A portion of the labors involved are sheer repetitious, never ending drudgery, a drudgery which is inescapable because someone has to do it to maintain even minimum standards of cleanliness. Built-in frustrations like these cannot be totally alleviated, but such frustrations can be diminished before they find expression in unpleasant familial and personal repercussions. A salary by providing an antidote for unrewarding work, is a means of doing this. A woman who spends the morning picking-up a house rendered once more messy by dinner has little to show for her labors, but if she has a salary, she is not totally bereft. Dependency has advantages, but no woman is guaranteed dependency for life.
Marriage is no longer a dependable lifetime career.
Marriages which begin in bliss are not unknown to dissolve in divorce. If he is faced with a situation where she is allotted less money for herself and her children than he gets for himself. However she feels about alimony or welfare, its substitute, nurtured on dependence she may have no real alternative. If she decides to work, the jobs that are open are not appealing. She has sacrificed a number of years of seniority.