Yes 30 and 40 year olds were doing the same, I was married to a 20 year old who was hearing the same message, but at least they were at the age of divorce.
What struck me at the time were the old women, with 30 and 40 year old marriages, who were buying into the concept of being liberated and finding an exciting life of dating and work (important work of course, unlike the drudgery of real life work), and being free and independent.
It was truly heartbreaking to read all the constant stories of heroic old women who left their husbands and families to discover themselves, and/or to try lesbianism.
Ansel, I lived in a very small town. Some of us went, most did not. Those that didn’t, betrayed their life-long friends, with those wives. It still bothers me, although, I have not lived there, for decades. That period of time, well, perhaps it’s not unlike others, I suppose.