What was life like for housewives in the 1950s and 1960s in Adelaide?
TO get an idea of how far women have come, we have to go back to the 1950s and 60s — the decades when women where given little choice but to run the domestic duties of home, regardless of their talents.
- The evolution of the phone
- Bob Byrne’s new book, the best of his Boomer columns
- When newsreels were on before movies at the cinema
- Amazing old photos of the Adelaide Railway Station
IF the social engineers have their way, my grandson will be getting a Barbie doll this Christmas, and my granddaughter a Sherrin footy that glows in the dark.
I have a pretty good idea what they would think of that! Poor old Poppa Bob has finally lost it, and within a heartbeat they will have swapped their respective gifts and gone about their normal routines of being exactly what they are, a boy and a girl.
Having said that, I am not completely at odds with what the proponents of such a scheme are trying to achieve with their “No Gender December”. The idea behind the campaign is to get girls thinking more about an education in science, technology, engineering and maths, fields that are currently dominated by men and avoided by women.
As a child of the ’50s and ’60s I can look back to a time when the majority of women were completely undervalued and — regardless of their natural abilities, skills or education — were given little choice other than the domestic duties of looking after their husband and children and running the house.
And that is not for one moment to suggest that being a full-time housewife and a mother is not itself a worthwhile career; it’s really all about having the choice. To get an idea of how far women have already come and what has been achieved so far, it’s necessary to step back in time and recall what it was like to be a girl or woman just in our own mothers’ time.
With the exception of the war years, when women were called on to keep the home fires burning and to manufacture goods to sustain the war effort, the role of the housewife had not changed very much for decades. A woman’s role was clearly defined in our social structure as the little lady at home whose sole purpose in life was to get married and raise children.
As the devoted housewife, she was required (in almost all cases) to leave work or a career, to stay at home and keep it all in order, bear and raise the children and make sure everything was perfect for her husband when he arrived home from work.
The man was seen as doing the “proper” work while his dutiful wife spent her days cleaning, cooking, washing and ironing for the family.
When the children came along it was the wife’s job to ensure they had a safe, nurturing environment. She fed them, changed their nappies, nursed them through teething and childhood illnesses and got them ready for their first day at school.
A typical day would be:
■ Get up and make breakfast for the family.
■ Make sure her husband was fed and suitably dressed for whatever job he was doing, in many cases preparing a cut lunch for him to take to work.
■ Get the children out of bed and ready for school. Preparing a cut lunch and seeing them off on their bike or on the bus.
■ Cleaning and dusting the house, making all the beds, washing and ironing.
■ Doing the shopping — a daily activity in the days before refrigerators and freezers.
■ Perhaps a cup of tea or a chat over the back fence with a neighbour in the afternoon.
■ Begin preparation of the main evening meal, usually consisting of meat and three veg, followed by dessert.
■ Preparing a snack for the children on their arrival home from school and helping with homework and school projects.
■ Serving up the evening meal.
■ Getting the children off to bed.
… And it was all repeated the next day, and the next, and the next. It was a man’s world and while he was off to the footy or the pub for a few drinks and a bet on Saturday, the little lady stayed at home getting the Saturday evening meal ready for when he came home. I often reflect now on how my own dear Mum handled the situation. She had been a tailoress and was immensely proud of her career until she was forced to leave it.
She was an intelligent, creative and inventive woman who could have succeeded at almost anything, but all of a sudden, because she got married, was allowed to do just the housework.
She was a great cook and turned the evening meal of meat and three veg with dessert into a five-star affair.
The social changes of the 1960s and ’70s had a dramatic impact on women’s lives. With the arrival of the birth control pill, they suddenly had more say about if and when to had children. The women’s liberation movement in the ’70s had them questioning their role in a modern society: why should they be forced to give up a promising career or job to stay at home?
Four decades on and it seems we are still battling with some of the old prejudices of a woman’s place. As the father of two high-achieving daughters and a granddaughter who may one day become the prime minister of Australia (I’m serious), I fully support the aims of the “No Gender December”.
Let’s provide the girls with all the same opportunities as the boys and give them the confidence that they can accomplish anything they want. With respect though, I don’t believe giving my grandchildren toys that would have them questioning my sanity would really achieve anything.
I rejoice in the fact that my grandson is a boy who loves to kick a footy and my granddaughter is a girl who knows the names of all her Beanie Boos and their birthdays.
Surely we can continue to celebrate the gender difference between boys and girls and yet at the same time give both the education they need to grow and realise their full potential as adult men and women.
Bob Byrne writes every day for the Facebook page Adelaide Remember When. His latest book, The Best of Bob Byrne’s Boomer Columns (rrp $29.99), is available at book stores or The Advertiser News Shop, 31 Waymouth st, City.