What prompted mom to have to work was inflation caused in part by the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973.
Also, don't overlook the so called women's lib movement and its impact on families.
You have to go back to the 19th amendment. Now women can vote. Eventually, they want to get jobs. In turn, that depressed the wages so it makes it more expensive to raise a family on a single income.
Good points.
1. Inflation was largely cause by GOVERNMENT via the creation of the fed, fiat money, and the abandoning of the gold standard. The purchasing power of the dollar is 1/33 of what it was when the fed was created. Inflation started taking off after the 1950s when the pols really understood how to buy votes with our money. Now we have a $34 trillion national debt. The Arab Oil Embargo hurt, but it really was a small inflationary blip compared to horrendous government monetary policy.
2. Women’s lib movement and its impact on families. — Indeed. Probably nothing contributed to that more than the invention of “the pill.”
3. Add to that the horrendous “counter culture” that bloomed in the 60s and was largely triggered by the Vietnam war (even though the “beat generation” had started in the early 50s).
4. Of course, bad SCOTUS decisions that removed the Ten Commandments and God from our schools really hurt, too.
5. Can’t forget the “Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965” which destroyed the prior centuries-old solid cultural Judeo-Christian underpinnings and work ethic.
6. Plus, Democrat welfare created incentives for “families” to have absent dads.
There were many forces aligned against traditionalism. Combined, these have been horribly destructive to families. It’s amazing that all of these hostile forces arose almost simultaneously over a short period of just over 100 years.