The Pittsburgh Press (August 23, 1941)
We, the women –
SOMETIMES CAREERS CAUSE HUSBANDS TO FORGET WIVES
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Men have habit of reaching success and being selfish about it, to neglect of family
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By Ruth Millett
The other day a motorist, driving through Ohio, lost his wife. He didn’t miss her until he had driven on 40 miles. When he realized she wasn’t in the backseat, the absent-minded husband feared that she might have fallen out of the car. But she hadn’t. He had thoughtlessly driven off without her when he pulled out of the last town on which they had stopped.
It made an amusing story for the papers – a story husbands particularly appreciated. But a good many of them who chuckled over it did so without realizing that somewhere in the past they, too, have gone off and left their wives. But unlike the forgetful motorist, they had never gone back for theirs.
Some husbands leave their wives behind when they make their business or profession the one absorbing interest in their lives. They leave their wives to entertain themselves as best they can and use their homes just as they would use a hotel.
Other men broaden their interests far beyond what they were when they married. But they never lend a helping hand or in any way encourage their wives to keep up with them in their new interest. They just strike off alone to pursue whatever appeals to them. Never by so much as a halfway invitation do they ask their wives to share the things they are enjoying, things which are making them more interesting individuals.
Still other men agree enthusiastically that they want a large family – but, when they get it, refuse to be responsible for anything concerning the children but their support.
The wife is left behind to rear the children while the husbands goes on being the charming fellow, the type of man always in demand socially. The people who want him for weekends just take his wife because she is his wife and they don’t know how to get out of asking her.
Wives are always being advised to keep up with their husbands. But no one ever tells husbands it’s their duty at least to make an effort to take their wives along with them.
Lots of the wives who get left, like the motorist’s wife, wouldn’t be if their husbands looked around to see that they were at their sides oftener than every 40 miles – or every five years.