Women want their own income stream because of the innumerable ways men get into trouble. If her man gets into trouble, she wants a plan B, for her and her children. I don't think anyone was thinking about how that would prop up the housing market 30 years later.

That's a nice story, but the truth is when women first entered the workforce in meaningful numbers, it was primarily unmarried women. Society strongly expected women to leave the labor force once married, and businesses actively banned married women from working