9 April 1929 Wifehood and motherhood are not jobs; like husbandhood and fatherhood they are personal relationships Perhaps no argument against the combination of marriage and a career is quite so common as the familiar cliché that wifehood is a profession. I was always taught that marriage was a career in itself,” disapprovingly remarked a young woman at the close of a recent lecture in which I had maintained that whether wives preferred employment external their homes they should be free to make the choice. Shortly afterwards I opened the pages of Dr. Meyrick Booth’s newly published treatise Woman and Society to find the stale confusing argument stated with all the stale naive simplicity. “The occupation of wifehood,” remarks the author, and “is the largest of all the careers open to the young citizen of our country. And this career is a female monopoly Being a husband is not an occupation by which a man earns his living. But 5000000 women secure their economic existence by being wives.” Related: Shirley Williams: testament to my extraordinary mother Vera Brittain Related: Testament of youth: Vera Brittain's articles for the Guardian Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com