I don't believe the male breadwinner / female housewife model ever really existed...?

Well this would have been true for the majority of house holds if less that 1/2 of women worked. But I think shows like Leave it to Beaver and advertising of the 50's glorified this standard of living. Making it appear as though it was the norm.

Neither do I; by the way it's about time you figured it out; however, there are a few incidentals that we need to cover, but before I do it was only in the 1920s that for the first time American families consisted of the "breadwinner." Moving on further the most rapid increase in unwed pregnancies took place between 1940-1958; no, not the libertine 1960s. Teenage childbearing was much higher in he 1950s than what it is today. The 1950s not only held a rising birth rate; it also held a stable divorce rate. Perhaps those women/wives of the 1950s weren't as submissive as is always supposed. The same could be said for the colonial women.

My next topic is about the patriarchal authority that men had or did not have in colonial times. Sometimes, the role of women extended beyond their traditional roles. Sure society expected their young white women to marry; however, it had its share of spinsters, too. There's one named Jane Hunter and she established a prosperous business in Williamsburg, Virginia; turned around and married wig maker Edward Charlton, soon as she did she launched a rival millinery (hat making) shop right across the street.

"In the UK, women made up 29% of the workforce in 1900, and 46% today."

29% is not a large number give the size of the lower class and number of people living in poverty at the time.

"and that feminism has destroyed the family and reduced wages?"

increase the workforce and the value of the worker goes down.

gender war/feminism created resentment and divided men and women, marriage and family, divide and rule. Feminism is a tool of the ruling class IMO.

So Eleanore, as usual feminism is a benign and love filled movement that can do no wrong? : )

Sorry I didn't get a chance to talk to you last night, I was quite tired.

Well if you've always worked why are you all carrying on and doing our heads in?

The vast majority of women workers came from 2 categories.

1. Young unmarried women, usually between the ages of 16-24, who had no man to support them.

2. Lower-class women whose families couldn't survive without them working.

So it's a little bit of a stretch to say that women in the workforce were very similar to how they are now.

It actually was possible for a woman to have a career, but it wasn't easy. There were women doctors all the way back in the mid-1800's, for instance. But married women were generally expected to stay and do the housework, unless they absolutely could not afford to do so.

The truth is that men were the ones who were expected to work, and women were not, depending on economic circumsrances. And while it is true that more workers usually mean less wages, there are plenty of other factors that could lead to that end. For example, if the workforce in a particular company doesn't expand, but merely places more women in its vacant slots than usual, how would that lower everyone's pay?

Ow, women have always worked yes.

The model existed - the problem is that being a housewife was/is not perceived as work. Women worked in paid jobs, but were limited as to the type of work they did, and the fulfilment of a real career with money-earning potential.

Women may have worked outside the home, but they certainly did NOT have money-earning potential or choice of careers, and they were still expected to fulfil all their womanly duties on the domestic front.

If everything were all fair and equal and happy times there never would have been a feminist movement to begin with. Women had to demand the right to vote, the right to education (in any field they chose), the right to a career of their choice, all the things men have always had.

I would love to send some of the guys here back in time with my flux capacitor and have them live as Women for a while!! I would LOVE that! <evil laugh>

The male breadwinner / female housewife model existed for many in the 1950s. So during that period for many there was such a thing as the family wage. I think what some people object to now is the illusion of choice that exists. It's now only the wealthy families who can afford to live on one wage and this takes us back to the depression era and beyond. If progress is measured in terms of the expansion of choices then feminism has failed to deliver progress for family women.

history goes a little further back than 1900, but I would agree that feminism has helped in ruining the family, as in those olden times the family was still the core of a community and society. Now the family is a nuisance to be either avoided all together or in the case of modern times the biggest nuisances of the family (children and elders) are placed into facilities to be cared for by others. And interestingly enough we stuff our elders with life-prolonging medications so they can exist (not live) in these facilities for many years. Remember the more fabulous and exciting a life you have the more taxes you pay. Is feminism totally to blame, of course not, but they (modern feminism) sure helped out screwing up our society. But it was all mens fault i'm sure. (forget I wrote that last part)

It's true that women always worked. It makes me mad when I hear women complain that they shouldn't have to work because they are women.

But women worked as secretaries, nurses and in textile mills etc... They didn't get paid well and were mostly working low status jobs under men.

What is happening now is a stunning reversal now that women are beginning to outpace men. It wouldn't surprise me if we live to see women out earning men. It's not hard to envision women having the better careers and men moving into a supportive role.

Your stats are right but looking at them brought me to the exact opposite conclusion. What it proves is that there really was no barrier to women working, that was just a lie. They did not work because back then work was f***ing horrible. The vast majority of jobs would have been dirty, dangerous and physically demanding.

What feminism did is denigrate the housewife role. No doubt those women who DIDN'T work were glad for that fact and appreciative to their husbands for providing for them so they did not have to. Feminism destroyed this and hammered into women's heads that what their husband was doing by taking the burden of working for money entirely onto his shoulders was enslaving and disrespecting her.