Family Wage Ideology

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In “Working-Class Feminism and the Family Wage Ideal: The Seattle Debate on Married Women’s Right to Work,” Maurine Greenwald discusses the debate between working-class feminism and the family ideal wage. Working-class feminists defended equal rights for women and tailored a dual commitment to equal rights for women and workers. Some members of the Seattle working class supported married women’s labor force participation as a way of improving families’ standards of living. On the other hand, Men’s responses varied for married women to work. Some men supported married women employment while others rejected the idea of married women’s employment. (145). Many men believed in the gender roles, that the women belong at home for domestic purposes …show more content…
Greenwald explains that the women’s attitude started to change during wartime. Women believed they were not getting the same equality compared to the men and these attitudes grew rapidly in the working class community. Men thought women needed to stay “domestic,” because the men did not want to come home to the house not cleaned and food not prepared. Men were also afraid the women would undermine their wages, and recruit women to do their jobs (126). Women started writing letters that expressed approval for married women’s wage work, which challenged male privilege in the market (129). Women believed in “freedom,” “equal opportunity,” and “equal development” (129). The feminists in the working class tried to reconcile equal rights, and their concern with their class as a whole (148). Many rejected the right for married women to work for wages, but respected the voluntary activities women had to offer, which provided services throughout the …show more content…
According to Greenwald, wage labor gave women a sense of self-respect and self-worth comparable what it gave to men (148). Women were becoming a more dominant figure by having a presence in the work force, and the men did not approve. The women wanted to become a part of the working-class, because it would make them feel important, independent, and nondomestic. Women believed that the welfare of their class mattered as much as their individual aspirations (148). After and during the war, financial obligation was a big part of motivating married women to take jobs outside the home. Some men were not able to find jobs and were unemployed for the time being. These feminist women did not want to rely on their husbands for financial support, they wanted to go make income their selves. These feminists believed that women were productive members of society, within and outside of the home (129). Women directly challenged the fairness and appropriateness of the family wage ideal, which held that an adequate wage was one that allowed a husband to provide for his family. Feminists wanted to prove that married women’s employment would enhance the working-class life. At this time period, the married women’s right to work movement was not resolved. The movement declined due to “factional struggles and jurisdictional disputes” that had crippled the movement
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