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I believe that phenomshel in the first paragraph is partly right but I would like to take this issue in an unusual direction, let's talk about sexual strategies. For a male creating children does not take very long, get her cloths off her and get the job done, very little investment of time. And there is a reason why it takes males very little time, in cave man times there were always predators around looking for a meal so caveman had to keep one warry eye out of predators, sex had to be accomplished fast and with as little enrgy as possible so he could keep the predators away. For the female on the other hand there is a lot of time and energy expended in creating children, will take her approximatly fifteen years per child to acomplish that (in prehistoric times you were considered to be an adult at fifteen and were then expected to fend for yourself). A woman is vunerable while she is pregnant unlike a man so she needs someone to protect her. Marriage came about as a method for her to obtain that protection that she needs in order to have and raise the children. For a man the optimal strategy is get her pregnant and move on do that as many times as possible. For a woman she needs protection and marriage was a means to accomplish that.
The structures of the marriage evolved as a method for him to get something in exchange for protecting her and the brood. In exchange for protecting the family she is expected to provide something in exchange by cleaning house and making dinner or what ever meal you call that. She became June Cleaver as a way to provide something in exchange to her man. It may be true the the marriage is not the optimal strategy for Ward Cleaver but coming home to an empty house takes time because Ward has to do everything himself, by having June in the home keeping everything clean and taking care of the kids with the dinner on the table saves Ward time and energy becuase that is a lot of things he does not need to do.
The problem then comes with June then leaves the home for work, now Ward is not getting anything in exchange for his labor out in the work force. Hence there is the modern battle about the working June Cleaver. In all of the homes that I know where June works she is still expected to clean the home, keep up with the kids and make the meal. Hence Ward still gets his part of the bargain. In some cases Ward is assumed June's job in the home, the contract is still in effect but the rolls have been reversed.
This is one of the reasons why modern society does not like Ward with a girlfriend, becuase he is not living up to his part of the contract to protect the family and only that family. This is also the same reason why when June found herself a boyfriend besides Ward society did not like that one bit, becuase she is not living up to her side of the contract.
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