"...I told my father, 'Daddy, you're not going to get us back into the kitchen.'" from Phyllis Horvitz Friedman '49
Title
"...I told my father, 'Daddy, you're not going to get us back into the kitchen.'" from Phyllis Horvitz Friedman '49
Creator
Lesley University
Source
From 35:37 of Phyllis Horvitz Friedman's oral history.
Publisher
Lesley University
Rights
Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright.
Language
English
Type
Sound
Identifier
3.001 Lesley University Archives Oral History Collection, 2008-2010
Interviewer
Alyssa Pacy
Interviewee
Phyllis Horvitz Friedman
Transcription
AP: "Did you remember some of the…the…so you were sort of talking about women’s role in society with [Mrs. Court]? Is that…"
PHF: "Yeah, that would be a subject. Or how we expect to be treated in the workplace. Most of us didn’t discuss the workplace as relating to a business, you know…an office. We were thinking mostly as teachers. But it spilled over. In other words we were really…you wouldn’t define it as women’s rights but as women’s expectations. And we thought we had to earn it."
AP: "What do you mean by that?"
PHF: "Well if you want something you have to show you deserve it. You earned it. We didn’t stand the line. You know, you had women building airplanes, battleships, everything. Attitudes changed in the forties. And all of a sudden the men came back and, “Oh Rosie, you can’t do that riveting anymore. It’s too hard for you.” So the women let go and the men took their jobs. Okay up to a point but a lot of those women…nobody talked about it. A lot of them became widows or they were married to men who were unable to take of them. They were amputees and had to go to a lot of therapy and things like that. Or they were damaged psychologically damaged and nobody talked about that either in those days. And they had families. So the women got hit hard. And I remember that. I came from a mill town so I…I saw all of these women who were displaced and frantic looking for jobs. I mean that’s not one of the things we talk about after the war but it did happen. And I think a lot of people in the Boston area…a lot of the girls in the Boston area were subtly aware of it, you know. It wasn’t thrown in their faces but their eyes and ears became open. Never again. And I told my father, “I said, Daddy, you’re not gonna get us back in the kitchen.” (Laughs)."
AP: "And did…did you got back in the kitchen at all?"
PHF: "Yeah, willfully but I also worked. I also worked. As a matter of fact, in Newport, where I lived for 48 years with my husband, women did not work outside the home unless you were a widow who was…you had to support a momma or papa type of business. Or single women could work, you know. But no married women or mothers. And I was offered a job teaching."
35:37
PHF: "Yeah, that would be a subject. Or how we expect to be treated in the workplace. Most of us didn’t discuss the workplace as relating to a business, you know…an office. We were thinking mostly as teachers. But it spilled over. In other words we were really…you wouldn’t define it as women’s rights but as women’s expectations. And we thought we had to earn it."
AP: "What do you mean by that?"
PHF: "Well if you want something you have to show you deserve it. You earned it. We didn’t stand the line. You know, you had women building airplanes, battleships, everything. Attitudes changed in the forties. And all of a sudden the men came back and, “Oh Rosie, you can’t do that riveting anymore. It’s too hard for you.” So the women let go and the men took their jobs. Okay up to a point but a lot of those women…nobody talked about it. A lot of them became widows or they were married to men who were unable to take of them. They were amputees and had to go to a lot of therapy and things like that. Or they were damaged psychologically damaged and nobody talked about that either in those days. And they had families. So the women got hit hard. And I remember that. I came from a mill town so I…I saw all of these women who were displaced and frantic looking for jobs. I mean that’s not one of the things we talk about after the war but it did happen. And I think a lot of people in the Boston area…a lot of the girls in the Boston area were subtly aware of it, you know. It wasn’t thrown in their faces but their eyes and ears became open. Never again. And I told my father, “I said, Daddy, you’re not gonna get us back in the kitchen.” (Laughs)."
AP: "And did…did you got back in the kitchen at all?"
PHF: "Yeah, willfully but I also worked. I also worked. As a matter of fact, in Newport, where I lived for 48 years with my husband, women did not work outside the home unless you were a widow who was…you had to support a momma or papa type of business. Or single women could work, you know. But no married women or mothers. And I was offered a job teaching."
35:37
URL
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/oral_histories/50/
Citation
Lesley University, “"...I told my father, 'Daddy, you're not going to get us back into the kitchen.'" from Phyllis Horvitz Friedman '49,” Digital Exhibits | Lesley University Archives, accessed May 2, 2024, https://lesleyarchives.omeka.net/items/show/174.