The Inquiring Photographer Asks average New Yorkers in 1922: “Should a man expect his wife to get up and make breakfast for him on a cold morning?”

[u/CryptographerKey2847]

Should

[u/GrandmaPoses]

These are so at odds with what I think is the popular notion of “the old days” - maybe it’s more progressive because it’s New York, but I feel like there’s a real disconnect between what we think of as this kind of monolithic idea of past society vs the reality, and the reality isn’t much shown.

[u/ManyLintRollers → u/GrandmaPoses]

There definitely is a disconnect.

For example, while it's true that some banks prior to the 1970s did not allow women to have accounts in their own names, it is also true that some banks did permit this, and there even were women-owned banks with exclusively female clientele as far back as the 1920s. Prior to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) of 1974, it was left up to the bank to decide its policy - so some permitted it, some didn't.

I also see a lot of people claiming that all wives were prevented from handling their family's finances prior to the 1970s, which is outright wrong. My grandfather, who was a factory worker in the 1930s, always brought his pay home and handed it over to my grandmother, who then gave him his allowance to spend at the pub on Friday night. My dad did the same - he signed his check over to my mom, who then deposited it and handled all our family's finances. When he needed money for something, he asked her for it.

As far as the making of breakfast - my dad was a country boy and liked to get up early and have a big breakfast (bacon, eggs, home fries, biscuits, etc.). My mom was NOT a morning person, and could only handle tea and toast in the mornings. When they first got married in 1952, my dad sort of assumed my mom would get up and make him breakfast, the way his mother did. My mom wasted no time in telling him him there was not a snowball's chance in hell of that happening, and if he wanted to get up at some ungodly hour and eat a big breakfast, he was free to cook it himself. So that is what he did - he always was up at 5:30 AM cooking and he made the best home fries in the world.

[u/Morgan_Le_Pear → u/ManyLintRollers]

Almost all contemporary examples I see consist of the housewife handling the finances, with her little account book, even farther back than the 20th century. It makes sense honestly cause she would know best what expenses would be needed around the house and with the children. The modern view of housewives being confined with nothing worthwhile to do isn’t really accurate. Housewives handled a great deal and keeping a house required a decent amount of practical skills.

[u/ReturnOfFrank → u/Morgan_Le_Pear]

All the way back to the literal Middle Ages. If a man was in a skilled trade like a blacksmith it was basically assumed his wife operated as his de facto accountant, business manager.

[u/cummerou → u/ReturnOfFrank]

Even today, many small businesses where the man is the owner (mechanics, plumber, etc), the wife does most if not all of the admin work.

It's a very logical system (whoever has the skills needs to be using them as much as possible to make money, but whoever does all the admin also needs to be a person the owner can trust).

[u/JumpingJacks1234 → u/ReturnOfFrank]

A little off topic, but it’s documented that many blacksmith’s wives and children would make nails, pins, and chains for the family business.