by Ruth Scalpone

Created on: September 26, 2009   Last Updated: August 09, 2010

The Women's Rights movement, also known as "Women's Libbers," told women not to waste their time taking care of their homes and families, and they were too smart for that.  They proclaimed that women had a "choice" not to be housewives now thanks to them.  They said women could be anything they wanted to be, and they would find fulfillment in jobs outside of the home.

Many women seemed to want to have jobs outside of the home, leaving their children, even very young babies, in day care centers.  Older children  were also in day care or on their own. Children were suddenly responsible for things far beyond their knowledge, like cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, and caring for their brothers and sisters, as well asthemselves.  The kids had no warning of this, except for overhearing their parents' arguments about the mother working outside of the home.

Before the 1960s, parents were in charge of households, not the children. Excepting parents with mental illness, alcoholism, or other problem behavior, when parents abused or neglected their children, they were the ones who maintained homes and enforced rules for the family.  They welcomed visitingfamily and friends. Meals were prepared and served at expected times.  The mothers knew ahead of time what was for dinner, and it was not take-out which the mother brought in after work, or something the children managed to find to eat.

The massive changes in society in the 1960s led to numerous divorces and a lot of children who were born out of wedlock.  Many children rarely saw their fathers, if they even knew who their father was. The children's feelings of devastation when their family split up were told they would be happierliving in a happy home. The children often were surprised to hear their home had not been happy. 

Husbands in the 1960s who did not want their wives to work outside of the home were called "male chauvinist pigs," who supposedly wanted their wives always at home, barefoot and pregnant. Living on a single income, with the husband supporting the family on his own sounds wonderful to a lot of women today, when husbands demand their wives work outside of the home.  The "Women's Libbers" expect to be thanked, and do not understand why many women resent what they did. Society has changed so much that women may make quite a bit more money than men, and some husbands don't want to work at all.  They are happy to be supported by their wives or girlfriends while they stay home and do anything they want to do. Unfortunately, what they want to do apparently does not include childcare or housework.

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