Bombeck, Erma

Erma Bombeck was a humorist whose column, At Wit's End, was published between 1965 and her death in 1996. She also wrote 15 books, most of which became best sellers. Bombeck's specialty was presenting a wry, humorous look at parenting, generally through the lens of her own middle-class, suburban life. She wrote about the challenges of both child raising and homemaking, often presenting these tasks as genuinely intolerable, yet always through humor. Like Betty Friedan, Bombeck unmasked the boredom, frustration, overall dreariness, and lack of respect and appreciation that many suburban mothers were feeling. Her ability to label and de-romanticize the mundane details of mother work was in stark contrast to other motherhood narratives that tended to emphasize the perceived selflessness and loving kindness of all mothers. Bombeck broke from the traditional, and in some ways stereotypical, version of motherhood in doing later activist work, most notably toward the promotion of the American Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

Bombeck's mother, also named Erma, married Cassius Edwin Fiste at the age of 14 and gave birth to Erma two years later, on February 12, 1927, in Dayton, Ohio. Following Fiste's death in 1929, Bombeck's mother worked as a factory employee [Page 137]for two years until she remarried. For the years between Bombeck's mother's marriages, the two women lived in a much more industrial part of Dayton, with much of Bombeck's care being provided by her maternal grandparents. For these years, Bombeck's family structure differed notably from the nuclear families she was familiar with prior to her father's death. Watching her mother's entry into the work force galvanized Bombeck and clearly made an impression that women's abilities extended far beyond the home.

Following her graduation, Bombeck was hired as a full-time worker for the Dayton Journey-Herald, largely specializing in the “women's pages,” articles on household tips for juggling priorities and ridding linens of stains. While at the University of Dayton, Bombeck met and married Bill Bombeck.