Men, says the article, spend hard and long hours at work while women have an easier time of it at home.

All a woman has to do is tend to children, wash everything in sight and wait for her man to come home so she can tend to his needs.

The premise of this piece was that women needed help in knowing how to act, dress and converse when their husbands finally return home.

"Listen to him," implored a bulleted item. "You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first.

"Remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours."

This could not have been the communications reality for millions of Americans.

But it was and probably still is a reality for many people at work and at home, says Larry Nadler, professor of communication at Miami University.

"There are probably students who believe that the husband should be the breadwinner and the wife should do most of child-rearing," Nadler says.

But, he said, "that flies in the face of an economic reality."

Today, in three-fourth of married couples, husbands and wives both work to bring in income.

"The truth is that in a class of 30, probably a few people would hear those words and think: 'What's wrong with that?' " Nadler says.

Even among women's groups, a longstanding argument is that the fundamental societal problem in the United States is the deterioration of the family.

"Many blame the wife for creating latchkey kids," he said.

Sue Leitner, the Clean Cities Coordinator for the Tristate Fuels Network, sees the article as something of a historical - if not hysterical - document, but said she could find at least one silver lining in the 5-decade-old advice column:

"There is some truth to this from a human relations perspective," Leitner said. "It's true the way to ensure being heard is to listen first.

"And as to the issue of raising kids being easier than going to work, well, that was obviously written by someone who didn't have kids."