Darby and Joan were the original…um, John and Mary? They were a traditional “old married couple,” and they stood in for that metaphor from the 1700’s, through Byron’s writing, to Robert Louis Stevenson’s and beyond. In WWII, Darby & Joan Clubs were set up by the Women’s Volunteer Service where people could just get together and hang out for tea and a game of cards, and even Oscar Hammerstein mentioned Darby and Joan – who used to be Jack and Jill, “The Folks Who Lived on the Hill.” In poetry, stories, and songs, Darby and Joan were a comfortable, settled, worn idea – so it’s a bit ironic to me that today’s proverb stems from the same — only rather uncomfortably.
It was 1827 when a Victorian era couplet about this proverbial couple first made its way to American, with no author or reference:
“Man works from sun to sun
But woman’s work is never done.”
Poor Joan. We know nothing about her except a.) she represented marriage, and b.) being a married woman represented endless work. Great. Marvelous. Sign me up.
unequal division
“unpaid domestic labor”
such fancy wording
to define being the glue