Husbands Are No Good at Home

Traditionally, housekeeping and childbearing were considered the responsibility of wives and mothers. But in a 1947 article, a woman writer expressed discontent with the arrangement.

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From the August 30, 1947, issue of The Saturday Evening Post

Men who have been so busy yapping for centuries about woman’s place in the home seem to have quite forgotten that they also have something to do with a home and a family as well. When John Doe was preparing himself to be a wage earner in his 16-odd years of school and college, was one hint dropped to him on how to face life after 5:30? And when he began his career, what then? Somehow or other, he and his friends grew up with the impression — maybe it’s our mothers-in-law that did it — that all a man has to do is bring home a steady income to guarantee his wife’s happiness and his children’s welfare and security. It never dawned on anyone that he might become so engrossed in his career that at home his personality would become nil.

I have but one plea. That when he is home, he should be there. All of him — emotionally, intellectually, as well as physically.

—“Husbands Are No Good at Home” by Hila Colman,
August 30, 1947

This article is featured in the July/August 2022 issue of The Saturday Evening PostSubscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.

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Comments

  1. Well, I read both “She Says” and “He Says” here in their entirety and have concluded some compromise is definitely in order here. Furthermore, this point and counterpoint unwittingly gave people who don’t want children (then or now) the perfect evidence to say “I rest my case.”

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