ABSTRACT
Over the years the women were definitely more in tune, I thought. Not surprisingly, for they are still, as they have always been, the chief custodians of the household economy. My classmates tended to be realists in the Machiavellian pursuit of wealth and power, on the one hand, or idealists— poets and dreamers—on the other. By contrast, their wives were often realistic in a different sense: practical and efficient in the pursuit of modest goals for the general good of family or community. Yet this was also changing—several classmates had left the corporate world, and were now working for environmental projects. And more than one wife was embarked on a new career in business. In a certain sense, my classmates were choosing between the two codes. But even so, the household economy was less evident than in earlier years, partly because the children of our class are mostly grown, but mostly because of the high divorce rate. Plus, as we shall see, there isn’t much left to do in the household. Under the pressure of the market, business and the state have taken over its functions.
