I don't think you understand: poor women have never been able to afford to be a stay at home mother. Stay at home motherhood has always been a middle class and above lifestyle. Wealthier women employ the nannies and maids that are obviously overwhelmingly women who aren't at home.

I wouldn't attribute a lack of home stability to women empowerment. A lack of home stability is often caused by poverty. A poor mother cannot afford not to work, cannot afford suitable environments to raise her children while she works, and must make difficult decisions regarding proper nourishment/safe place to sleep/access to utilities/physical presence.

Historically poor, married women did tend to stay at home, but frequently worked from the home sewing or washing etc…

Childcare and household chores were too time intensive for a woman with small children to go off to work.

Nannies and maids were generally unmarried, childless women.

I’m the early 20th century only 5% of married women worked outside the home in the US https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-history-of-womens-wor...

You're not looking back far enough historically.

sure everything would be rosy if women just spent their time breastfeeding somewhere near the sink or cooker.

We've fallen prey to the philosophy that being at home with kids isn't adding value to society. You should be out making some big corporation wealthy!

> I'm not saying women shouldn't be in the workforce

Whether you intended to or not, it is exactly what you were saying.

"Women shouldn't be in the workforce" is a statement with ambiguous and even opposite meanings (with regard to why), so I think GP's intent is probably better captured by a statement like "raising children and maintaining the home is more important, more impactful, and more fulfilling work than almost all work outside the home".

When my daughter was born, a coworker asked if I hope she'll be a programmer one day, and my answer was that I hope not; I want her to be able to stay at home like her mother, and if she can't and has to work some corporate job, that means I will have somehow failed her. If she wants a job like mine, then again I will have probably failed her somehow.