I think that the idea of women having these careers was largely derided at that time, though SOME did work professionally. I know that my mother was fired from her job in 1959 when she announced she was pregnant. There is a lot of politics involved in these stories and you are right to question their ‘facts’.
In 1976, I was 8.75 months pregnant during my final exams in grad school. One male professor had a fit when I sat down to take the exam ... he made a big deal of moving me to the front of the room, right by the front door, so the "ambulance attendants" wouldn't have to disturb too much of the class if I went into labor during the exam.
Then, in 1979, my manager at work told me that the reason I didn't get paid the same as the two males in exactly the same position as mine was because they had families to support and wives who stayed home. There were witnesses in the room when he said this ... ha!
I went to the EEOC after the 1979 incident, and end up getting quite a bit of back pay, plus many of the women in the company got a raise as a result. (The company's main revenue came from Federal government contracts!)