The 1940's was a great time to be an American! WWII Came to a end, the men over seas got to come home, and women established there right to work. This is a mile stone for women, right?
I agree that this is a mile stone but what does it mark? In my opinion this marks the time of the beginning of the end of the family!
Family has always been a strong force and the person that made it work was Mom. Mom was one of the most powerful person so much so that marketing was almost alway geared at her. Mom's organized boycotts, she did a majority of all family purchases and most of all she was the voice of reason.
In the beginning there was two kinds of women, the ones that worked and the ones that did not. The working woman had something tangible to show for her time. The nonworking woman only had what her husband could provide. This was easily seen from the driveway of most homes in the form of new vs used cars. More money meant new/nicer things.
From here it is simple economics. The working woman added money to the household so in turn business quickly learned that they could sell product at a higher markup or create a new class of products that would separate the haves from the have not's. They then allowed ego and competition to drive sales. This in turn added more women to the workplace.
Fast forward 70 years and compare. Today a woman rarely is even given the choice to stay home as Mom. This is specially a issue among middle class were it takes two people to make enough money to just get by. Because of this Mom's have lost touch with her family like she would have had only one full generation back.
This is only a brief over view of my idea on why America is in the situation its in but I hope that this inspires conversion. Feel free to open a line of conversation.