The Pittsburgh Press (October 25, 1940)
We, The Women —
AMBITIOUS YOUNG MEN DESIRE WIFE CAPABLE OF PARTNERSHIP TASKS
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Brains Are Essential Asset To Girl Who Hopes To Marry Fellow With Real Intelligence
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By Ruth Millett
Today’s young men expect their wives to carry half the load, not only to do their share of work, but take part of the responsibility for decisions.
The sooner a girl realizes that the day is past when men are looking for helpless, scatter-brained wives to “protect” for the rest of their lives, the better off she will be.
This doesn’t mean that a girl is expected to hold down a job, though she will be, if she married with the knowledge that two paychecks were needed to ruin the family.
But if she doesn’t work, a girl is expected to do something besides spend money. Men don’t respect for long the wife who does not help her husband in any way, who is nothing more than a dead weight – even though a decorative one.
If she doesn’t work, then she had better turn her time and her talents toward housekeeping. The woman without children who hires all her work done, so that she can spend all the time she likes in beauty salons and at bridge tables, doesn’t win any man’s respect today.
Young men today know that the going will be tough for them for a long time. They want to get married, sure. But they want to marry girls who will help them make a go of it.
They want girls who will either make their husbands’ small salaries go far by good management, or who will contribute to the family income. They also expect their wives to help them in business, by management the social side of their business lives.
So if you want to marry an ambitious young man today, girls, don’t pull the “helpless” line. It’s outmoded. Show the young man you regard marriage as a real partnership, and make up your mind to pull your part of the load.