Stella's decision

I know that controversy surrounds the "changed ending" of the play, but that doesn't concern me so much as my confusion over exactly what the expectations for women were at the time. Weren't women encouraged to stay in abusive relationships during this period?

I keep coming across literature suggesting that the Breen Office and the Hays Code and the PCA worked to promote "family values" by presenting "whole families" to the public, censoring films that would involve wives leaving abusive marriages by seeking divorces, committing adultery, etc.

If they did leave, it was usually for an alternative love interest, by which the "abusive husband" was contrasted with a "gentle, kind man," at least with the "prospect of a whole family." Stanley might have been categorized as a "bad egg," but the film seems to go out of its way to paint him sympathetically while also making it clear that Stella loves him. Wouldn't the play's original ending have been more in accordance of what was expected of women, at the time, who were encouraged to "stand by their men"? Or would Stanley's actions have been deemed too inexcusable even for a conservative audience who would have been left indignant at the idea of the husband getting away with raping his sister-in-law?