Thanks very much for this post, run. It's extremely thoughtful, and I appreciate it. However, I have a question - aren't you talking about two different groups of women here?

Group one: Women graduating [college] in 1970 chose to go into careers rather than stay at home as their mothers did.

Group two: more women live in poverty and always have

It seems to me that the women working at Wal-Mart most likely didn't choose to work over staying at home after graduating college, rather it was/is an economic necessity.