2014/03/01 by Lisa Levenstein · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Historical Gender and Feminism Studies
paper · doi:10.1093/jahist/jau007
openalex publication_date 2014/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
In 1976 “a shocking, real-life story” in the Ladies Home Journal drew attention to a hidden crisis threatening the nation's wives and mothers. The tragedy that confronted recently widowed fifty-three-year-old Dorothy Hill had “implications for every woman,” the magazine reported. For thirty years Mrs. Hill had lived securely and comfortably, raising her children and supporting her husband's career. Her life changed dramatically after her husband died of stomach cancer. Within months of the funeral, Mrs. Hill had exhausted her savings account. She did not qualify for benefits from her husband's pension or Social Security because her children were grown, her husband had died before retirement age, and she had not yet reached age sixty. Everyone seemed to assume that Mrs. Hill would join the growing numbers of women entering the labor force, but no one wanted to hire a middle-aged housewife without relevant skills or experience. Suddenly, Mrs. Hill's decision to devote her life to her family seemed misguided. “Twenty, 30 years ago, [women like Mrs. Hill] made a deal, entered into the contract,” the Ladies Home Journal explained. “I'll stay home and you support me…. It was supposed to be a fine thing for women to do—arguably, the only thing.” Yet in recent years “change has begun. The roles are shifting.” Longtime homemakers were finding themselves “caught in the middle; the pedestal has been jerked out from under them, without warning.”1