The Victorian Era lasted roughly from 1837 to 1901 and was characterized by rapid advances in technology, the emergence of powerful evangelical churches and religious sects, and social and class conflicts over acceptable dress, speech, behavior, and manners. An example of Victorian thinking was the common practice of putting skirts around chair legs to help men avoid prurient thoughts about their hostess’s similar appendages.
It feels like we’ve entered another Victorian era. I’m not sure what to call it, but many of us are swamped by today’s technology, are bewildered by the influence of megachurch pastors and televangelists, and we’ve had befuddled conversations about the misogyny of the lyrics in that 1940’s Christmas tune Baby, It’s Cold Outside. It makes me wonder if FDR could’ve pulled off the New Deal if he’d been focused on pop songs instead of economics.
Sure, only an old white male would write a sentence like that. Feel free to ignore it.
What can’t be ignored is that 42% of working mothers (45.5% in Arkansas) are the sole or primary breadwinners in their families. Among married white women, 55.8% are the family’s equal or primary breadwinner. The day of stay-at-home moms – the Victorian Era norm – has long since passed. Today, full-time working women are essential – critical – economic actors in their families, in their communities, and in the overall U.S. economy, yet make only 80% of what men make in comparable positions. That’s bad for families, for towns, and for our country as a whole.
Americans share another characteristic with the Victorians. Like them, we chose representatives and leaders who focus on culturally divisive issues like song lyrics and the percentage of indigenous blood in one’s genetic makeup rather than on gender wage parity and the U.S.’s embarrassing absence of paid family leave for working women – who are, of course, the primary caregivers for custodial children and elderly parents. And it isn’t simply a national issue; we should ask our city council members, school boards, quorum court judges, and state legislators where they stand on this important local issue.
Baby, it is cold outside. It’s just colder for women than it is for men.