The Perfect Housewife

~ beetleypete

These posed photos of housewives are from the 1940s and 1950s. They mainly featured in magazines of the time, illustrating the life of the supposedly ‘Perfect Housewife’.

Times have changed.

Bed made, dusting to do.

Delighted to be at the mixing bowl.

Washing the ‘smalls’ on the bathroom sink.

In training, how to sweep the front step.

Ironing outside when it is too hot inside.

I think her shiny new toaster has overdone the toast!

Juicing fresh oranges for the little one.

Helping mum make the pancakes.

Keeping in touch by letter during her lunch break.

Bathing baby.

Delighted to be hanging out the laundry!

Learning how mummy ices the cake.

So proud of her new tea-trolley.

78 thoughts on “The Perfect Housewife”

  2. HI Pete, has life really changed that much? Don’t we still need to make food, keep our houses clean and do the washing? I still do many of these things except washing smalls in the basin (I use a washing machine) and I most certainly do not iron, but I cook, bake, squeeze orange to make juice, hang washing, make beds and do dusting (sometimes). I also work full time. Hmmm! I think life is probably worse for women now that they are expected to work and do everything else. Oh, and I don’t do these things in high heeled shoes – haha!

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    1. I think the main thing that has changed is that men (and older children) now help out more. When I was young, my dad did nothing at all around the house, and my mum worked full-time as well as doing all the chores and cooking.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  5. This stereotype, of course, richly deserved much adjustment ~ but I can’t help but wish that our common domestic finances still held a place for someone to actually make homes homey. These days, most of what we have is hastily maintained and freedom restricted “housing,” ~ too few deserve the sacred name of homes any more ~ and our kids are raising themselves without anyone but other kids to talk to about their day.

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    1. I think social media and phones and such are creating isolation more than connection. Even homey homes can be very lonely. My niece worked from the time her kids were a few months old – returning to work because in America families are sacred but if you don’t work you are worthless – but she and her husband raised wonderful kids. Reason? Despite busy lives at work, they were always there for the kids, not living on their phones . . . .

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  6. Too funny! All these mind-numbing chores that are necessary to keep a house tidy are not for me, but I do them. However, my mom wore pants and blouses, never high heels, didn’t serve tea, and didn’t lift an iron. She was a housewife just because she had kids, but once she could, went back to work on the swing shift to have a bit more of a life! My dad was atypical of the time, doing sewing and cleaning as well as shopping as necessary. Only when I was living on my own did I get to cook on an old stove like the one in the 9th photo – it was great! My husband does housework, too, and feeds me peeled grapes in between working and cleaning . . .

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  8. (1) According to Dusty Springfield, we’re all made of stardust.
    (2) I’m only good at trail mix.
    (3) Does the lady also wash the ‘titanics’ in the bathroom sink?
    (4) And then Samantha and Tabitha took off on their broomsticks.
    (5) According to the neighbors, she’s still hot.
    (6) “Leaving bread in the toaster too long really burns me up!”
    (7) “Orange you glad they’re fresh?”
    (8) Also, she’s flat as a pancake. (Yeah, that’s a mean thing to say. Should I say something to butter her up?)
    (9) “Dear Fred, can you stop by to fix my laptop computer? Love, Penny”
    (10) After this photo was taken, mum threw the baby out with the bathwater.
    (11) The photo was overexposed. It should have been delighted.
    (12) “You see? Icing the cake is a piece of cake!”
    (13) I love it when inanimate objects perform gymnastics. Example: A tea-trolley’s cartwheels.

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  9. We have to be all that and more, these days. You have to run a home, work full-time and raise the children. These Transgender women have no idea what it is to be a woman. We are more than just glamour clothes and make-up.

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    1. My mum worked full time when I was born, (1952) and had to do everything else. My dad would never have even thought about doing any housework or cooking. I didn’t know any woman during my childhood who didn’t work full-time, but then I lived in a poor district of London where people struggled to get by..
      Best wishes, Pete.

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      1. Same here. Though my mum had a part-time job. My father was a master Miller and we lived in a cottage next to the mill. It was a very dusty place to live. With Mum, Dad and us four children living on low wages. Tough times.

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  11. Times have not changed so much in India, Pete! I have met similar woman in India. Not that I have anything against them. Homemaking is the most difficult of all jobs–too much multi tasking and no appreciation. I am just not at par with them.

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    1. Life has moved on in 60 years, Shaily. I feel that women should seek more personal satisfaction, and not just settle for doing housework and cooking. Glad to hear that’s what you have done.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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    1. Julie is currenty making Hot Cross Buns. But I usually do all the cooking and housework. (I will be cooking dinner later) She only makes them once a year, but she loves eating them and they taste better than shop-bought buns.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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      1. I wouldn’t know how to make anything like that. I get mine from Morrisons, lol. I have no interest in cooking whatsoever. My mother always told me to not touch the cooker, and I don’t unless I really have to…

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        1. Julie is good with pastry. She makes lovely sausage rolls and meat pies, but she has to be in the right mood to tackle baking. She has some old recipe books that she sticks to religiously.

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  15. What a hoot! All those happy, happy wives in their perfect, perfect houses with their perfectly dreadful wall paper! And doing all of it in their high heels, without a speck of dirt attaching to their clean, clean clothes. Thing is, I can remember a time when this was not so far off the truth. My mum was very proud to call herself “housewife” and she was very good at it to. Far too good in my opinion but times change. If you watch any news channel from over here these days you will notice that they no longer look real (and they are not, of course). Their plastered on make-up makes them look robotic. I find it very unsettling.

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    1. These are ‘propaganda’ images of course. Though I agree that some housewives did indeed look like those models, most of those I knew in London were holding down a full time job as well as doing all the housework.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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    1. My mum worked full-time and was still expected to do everything. My dad would never have dreamed of doing housework, or making dinner. That makes me a ‘modern man’ then. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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        1. My pearl necklace came with a list of not-to-dos–Keep away from heat and moisture. Considering India is hot and humid throughout the year except 3 months, they were hardly ever worn. Taking them in kitchen where we have open flames is something I can’t imagine.

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  20. I should be pleasantly surprised to find a woman these days who would stoop to some of the domestic tasks represented in your portfolio of pictures. Liberation has spoiled the species if you want my opinion. I never want one near to me ever again after what I went through with the last one. But looking back by way of your pictures was a refreshing splash to brighten my day — reminds me of what I have been liberated from …That sort of thing is someone else’s problem now. LOL

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      1. You are correct .. times have changed and we have to change with them .. I have changed and bachelorhood has never felt so good. It is getting to the point now where you don’t dast speak to a woman anymore because she is liable to scream “Molestor!”

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  22. These are very funny to look at now. I have done ironing outside in my bikini though when my kids were little and I wanted to get a tan. On the farm, my mom did housework in jeans, not her best dress!

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  25. You captured Donna Reed from her TV show, but we also had Mrs. Cleaver from ‘Leave it to Beaver’ who dusted her furniture in a dress and pearls! I have yet to see a woman doing housework in a dress, bathing suit and high heels!

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    2. GP — I have yet to find one doing anything more strenuous than applying make up five times a day, spending the husbands money on frivolous things and constantly complaining because the husband isn’t making more money.

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  27. Pingback: The Perfect Housewife | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

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