SKL Posted July 17, 2019 Share Posted July 17, 2019 15 hours ago, Rosie_0801 said: It was more work, but the work was appreciated at least. I'm not sure any traditional "women's work" is appreciated now. I'm not sure it was appreciated. From what I heard from women who were active then, men on average didn't value women's work, and that is one of the reasons some thought that getting a "paid job" would be a step up - at least it would be valued by others. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawthorne44 Posted July 17, 2019 Share Posted July 17, 2019 4 hours ago, SKL said: I'm not sure it was appreciated. From what I heard from women who were active then, men on average didn't value women's work, and that is one of the reasons some thought that getting a "paid job" would be a step up - at least it would be valued by others. And being a secretary was a valued job back when men did it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluegoat Posted July 18, 2019 Share Posted July 18, 2019 11 hours ago, shawthorne44 said: I don't think it was ever appreciated. Even middle-class people had servants. There had been the post-WWII propaganda campaign to promote the importance of the housewife and what she did. But, that was about getting women out of the workforce to make room for the returning soldiers. So, that was an exception. Even women with servants, generally speaking, had to actually run the household and they often pitched in with the work if they weren't positively wealthy. All of it was a real job, something that took skill to do well and without which a family wasn't going to be successful. I was at a farm museum with my kids today, it's in the suburbs now but until the 50's it was a farming area. Aside from cooking, preserving, making cloth, sewing clothes, cleaning, raising the kids, the women had to manage the dairy, manage the garden, and manage the poultry. A non-farming family was a little different, but it still involved an incredible amount of real labour and management. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluegoat Posted July 18, 2019 Share Posted July 18, 2019 8 hours ago, SKL said: I'm not sure it was appreciated. From what I heard from women who were active then, men on average didn't value women's work, and that is one of the reasons some thought that getting a "paid job" would be a step up - at least it would be valued by others. The 20th century overall doesn't seem to have been kind to the appreciation of women's work. Probably in part because domestic work was so changed by a lot of the modern conveniences. Not just washing machines that saved time, but supermarkets where you know food would be available when you needed it all year round. And kids were in school much of the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawthorne44 Posted July 18, 2019 Share Posted July 18, 2019 16 hours ago, Bluegoat said: Even women with servants, generally speaking, had to actually run the household and they often pitched in with the work if they weren't positively wealthy. All of it was a real job, something that took skill to do well and without which a family wasn't going to be successful. I was at a farm museum with my kids today, it's in the suburbs now but until the 50's it was a farming area. Aside from cooking, preserving, making cloth, sewing clothes, cleaning, raising the kids, the women had to manage the dairy, manage the garden, and manage the poultry. A non-farming family was a little different, but it still involved an incredible amount of real labour and management. Women worked extremely hard unless they were very wealthy. But, work done alongside servants isn't valued. My dad talked about growing up on a farm, regardless of gender, children were taught all skills. This was normal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenmom5 Posted July 18, 2019 Share Posted July 18, 2019 40 minutes ago, shawthorne44 said: Women worked extremely hard unless they were very wealthy. But, work done alongside servants isn't valued. My dad talked about growing up on a farm, regardless of gender, children were taught all skills. This was normal. my grandmother grew up on a farm 100 years ago. one of ten girls, no boys. the message was clear (and she passed it on to us.) - they were girls, not boys. boys were more valued - but on a farm, strong backs more valued and boys were stronger. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted July 18, 2019 Share Posted July 18, 2019 On 7/18/2019 at 2:45 AM, SKL said: I'm not sure it was appreciated. From what I heard from women who were active then, men on average didn't value women's work, and that is one of the reasons some thought that getting a "paid job" would be a step up - at least it would be valued by others. From what I saw in my family, men appreciated that women cooked, cleaned and raised children. They also took some pride in their wives handicrafts like knitting, sewing and even embroidery. Now there is no need to cook because you can pick up packaged meals at the supermarket, mess shouldn't happen so shouldn't need cleaning, and you should be outsourcing your kids to child care, then school and before and after school care. There is no value on knitting or sewing, either for the family or as gifts, because it's cheaper to buy. Anyway, that's where I come from. Australia does not have the servant history of the UK or the US. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.