The 10 Commandments For Women Wishing To Divorce-Proof Their Marriage – 1923

“Men are but overgrown children…”

100 years ago, New York City’s Legal Aid Society, had a Domestic Relations Division helping to save marriages.

Through vast experience sorting out marital spats, the Society accumulated 10 rules that if followed could make marriages divorce-proof.

A wife would know how to keep her husband affectionate and faithful. By the same token a husband, following a similar set of rules, could insure domestic tranquility with his wife.

Here are the 10 Rules For Wives from 1923:

1. Do not be extravagant. Upon the proper and careful expenditure of your husband’s income depends his willingness to exert himself for the maintenance of your home. Nothing appeals
more strongly to a man than the prospect of acquiring that independence of which a bank
account is the guarantee.

2. Keep your home clean. Nothing ts more refreshing to the eyes of the tired, nerve-racked worker than the sight of a well-tidied home.

3. Do not permit your person to become unattractive. A slovenly wife makes a truant husband.

4. Do not receive attentions from other men. Husbands often are jealous and some are suspicious without cause. Do not supply the cause. Friendly attentions from others may be received in a spirit of perfect innocence. When reported by the busy-body they become distorted, often criminal, in character.

5. Do not resent reasonable discipline of children by their father. Many mothers assume that all
chastisement of a child by its father is severe and unjustifiable. Even just men consider such interference an impertinence. It may easily engender connubial hostilities.

6. Do not spend too much time with your mother. In such case you may easily spend too
little at home for the proper administration of your own domestic affairs.

7. Do not accept advice from the neighbors or stress too greatly even that of your own family
concerning the management of your domestic affairs. Think for yourself. Have a  plan of your own for the solution of home problems. In all cases consult freely with your husband. Much
advice of the wrong kind is worse than none.

8. Do not disparage your husband. Your ill-advised opinion of him, uttered in a moment of
petulance, may be eagerly seized upon by others as the true measure of his character and abilities. Ideas often become entities.

g. Smile. Be attentive in little things. The smile is an antidote to the toxic effects of ill-humor.
Consideration for your husband’s feelings makes him respectful of yours. An indifferent wife is
often supplanted by an ardent friend.

10. Be tactful. Be feminine. Men, in last analysis, are but overgrown children. They do not mind coaxing, but thev resent coercion. Most men prefer their opposites. Femininity attracts and compels them. By the same token masculinity in the female repels.

In the next article- The 10 Rules For Husbands…