The Good Wife Diploma: Women's Roles in State's Mates

Being a male student’s wife in the mid-twentieth century was not easy. These wives were not necessarily the vision of the perfect housewife that we think about today: a well-dressed woman who awaits her husband’s arrival at the end of the day with a clean house and a hot meal. Rather, the women of State’s Mates had to juggle typical female domestic responsibilities with also being employed. Since their husbands were preoccupied with academic life at the university, the wives were in charge of the family, the home, and for most of them, the finances for the duration of their husband’s time at State. Their involvement in the organization offered support for their complicated lifestyle because each woman found herself among others in the same position.