Harriet Nelson - Pre and Post Feminist!

[PracTz]

Although she and other sitcom wives and mothers of this era have been derided as being nothing more than throwbacks to a 'pre feminist' era, I think it could be argued that Harriet was pre AND post- feminist. First of all, Peggy Lou Snyder started performing onstage from the age of six weeks old[!] and from her teens onwards, as Harriet Hilliard, she earned her living AND helped to support her mother Hazel via the stage. In spite of the incredible odds against her of other performers soon coupled with the Depression making stage life a matter of sheer survival, Harriet actually became somewhat prominent amongst women singers and stage performers even before she met Ozzie who made her the lead singer of his big band and soon romanced her. As a newlywed, her star shone brightly enough to be able to be 4th Billed as Ginger Rogers's character's sister in "Follow the Fleet" but it appears that almost as soon as that movie wrapped, she became pregnant with David who would be followed four years later by Ricky. Some would say she 'traded' her stardom for the domestic life but I think it was a case, in which she'd already had been a star and seen what the stage had to offer from a very early age so she craved for the chance to raise a family [although, it should be said that she still worked on stage, screens and radio WHILE raising her family]. Yes, she may have had her regrets but I think that they happened in her last years when she'd been long widowed from Ozzie and suffered the tragedy of outliving Ricky- and likely were not in having tried to stay a major star on own. Thoughts?