The Persistence of Tradition.

In the early years of the 1960s family life was still dominated by the traditional roles for mother and father. Fathers were the breadwinners in the family, and mothers were responsible for household and children. According to the report of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women (1963), the modern homemaker's challenge was to see that her family had "a place where all members . . . can find acceptance, refreshment, self-esteem and renewal of strength amidst the pressures of modern life." For many families this place was located in the suburban housing developments surrounding the nation's large cities; and "experts" on domestic life looked to the suburban family — mostly white, middle class, and able to subsist on the husband's income — as the norm. Inner-city families, on the other hand, because of a variety of social pressures, were more likely...