The above photo is Nevile Lodge’s 1965 cartoon where a man tells his paint-pot-carrying neighbour, ‘I’m warning you Harry, I’ve got big plans for racing and bowls this weekend, so don’t let me catch you setting a good example where my wife can see you.’ This is a weekend were men normally help in the house. This cartoon represents the 1960s idea that women's unpaid work isn't important. As a result of the Second Wave of Feminism, women were no longer solely responsible for the upbringing of a child, cooking and cleaning; parenting and jobs were shared.
A key economic change was the Matrimonial Property Act. In 1976 the Matrimonial Property Act made assets in a relationship divided 50/50 which placed a monetary value on being a housewife. The Matrimonial Property Act made a key change to the material basis of marriage by giving effective recognition to the contributions made by a non- earning spouse (most commonly the housewife) in raising children and maintaining a home etc. This gave women a financial stake within a marriage and left women the financial basis they needed to consider the future if a marriage did end. This gave economic independence for married women and legal equality in a marriage.
Changing attitudes to marriage and divorce were reflected in the Matrimonial Proceedings Act 1963. The Matrimonial Property Act 1963 allowed recognition of non-financial contributions to a marriage for the first time. The Matrimonial Proceedings Act 1968 considerably shortened the time it took to obtain a divorce, reducing the waiting period attached to several grounds from three to two years, and reducing the period of living apart from seven to four years. The passage of this legislation was immediately followed by a 36% rise in the divorce rate (from 3.5 per 1,000 in 1968 to 4.8 per 1,000 in 1969), and a 53% rise in the number of new petitions for divorce. These figures give some indication of the extent of marriage breakdown in the 1960s.
However changes still need to be made. Traditionally the majority of New Zealanders work has been done in the home without pay including housework and raising children. Unpaid domestic work has been a key part of the economics in New Zealand. However unpaid work is not counted in New Zealand’s economic statistics. In 1988 economist Marilyn Waring commented that ‘women and children count for nothing’ because their contribution to the economy is not included in official statistics.2 The value of unpaid work in New Zealand in 1999 was calculated at $40 billion, equivalent to 39% of gross domestic product. Each person aged 15 or over spent an average of 27.6 hours per week on unpaid work activities.