If I were young nowadays, I wouldn't marry right away.

Why not?

There are so many opportunities for women today. When I was a girl, there was only one career: keeping house.   

What's wrong with taking care of the house? I enjoy being a housewife.   

Of course. But it's good to have other choices.  

GLOSSARY

Nowadays = in these days, at the present time.

Right away = immediately.

Keeping house = taking care of the house: doing the work related to managing a home.

Housewife is another noun-noun combination with the normal stress for such formations: the major stress on the first element.

CULTURAL BACKGROUND

The women’s rights movement in the United Sttaes is not a recent phenomenon. Women have been struggling to secure their rights as equals with men for over 100 years. Among the first women's "liberationists" were Lucretia Mott (1793-1880), Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902), and Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906). They fought for universal suffrage (the right to vote), for improved working conditions, for child care, and for many other causes of special concern to women. The first college for women (Stephens College, in Columbia, Missouri) opened in 1833. The first national "women's rights" convention was held in 1848. After that, between the years 1861 and 1879, the now-famous women's colleges Vassar, Smith, Wellesley, and Radcliffe opened their doors. Finally, in 1920, women gained the right to vote through the passage and ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. In June 1973 both houses of Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment, which guarantees nondiscrimination in jobs because of sex.

Grandmother exaggerates a little when she says that keeping house was the only career opportunity open to women when she was a girl. School teaching was a woman's career par excellence, and women were widely employed as secretaries, clerks, nurses, librarians, seamstresses, and in many other occupations, even in her day.

Source: English Teaching Forum - Author: Julia Dobson

All contents is for educational and informational use only. All lyrics and recording excerpts remain the right of the original copyright holder, and no infringment is here intended / Todo el contenido es pura y exclusivamente para uso educativo e informativo. Todas las letras y fragmentos musicales continúan permaneciendo al poseedor original de los derechos autorales, no existiendo aquí intención alguna de infringir la ley.

om personal home page    |    om theatre index