Barefoot and pregnant

rdf:langString Barefoot and pregnant

rdf:langString "Barefoot and pregnant" is a figure of speech most commonly associated with the idea that women should not work outside the home and should have many children during their reproductive years. The phrase "barefoot and pregnant" seems to have been introduced in the early twentieth century by the American doctor from Kansas, who said: "Some vulgar person has said that when the wife is kept barefooted and pregnant there are no divorces." By the mid-1900s, the phrase had passed into common parlance, so much so that an article from 1949 states: "By early 1949, TWA was—in the words of its new president, Ralph S. Damon—both 'barefoot and pregnant.'" The variation "barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen" has been associated with the phrase "Kinder, Küche, Kirche" (translated "children, kitchen, church"), used under the German Empire to describe a woman's role in society. A comparable phrase, "Good Wife, Wise Mother", emerged in Meiji-period Japan (1868–1912).