Women have always worked, except for a brief period in the 1950s when women were supposed to be the lady of the manor if they were well off (playing golf and bridge all day), or, if they weren’t well off, mom-as-live-in-help who dreamed only of new floor-cleaning products.
The farmer’s wife worked, the merchant’s wife worked, and the wife of the banker usually ran households large enough to require bookkeepers. Many of them, like their husbands, worked in what was the equivalent of a home office, living over the store or doing their work on the kitchen table. They might have been more physically present - but then, their husbands were usually not flying off on road-trips or spending all day or week elsewhere, either, and also were more physically present.
Women have always had to work out the issue of childcare and work, just in a different form.
“except for a brief period in the 1950s when women were supposed to be the lady of the manor if they were well off (playing golf and bridge all day), or, if they weren’t well off, mom-as-live-in-help who dreamed only of new floor-cleaning products”
And don’t forget that some of the 50s moms were playing the role of Rosie the Riveter while their husbands/fathers/fiances fought WWII!
Women more often worked at home or around the farm.
Women and careers is a definite late 20th century idea...a half century I have lived btw and watched change with my own eyes
It’s an indulgence or maybe a freedom...nowadays it gives couples simply more money...a bigger home, better vacations and maybe private school
Prior to modern appliances and professional volunteer armies...women were busy cooking on less efficient stoves, washing by hand, canning and prepping food stores, sewing and all sorts of thing to keep a home running wihc required a lot of time each day.
For the record, I prefer a mom at home with kids when they are young...by middle school should she wish or if the family needs it then by all means work but this notion that being home is not good enough or antiquated is poppycock and if Sarah said that then she is wrong.
I support her and consider her an exceptional female in a precise use of that word but I do find things she utters I don’t like and this and girl power are part of that.