Married Woman Quotes
There was a movement to pay married women who were housewives to compensate them for the time they spend in, if nothing else, educating and bringing up male children who were educated. It was they who transmitted the values and many experts agree have more to do with a child’s education than the schools do. So this important and critical societal task was not remunerated as were all others. At the time, even many of the feminists held the view that society would be better off if women were homemakers and brought up the children. However, without any pay (and at the time few or no rights to a husbands earnings of assets) she was bound to be a second class citizen. That idea of housewife compensation obtained almost no support, and the only way for women to gain some kind of position and equality was to work outside the home—the condition that became the norm about 30 years after this was written.
This prevented a woman from leaving her husband and taking the children to another country, where she might get a divorce and custody. The Egyptian woman may get a divorce but for narrow grounds which she must prove before the court. A man can unilaterally divorce a woman and need not go before a judge or court—just file his papers.
