This Week in Texas Methodist History June 28

The Christian Advocate came down firmly on the side of keeping married women out of the workforce.

Here is an editorial from June 30, 1939.

Few will deny the statement that we have too many married women working outside the home.  It is significant that legislatures in twenty states are considering methods of curbing the “working wives”, and in four states bans have already gone into effect.  This restrictive move, which began in 1932 when the Federal Government eliminated many married women from public payrolls, is opposed by women’s organizations everywhere.  They argue that marriage does not deprive women of their civil rights, one of which it to work for wages.  Our economic condition is doubtless one reason for keeping women out of industry, thus giving more jobs to men.  However the jobs argument is only a small part of the real objection to married women working outside the home.  The wife is inescapably the builder of the home and guardian of the children.  These duties are necessarily neglect by working wives.  Probably no law could or should be enacted to bar married women from jobs.  But business and industry by agreement, could establish rules under which married women would be employed in exceptional cases, the first of which would be that the husband was not able to provide a living for the family.  We want no dictators telling women what to do; but the country cannot ignore the deterioration of the home, due to the presence of married women in industry.

An unintended consequence of this  workplace discrimination plays an interesting role in Texas Methodist history. 

Since women who married were at risk of being fired and newspapers of the day printed applications for marriage license, it became fairly common for couples to travel to some other county to apply for a license and marry.  In the case of Houston, a favorite destination was Richmond, the County Seat of Fort Bend County.    Richmond was a small town at the time, and parsonage for St. John’s Methodist Church happened to be on the courthouse square.  One of the pastors placed a sign in the yard “Methodist Parsonage.”  Couples coming out of the court house naturally wanted to find clergy to perform the wedding.  The St. John’s pastor was right there!

The additional income from wedding fees during the 1930s made Richmond St. John’s a highly desirable appointment.

In one of the ironies of history in just a few years the Federal Government completely reversed its course.  Instead of keeping women out of industry, the Government began a campaign to induce women to go into the war time industrial production.  The campaign is remembered today through the iconic Rosie the Riveter.  After World War II, there was another push to fire women so that returning servicemen could have their jobs.