The reason why the extract "Successful Marriage" taken from the expository text Women's World published in Australia in 1961 and edited by Alleyne Jukes, may mean different things to a contemporary reader of today in comparison to a reader from the sixties, is due to the vast ideological differences in societies concepts of how women should behave in comparison to the entrenched system of patriarchy that dominated Australian Anglo-Saxon society up to the late sixties and early seventies. .
From the seventies change began when patriarchy was challenged by women's movements and individuals such as Germaine Greer. In 1971, Greer's book The Female Unich focused on women's issues and rights helping women to challenge many of the patriarchal views long held by Australian society. Many women began to campaign for equality and the freedom to be seen as individuals. Throughout the 70's up until current times patriarchy has been challenged on all levels, enabling many women to overcome societies long held views of patriarchy.
The feminist reader in today's society may think the view in the extract from the expository text is a typical example of how men put women down and oppressed women's rights in the sixties. Women's rights and individualism were completely ignored in this text and feminists would perhaps view the text as being nothing more than a classic example of how destructive patriarchy was to women's rights in the 60's. The contemporary feminist reader, looking from 2002 would consider this expository text an outrage, "women give and men take-.
This quote would be seen to be very simplistic and narrow minded because of its hypocrisy in today's culture.
Whilst taken from the sixties point of view, it would been seen as the truth to many women in that time who would regard it as gospel because in that particular time women were told to be submissive to their husbands and to follow on with traditional values.
