I’ve been thinking about my grandmother a lot lately. She passed away about 6 years ago, but her health had been failing for a long time. She had four children, 10 grandchildren, and a handful of great-grandchildren
Many would look at the healthy, happy generations that she created and say that she lived a successful life. She achieved the pinnacle of womanhood with her large family and smiling grandchildren
It was the early 1950s. The main goal for any young woman of the era was to get that ring. Find a man and settle into a life of marriage and homemaking. Society, culture, and cold war propaganda all played a hand in structuring this norm.
My grandparents marriage could be considered "good". He wasn't abusive. But he wasn't right for her, He wasn't interested in taking her out, helping with the kids, helping at home, or keeping any of the promises he made to her about a life of adventure.
Divorce was not common or typical in the 1960s and 70s. Divorced women were stigmatized and often struggled to advance beyond the poverty level. No-fault divorce wasn’t even fully available until 1980, and my grandmother was already a grandparent by this time.