You look at a 1950 family with a house, a car, a couple kids and two parents and see them surviving on one income. That isn’t what it was like. What was really happening was that two people worked for one paycheck.

Women's work in the home was entirely ignored in the economy.

A 1950 housewife rinsed diapers in the toilet, was lucking to have a wringer washer, and had to hang the wet clothes on a line behind the house. The entire family's clothes had to be ironed and immediately hung up to avoid wrinkles. Sewing and patching was important work to make ends meet.

There wasn't a family-affordable option for a drive-thru meal on the way home from work. Every meal was cooked from scratch, and they didn't have microwave ovens to quickly zap something. Cooking and feeding the family was the woman's job.

A family with a yard almost certainly had a garden. They couldn't afford to eat without it. Gardens needed to be watered, weeded and the produce was canned for the winter. Women did that work.

Those families were always afraid of the next unexpected expense. No computers, nor air conditioner, often no phone nor television. The children had only a few unsophisticated toys, shared bedrooms and even beds. Couples stayed married because they had to. It took two workers to have a house and a family.