Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes: The Story of Women in the 1950s

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In addition to remaining positive, she tries to keep the home in good shape even when it is slightly frustrating.

It really brought the time period to life, and I appreciated that Nicholson took the time to look for women from all across the social strata, from girls born into privilege, those from the middle class, and those that had to work much harder for their tiny bits of freedom.First appearing in the late 1800s, the four-character phrase "Good Wife, Wise Mother" (also Wise Wife, Good Mother ( Japanese: 良妻賢母, Hepburn: ryōsai kenbo, Chinese: 賢妻良母/賢母良妻; pinyin: xián qī liáng mǔ/xián mǔ liáng qī)) was coined by Nakamura Masanao in 1875. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, her books include the acclaimed social histories Among the Bohemians, Singled Out, Millions Like Us, and Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes. SINGLED OUT - How Two Million Women Survived Without Men After the First World War, was published in August 2007. Using a number of different sources -- diaries, interviews, memoirs, archives, newspapers, periodicals, the web etc.

I was intrigued by how few similarities there were to the lives of the women in my family during the same time. She makes it clear that while some women seemed happy with their marriages and their lives, there were plenty of others who were not.Although she has mentors and role models, she remains authentic to her true self because that matters to her and her marriage. Childbearing was considered a " patriotic duty", and although this philosophy declined in Japan after World War II, feminist historians have argued it existed there as recently as the 1980s. 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.

One of the traits of a good wife is her ability to give a listening ear because she knows it aids effective communication. Nicholson owns up to some “ache of nostalgia” for the aspirations of the perfect wives in the women’s magazines, with their Lysol and carbolic, shining their floor tiles, showing off their perfect pram, their Victoria sponge, their babies in home-knitted bootees and bonnets.

I staged the book among some of my vintage kitchenware to accompany the essence and battle within the book. 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. Even the normally sensible Marjorie Proops wrote that ‘intelligent girls who spend their youth getting themselves highly educated have little time to devote to the art of making themselves delectable for the opposite sex. I did think that the tone of this book was sometimes patronising - 'poor dears, allowing their lives to be dictated by others' expectations' - when most people experience this regardless of gender.