House Chores in the 1950s – A Photo Album of Life in America

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1. Patricia Hefferan RN MA FCN (Faith Community Nurse)
   April 13, 2022 @ 9:20 am

   This was a stunning lookback. Men and women were locked into roles. My mother was my role model and and “a neat and tidy house” became my goal as well. However, when I decided I wanted to become a nurse my husband became extremely upset about providing a college education for me and a career that would move me away from the home. Divorce was unthinkable in my mother’s world but soon it became more acceptable as women wanted to be more than just “the little wife.” In review I took up more work than I already had. I went to school, worked to get good grades, worked to keep “a neat and tidy house” and remain a dutiful wife and mother of four. I divorced my repressive husband, upset my children but became free to be “me.” It was a heavy price that women paid. We still do.

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