Singled Out received a spate of enthusiastic reviews which applauded it as a pioneering and humane work of social history. When you see a woman you like, hold intelligent conversations around these qualities of a good wife to get insight into the kind of person she is. I think we have the tendency to idolise the past, especially since our present can seem so horrible at times, but Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes reminded me that for us women, at least, the past wasn’t always better. I suspect that after the austerity of the years during and immediately after World War II, the increasing prosperity of the 1950s seemed like heaven. The dark side of the decade encompasses rampant prostitution, a notorious murder, and the threat of nuclear disaster.

For thousands of young women […] in the early 1950s, the dreams of education, career, achievement and fulfillment were within reach. Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes also reveals a decade full of women's angst and emotional turmoil from the highest echelons of British society on down the ladder. A mature gentleman recognizes the demands of a better half – she needs to be attractive, but in addition, she needs to be calming and have an effective sense of self-control. As for happiness: Liz on her Pevensey farm got her pearls back and believed her marriage had been “charmed”; her husband told her eventually that “he did not know what he would have done without her”, and she said she had “a completely fulfilling life”.A lot of the strict gender roles that the book talks about probably still exist in some form of the other today – evangelical purity culture/messaging about femininity reminds me a lot of this. During the 1890s, "good wife and wise mother" was taught only in the higher levels where elite, upper-class girls attended. Her highest priority and aim in life is living for Christ, which shapes how she thinks and conducts herself in every arena of life: work, relationships, church, and free time.

Apparently, it is natural for women to be conditioned to accept stereotypical gender roles but men have no such excuse. Do you think any of us enjoy slaving away for corporate tycoons, working ourselves into an early grave, and running errands late into the night, while still not being able to afford a studio apartment?

This traditional view of women was similarly shared in Chinese society throughout the early 1900s, and on numerous occasions was criticized by Chinese academics such as Lu Xun and Zhu Ziqing. I think possibly it's the wrong kind of book to read cover to cover; rather one to dip into and get lost in another era for a while and pop back on the shelves. She joined him in his isolated farmhouse in the Pevensey Levels, and “buckled down to work”: no heating, no car, no help, David’s dinner on the table at 12 sharp – and soon, two babies. The advent of birth control meant that women were able to take control of their bodies and have a say in the number of children they gave birth to, a right denied to previous generations.

Read more about the condition New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages. They know how to choose the right attire for any occasion and maintain the looks very well into retirement years. This might play out in organizing their schedule and family plans, meal planning for the week, or even managing finances—there is no prescribed list of chores in the Bible, so a wife has the freedom and stewardship to evaluate what is most helpful to her own husband. Leafing through 1950s copies of Good Housekeeping is to enter a world peopled by women with radiant smiles, clean pinafores and gleaming coiffures. Ms Nicholson’s easy writing style drew me in and I found myself laughing, crying and raging in equal measure.It’s a bit hard to keep track of who is who, especially since we do follow a few key women, and occasionally, I did wonder if I was missing the forest for the trees. A confusing enough mix which, when coupled with poor sexual education, lead to a predictable number of shotgun weddings or quiet adoptions. She is growing in sanctification, and that is a blessing to those in her sphere of influence, especially her husband and family. Nicholson contrasts them throughout the book and it is an effective pairing: one the beautiful, feminine storybook princess whose purity and perfection, at least in the 1950s, was the pride of the nation, the other a brilliant, ambitious career woman, ready to take advantage of every opportunity available to her and brutally pilloried for it (though that would come later, once she achieved success).