endent upon
This overemphasis on intellectualism, financial independence and accomplishments was, unfortunately, quite contrary to the times. During the 1950's there was a definite societal emphasis on women's roles as wife and mother. After the war, to convince women to return to their homes and leave their jobs for the returning men, there was a propagandizement of motherhood and housewifery.
It is probably for these reasons that we get Sylvia hating the idea of having children and marrying to become a servant to a man, at the same time that she's as boy crazy as the next young girl:
I also remembered Buddy Willard saying in a
sinister, knowing way that after I had children,
I would feel differently. I wouldn't want to
write poems any more. So I began to think maybe
it was true that when you were married and had
children it was like being brainwashed and after-
ward you went about numb as a slave in some private
...