Women have always worked outside the home. Only wealthy women have had the luxury of being able to stay home; poor women have worked on farms and in factories and in other people's homes. And these days, it is foolish for a person of either sex to be financially dependent on their partner, because that partner may abandon them or pass away or become too ill to provide for the family. The myth of the happy homemaker is for the 1950s, tradwives, and religious fundamentalists.