The average age at which Americans got married dropped drastically, to just 19 for women. The number of children soared higher than it had for decades, to a peak of 3.7 children per woman in 1957. The goal back then was domesticity, and both partners worked for it--one to earn the pay, the other to make the home. If a man was a good provider, if he didn't drink or beat his wife, if he was a "good father" to his children, he was a good husband. A good wife had to be a decent cook and housekeeper, take care of the children and provide emotional support to her husband. Polls taken during that time show that more than 90 percent of people could not imagine an unmarried person being happy. When asked what they thought they had given up for marriage and family, most women said, …show more content…
"These younger women had plenty of sexual relationships before they married, and the thrill was gone before the wedding day. For many older women, however, the excitement of sex had been a reason to marry, and the passion remained." Those "Ozzie and Harriet" marriages, Mayerson suggests, could be considerably more passionate than those that have come since the Sexual Revolution. Baby boomers didn't rebel against domesticity, they just took it for granted. Marriage wasn't a treasure for which they worked and sacrificed, they thought of it as an adventure that happened because you fell in love; and it competed with other adventures--sex, travel, success, saving the