re: #263 darthstar

The Van Dalsem Quilt
Image: 6e13902b-b460-4e3e-a04d-c6cdfd8f3966.jpg

“Barefoot and pregnant” is a figure of speech most commonly associated with the controversial idea that women should not work outside the home and should have many children during their reproductive years. It has several other meanings as well.

The phrase “barefoot and pregnant” was probably first used sometime before 1950. An article from 1949 states, “By early 1949, TWA was—in the words of its new president, Ralph S. Damon—both ‘barefoot and pregnant.’”[1] Its usage may date as early as the 1910s. An article published in 1958 states the phrase was first used by a “Dr. Hertzler” 40 years earlier. “Some forty years ago, Dr. Hertzler advanced a hypothesis which young women of today seem bent on proving correct. ‘The only way to keep a woman happy,’ he said, ‘is to keep her barefoot and pregnant.’”[2]
The variation “barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen” has been associated with the phrase “Kinder, Kche, Kirche” (translated “children, kitchen, church”), used under the German Empire to describe a woman’s role in society. In Asian society, the equivalent phrase is, “Good Wife, Wise Mother” (originally popularized in Meiji Japan).[citation needed]