Were we better off before the Women's Lib Movement?

Question

Before women had to work and the cost of living skyrocketed. When women were forced to simply stay at home, cook and clean and all that...

Was America better off? Were kids better off? Were women better off?

I am getting some really great responses to this question...on both sides of the fence. Thanks guys!

Answer 1

Yes.

The perpetual erosion of social morality and the decline in values has had numerous impacts on society. This is the downfall of western civilization in lieu of 'individual rights' and 'leveling the playing field'. There was once a time when everyone knew their place. Men worked and took care of their families. Women stayed home and took care of the families. Children went to school to learn to become somebody respectable. There was barely any violence in the streets, drugs were hardly a problem at all, and the economy flourished.

Now, there is no identity. People need 'therapists' to sort their lives out, drugs to deal with life's little woes, teenagers shoot each other in the street over a pair of sneakers or a dirty look, and everyone wants more for doing less.

"Equal Rights" is a good thing, as no one should be treated as a 'lesser person' than another whom is equal in aptitude and skill. The problem is that it has been taken too far with things like 'affirmative action' and abused, and the result is that the 'best person for the job' is often turned away in lieu of filling occupational vacancies with a legally-mandated 'more diverse' workforce. Job candidates should be hired on their ability to do the job, considering education, skill, experience, and aptitude, and not because of their race, ethnicity, gender, or any other unrelated factor.

Answer 2

Kids may have been better off but women were not. Before the womens movement women were treated like children. I remember being unable to get credit without my husbands signature even tho he had no job and I did. I wanted to buy him a birthday present. Women were treated as if their brains didnt work. In your question you did have one thing right : women were "forced" to stay home even when it wasnt in the best interet of her kids(needed the money for them). When I was 18 I could not get birth control pills without borrowing my friends engagement ring and telling them I was getting married.

All you younger women dont realize how much it changed. If you want to see a show that represents life then, take a good look at All in the Family. Would you want to be like Edith?

Answer 3

Some say yes, some say no. It depends.

Women were able to do what thye wanted. The problem is ALL of them were pressured to some extent to want the same thing.

Let me put it this way, it's great that women are liberated and can now have careers, get graduate degrees, enter politics, etc... but what if this (being a housewife) is what I want to do? Telling me that this is unfullfilling is just as opressive as telling me that this is all I'm allowed to do.

Answer 4

I don't think that women were 'forced' to stay at home; it was simply part of our culture at the time. Women stayed at home to care for the home and the children ~ remember, this was a time when all 3 meals of the day were cooked by Mom and there were no microwave ovens, bread machines, and many other space-eating appliances to make life 'easier' for us.

Yes, I believe America, children and women were much, much better off. There was someone in the home to know when the children should be home, with whom the children were associating, and that they were doing their homework and chores.

And, it wasn't just the woman in her individual home, it was also all the other Moms up and down the street. I can easily remember the mothers up and down the street where I lived calling to report to my Mother something I had done that needed to be addressed on a parental level and my Mother did the same when other children misbehaved. If what we did was bad enough, the other Mother spanked us, then sent us home while she called our Mother to tell her what had happened. Children *knew* they couldn't get away with much, if anything, and we respected adults and we knew manners.

It wasn't really the Women's Lib Movement that started getting women out of the home. It was World War II. Women left the home during WWII to do the jobs customarily held by the men who were then off fighting. But, after the War, many women refused to return to the home and turn the jobs back over to the men.

There is no one now to monitor what the children are doing, when they are getting home, who they bring with them. Meals are served out of sacks more often than out of the oven.

What did the Women's Lib Movement actually do? It got us doing ALL of it, that's what it did. Now, we still clean the house even though we're exhaused, cook when we can, help the children when there's time, AND we work a 40 or more hours per week job. I have wished, on more than one occasion. that Gloria Steinham (sp?) and her cohorts could have just kept their big yaps shut and burned their bras quietly in someone's backyard.

Answer 5

Women's blood pressure was probably much lower when she was able to be like Theodore's mom on Leave it to Beaver, one of the best shows modeling correct human behavior. In some ways the world was sort of nicer then and so it seems better, but women's contributions will always be needed in whatever form they come in. Keep up the good work ladies.

Answer 6

not necessarily. today, we have gone too far with women's lib. it's time for a large scale effort by men to regain an honorable place within society. we have allowed women to take over in all aspects of life. jobs and decision making should be EQUAL between the two sexes. it's time to regain respect.

Answer 7

no - 1/2 the workforce available
yes - some were
no - no way... find a man who can provide or suck it in and be poor. women had no vote, no voice, I'm a guy and I can see that forcing women to stay at home and be slaves is criminal.

i do however think radical feminism is bad, as is radical anything, radical religiousness, radical right politicians, radical bigotry, radical testicular surgery.

Answer 8

"forced" is the key word.

Left women choose what path they want and support them in that choice

Answer 9

what is womens liberation? make a good family both man and women are each other jointly. no men liberation or womens

Answer 10

i don't know, but i don't think i could be a housewife like June Cleaver was-I'm much too non compliant with my Ward, if my husband treated me the way he did her, i would have to spit in his casserole or something