[Capriole]

Actually the "demand" that women earn money is also a product of divorce laws.

I agree to a great extent with your assessment. However, I also think that some other factors enter into it, to wit:

1. The prestige of having a successful professional wife affects some men. One when my then-husband and I were at a dinner with other researchers, someone asked, "And where did you obtain your PhD, Dr. Capriole?" After a long pause to control his humiliation, my ex explained that I was a housewife and had never actually finished my PhD program. There was a hideous silence as the group, male and female alike, contemplated this horror. Since then I have had quite a few high-flying men in the Washington area regard me as an embarrassment because I do not write a column in a major newspaper, control a corporation, teach at a major university, have an appointed position in the government, or hold a research chair at NIH.

2. No question about it, if there are two six-figure incomes instead of one, life is easier.

3. Some men, seeking a second wife, recall how their first, stay-at-home wife became somewhat dull when all she had to talk about was the kids. They are looking for someone who is going to remain interesting.

[Terriergal]

Some men, seeking a second wife, recall how their first, stay-at-home wife became somewhat dull when all she had to talk about was the kids. They are looking for someone who is going to remain interesting.

Maybe he should have found her a babysitter once in a while... life taking care of kids 24/7 DOES make a person feel dull. It takes understanding both ways.

[Terriergal]

After a long pause to control his humiliation

and there's the key...

[Terriergal]

I just ache thinking of how you must have felt then... ergh. people have some messed up priorities. :-\

[Enterprise]

"Since then I have had quite a few high-flying men in the Washington area regard me as an embarrassment because I do not write a column in a major newspaper, control a corporation, teach at a major university, have an appointed position in the government, or hold a research chair at NIH."

Piss on 'em. They sound like a buncha dandies.

[valkyrieanne]

Actually the "demand" that women earn money is also a product of divorce laws.

That may be the modern demand, but women have always earned money in one way or another. We already covered the "virtuous woman" of Proverbs (leaving aside the slander of Jewish men in the discussion.) Women in colonial days did all kinds of things to make money (one favorite activity for older women was to run a "dame school," to teach reading & ciphering to the neighborhood kids so they could go to school.) Farm women in the early 20th century had a whole host of enterprises run from the farm (like raising chickens and selling the eggs, or selling milk - before the health laws put them out of business.)

The difference is that women earned money largely while at home, not as a detriment to their family responsibilities, but as a complement to them.