to this ideal; some women have always worked for pay. Most married women, however, found it hard to obtain "respectable" jobs, since so-called protective laws and discrimination forced them into dead-end positions. Such practices enjoyed overwhelming support. For example, a 1945 Gallup poll asked a nationwide sample of people: "Do you approve or disapprove of a married woman earning money in business or industry if she has a husband capable of supporting her?" Only 20 percent of women and 16 percent of men approved. Thus, the vast majority believed that women should stay at home (Niemi et al., 1989:225). The impact of this norm, of course, was to control women's behavior by keeping them economically dependent.
