Women:Then and Now
How have things changed for women?
George Crane was a marriage counselor and developed this test, left, as part of background for marital counseling. (link via boing-boing, full booklet on Flickr). Wives, for example, would get demerits for wearing soiled aprons or raggedy dresses around the house or curlers to bed and merits for dressing for breakfast and carrying on a good conversation. (A man would get demerits for boosting about his former girlfriends or conquests and a merit for real movie kisses and not a peck on the cheek).
Sex and the College Girl -- by Nora Johnson, a '54 graduate of Smith, in the November 1957 issue of Altantic Monthly wrote this about the educated woman of those times - (the year I was born): She has learned to think, not in the proportions of genius, but intelligently, about herself and her place in the world. She realizes, disturbingly, that a great many things are required of her, and sometimes she can't help wondering about the years beyond the casserole and playpen. ...She must be a successful wife, mother, community contributor, and possibly career woman, all at once...talk intelligently about her husband's job, but not try to horn in on it; keep her home looking like a page out of House Beautiful; and be efficient, but not intimidatingly so. While she is managing all this, she must be relaxed and happy, find time to read, paint, and listen to music, think philosophical thoughts, be the keeper of culture in the home, and raise her husband's sights above the television set.
What would be meritorious in roles today?
Looking like a page out of House Beautiful???? Any guy who demands that has got to find a new home.
Posted by: old horsetail snake | May 17, 2008 at 06:20 PM
OMG!! Thankfully times have changed. I would have SO been out on the street, just because if there are archaic rules around, I have a tendency to want to break them! I racked up a few demerits my freshman year at college (30+ years ago) because I thought some of the rules were stupid.
Posted by: allison | May 17, 2008 at 09:31 PM
I probably get demerits for being on the computer so much and waking my husband when he snores. ;)
On the plus side, I take the kids to doctor's appointments, I like driving them all over the place, and I was the primary driver's ed teacher for my daughter.
Where's the husband's chart?
Posted by: Kathy | May 18, 2008 at 07:31 PM