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In the Gildersleeve home, we find Leroy and Marjorie at the breakfast table enjoying a moment of sibling argument. Once Gildy enters, Marjorie tries to change her tone to butter up her dear unckie Mort. She wants to get a Summer job to earn a few dollars. The stodgy man refuses, claiming that the woman’s place is in the home. Will Birdie back him up on the matter? Though she seems to, I think she’d rather be working elsewhere at the moment.
At Floyd’s barbershop, Gildersleeve shares his trouble, and we learn that not everybody in old time radio days felt the same way. Floyd would love to get his freeloading kids out to earn a few bucks of their own. Double standards are about to explode when Gildersleeve gets to his office where he learns that his working girl secretary is late. If women are supposed to remain at home, then who’s going to be there to work as secretaries and the like? Gildy fires Betsy in a fit of rage, and is about to learn that lesson.
Looking to Peavey for advice, Gildersleeve has decided to give Marjorie her big shot at the world of work, and wants to hire her as his secretary. Not the job she had her sights on, but convenient to the impetuous Great Gildersleeve. How will it work out? Will Marjorie go along willingly, or will Gildy be crawling to Betsy to apologize for his outburst? Leroy gets in on the family employment fun, but his cool job is short lived.
PS: The title and the theme is about the chauvinism that was a signature feature of the “Greatest Generation” From the male side of the issue it’s all about the finicky nature of women, and since they’re so unreliable they ought to just stay at home as adornments for the male, and enjoy their status in the domicile.
From the woman’s side, there’s a glaring double standard as they try to jump out of the blind side of the male critter.
Now, if you stop to consider this, Gildy feels that he’s proved his point at the end of the show, but I don’t get it. Even if he’s right, who does he expect to hire for his secretary, and a host of jobs considered, “woman’s work”? Real labor shortages during the war years gave women the chance to prove they were capable, and just as committed to a job as any man. Besides, how can a woman expect to meet a man, and avoid being a spinster if she doesn’t socialize? The workplace is a good start for that kind of thing, and it gives those women who want a career to have a chance at it.
Fast forward a few decades, and we see that women had enough of the old fashioned ideals of polite society. Women can have a career and a family, and not be held back by it. Some traditions are good to let go.
