The Rules of Housekeeping

In class the other day I made mention that I occasionally go to auctions where one of my favorite things to buy is older books and magazines (I use them as decorations in my house). Recently I purchased a set of Reader's Digest's that were published between the years 1936-1940. In one of the copies I came across an article titled "Marriage as a Career" by a woman named Charlotte Muret. In the article Muret talks about what the title aptly mentions: marriage as being a suitable career for a woman to have. Admittedly most of the article made me cringe, due to the implications that a woman's "principle business has long been to please" and she can only do so in the sanctity of marriage, and I could not help but wonder what Fanny Fern's reaction to the article would have been. In "Hints to Young Wives" Fern invites women to take on the role of wife as one would take on the role of an "upper servant or housekeeper" (2102). Fern also suggests that, "men who could bear to be loved... without being spoiled by it... are rare birds" (2102). In her article Muret places a heavy implication on the idea that it is the role of a woman in a marriage is to bring happiness to her husband, to show him love and affection by "being not the equal, but the "better half" of her man." Below are a few select quotes I have pulled from "Marriage as a Career" and I would like to know how you think Fern would have reacted to said quotes. How do YOU feel about the quotes?

"Marriage, even a homekeeping one, gives a woman more generous opportunity for "self-expression" than she always realizes. She organizes the home and dispenses the common funds, looks after the creature comforts of the toiling male (a thing which brings peculiar pleasure to many women) and, above all, she sustains his morale."

"The truth is that a man wants to be the center of his wife's universe. He wishes her emotional interest to be focused on him."

"...rightly or not, the sense of possession plays a large part both in love and marriage"

"...it may be asked why the woman's life should be subordinated to the man's...Women are, as a rule, more emotional, more dependent on human relationships"

"Men can have careers largely because their wives make a career of marriage."