The traditional family worked a farm. Women did the major work of the household, an unending and tireless effort. Men worked in the fields or shops - also doing far more work than most people expect to have to do today. Factories worked long hours. I recall an old hand telling me, when I was starting out, of having come in to work on Easter Sunday. The boss dismissed the crew to celebrate the holiday - but in principle it was a work day.Men don't work nearly as hard as they used to. You can't expect women to work as hard as their grandmothers did, while their husbands relax. That's just not gonna fly, and it doesn't. Women - all of us - take for granted so many things made of plastic or synthetic fibers, so many things made efficiently by machines, so many things that run on electricity and radio communications, or run on gasoline, travel by airliner and enjoy such efficient health care for themselves and their loved ones, that the typical American woman today would blanch at the idea of living like Queen Victoria (1819-1901) did.
Seen from that perspective, we are all rich. Women who have too much work are, often, simply demanding too much of themselves and then complaining about the result. All too often they do it simply by allowing the children to walk all over them. Part of me believes that if they had so many children that they knew they couldn't possibly afford to spoil any of them, they would actually have life easier. As would the children themselves, bottom line. But when you think you can control your parents, you go to a lot of trouble to try to do it.
Interesting thoughts.