Thank you for visiting SNEWPapers!
Sign up free
Story
September 25, 1944
Imperial Valley Press
El Centro, Imperial County, California
What is this article about?
Ruth Millett's article warns that World War II has profoundly changed women—gaining independence, social lives, and decisiveness—while their husbands are away, so returning soldiers should expect altered wives, not strangers.
Clipping
OCR Quality
100%
Excellent
Full Text
War Has Changed
Women's Lives
As Well as Men's
By RUTH MILLETT
No war wife should be taken completely by surprise if her husband comes home to her a changed person. She is being educated to expect that he will be a different person from the man who left her.
But are the men being prepared for the fact that their wives won't be exactly the same persons they once were?
They should be. For the women are changing, too. Not from any deliberate desire to change—but because they must, in order to stand on their own feet and to meet the challenge of loneliness and constant, though hidden, worry.
Many a wife has found a new independence in an outside job. Many a wife, secluded for years socially because her husband always wanted to stay at home in the evening, has turned into an extremely social person.
Many a wife who used to lean on her husband for all decisions can now make up her mind as quickly and as emphatically as the man whose nod or frown once ruled her life.
Many a woman who would have sworn she couldn't get along without her husband has found that she can. And many a woman who once meekly put up with a hard-to-please husband's whims and spent her life trying to make his life smooth has learned what peace is like.
Almost all of these women don't ask much more of life than to bring their husbands safely home to them.
But when their men do come back they are going to have some surprises in store for them.
For war—that leaves women alone—changes them. And if men aren't warned of that fact in advance many of them are going to think they have come home to strangers.
Women's Lives
As Well as Men's
By RUTH MILLETT
No war wife should be taken completely by surprise if her husband comes home to her a changed person. She is being educated to expect that he will be a different person from the man who left her.
But are the men being prepared for the fact that their wives won't be exactly the same persons they once were?
They should be. For the women are changing, too. Not from any deliberate desire to change—but because they must, in order to stand on their own feet and to meet the challenge of loneliness and constant, though hidden, worry.
Many a wife has found a new independence in an outside job. Many a wife, secluded for years socially because her husband always wanted to stay at home in the evening, has turned into an extremely social person.
Many a wife who used to lean on her husband for all decisions can now make up her mind as quickly and as emphatically as the man whose nod or frown once ruled her life.
Many a woman who would have sworn she couldn't get along without her husband has found that she can. And many a woman who once meekly put up with a hard-to-please husband's whims and spent her life trying to make his life smooth has learned what peace is like.
Almost all of these women don't ask much more of life than to bring their husbands safely home to them.
But when their men do come back they are going to have some surprises in store for them.
For war—that leaves women alone—changes them. And if men aren't warned of that fact in advance many of them are going to think they have come home to strangers.
What sub-type of article is it?
Family Drama
Historical Event
What themes does it cover?
Family
Survival
Fortune Reversal
What keywords are associated?
War Wives
Women Independence
Social Change
Family Dynamics
Wartime Transformation
Story Details
Story Details
War changes women by fostering independence, social engagement, and decisiveness in wives left alone, surprising returning husbands who expect unchanged partners.