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Feminists always talk about how horrible it was for women in the past. Now I am talking say 40s, 50s, 60s or so. I know there is a history forum but I would like to hear some thoughts from women who have first-hand experience. Was it really as bad as feminists say it was for women? Would you say it was Afghanistan/Saudi Arabia bad?
If Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia are the bar that you have set, that's pretty low.
As recently as the 1970s, women could not get a major credit card in their own names.
Similarly, during the time period you reference, a mortgage for a single woman was non existent.
I live in a house where the first owner's wife and grown daughters could not vote when their home was built. Nor could their grandmother who lives here, or the families housekeeper.
Women still do not have control of their own bodies in many states.
Women couldn't work and couldn't control their financial lives.
No birth control available and had to produce possibly unwanted children.
Men had the legal right to rape their wives.
Women were expected to be seen and not heard.
Women are still seen as biologically inferior to men.
Women didn't have the right to vote.
The male dominated medical field didn't believe menstrual cramps were real and didn't understand most "female" problems. They thought women were crazy when they complained.
It was acceptable for a man to keep his woman in line by beating her.
The history of women and rape is appalling. Google Recy Taylor.
Women couldn't have their own bank accounts or buy real estate without a man.
Need more?
Women also needed their husband's permission to get an abortion.
The women I know who have great careers love their lives! Some have kids, others don't, but they would have been much more unhappy, if they hadn't been "allowed" to work or pursue a career field. They've all made significant contributions to their fields.
Well, we all cherry pick the evidence that supports our POV, dont' we?
I'm not advocating that we go back to women being restricted to certain jobs/roles. But there's little acknowledgement today that feminism has come at a cost to women and society at large.
Just me, but I don't see where most careers are all that fulfilling, anyway. Most of us are just cogs in a wheel (including well paid professionals).
Dont even get me going. I was the only woman in my police academy class, in NM, in 1973. You wouldn't believe what I put up with. Back then, the harassment and such I got as the 2nd woman police officer on our force - phew. But.... in those days, we weren't wimps and didn't go crying to personnel. We took care of things ourselves. I recall, one officer who kept harassing me with obscene comments. Finally, after about a year of that, I grabbed him by his throat one day, lifted him up, slammed him up against the wall a few times, yelling "stop bothering me!" The other officers stood nearby, laughing their butts off. That officer got the message, and from that day forth, we became friends.
in the mid '80s, a friend was up for a partnership in her firm. The senior partner vetoed her partnership and gave her a poem about women and babies. I was outraged she didn't sue, but she didn't want to be known in the industry as a troublemaker. Sigh.
Women have always worked if they wished. Few wished it, however.
Birth control has been available for over two thousand years.
Women had bank accounts, real estate, and securities. They have owned businesses of their own for centuries.
Women have voted for over a hundred years in all elections and from colonial days in some elections.
This is the goofiest of the bunch.
Women could work but has limited career choices!
For instance, my mother wanted to be a minister but women could not do that. Period (This was the middle to late 50s). She married a minister instead but they were not compatible (to say the least) and divorced. By that time, 1980s she could go to seminary and did become a minister.
But as a young woman that door was closed to.her because of she was a woman.
.
Dont even get me going. I was the only woman in my police academy class, in NM, in 1973. You wouldn't believe what I put up with. Back then, the harassment and such I got as the 2nd woman police officer on our force - phew. But.... in those days, we weren't wimps and didn't go crying to personnel. We took care of things ourselves. I recall, one officer who kept harassing me with obscene comments. Finally, after about a year of that, I grabbed him by his throat one day, lifted him up, slammed him up against the wall a few times, yelling "stop bothering me!" The other officers stood nearby, laughing their butts off. That officer got the message, and from that day forth, we became friends.
1973 was not so long ago! As if I have to tell you. But we can take the strides women have made in stride and take for granted and get lulled into feeling that the improvements were always in place. They were not!
Another thing that was not so long ago: 1972 Title IX gave women equal rights to participate in sports and not be discriminated due to their gender. This website says it better.
“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
The law applies to educational institutions that receive any federal funds and prohibits discrimination in all educational programs and activities, not just athletics. Athletic programs are considered educational programs and activities. Title IX gives women athletes the right to equal opportunity in sports in educational institutions that receive federal funds, from elementary schools to colleges and universities. While there are few private elementary, middle school or high schools that receive federal funds, almost all colleges and universities, private and public, receive such funding.
Guess what happened in 1978? The beginning of women's professional basketball league.
The Women's Professional Basketball League (abbreviated WBL) was a professional women's basketball league in the United States. The league played three seasons from the fall of 1978 to the spring of 1981. The league was the first professional women's basketball league in the United States.[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wome...ketball_League
Well, we all cherry pick the evidence that supports our POV, dont' we?
I'm not advocating that we go back to women being restricted to certain jobs/roles. But there's little acknowledgement today that feminism has come at a cost to women and society at large.
Just me, but I don't see where most careers are all that fulfilling, anyway. Most of us are just cogs in a wheel (including well paid professionals).
Feminism didn't cause the cost. It was the unwillingness of people to accept change and/or the change upsetting people's personal beliefs. I cannot see how staying at the status quo would have helped woman escape cost of what the alternative life would have been.
The cost was, in part, how life was set in the first place. Allowing women access to what men had (freedom and power) may look like it cost women but the causation was the whole picture, the injustice set in place had to crack due to the bad set up. Of course some men had problems! Everything was slanted in their direction!
As far as not feeling like a cog in a wheel... that is up to each individual to keep from happening for themselves. Life can drag us down but we have to find ways to find the good life has in store for us. Even if it is small- smelling the flowers so to speak.
And be glad there is not just one way to live life.
Feminists always talk about how horrible it was for women in the past. Now I am talking say 40s, 50s, 60s or so. I know there is a history forum but I would like to hear some thoughts from women who have first-hand experience. Was it really as bad as feminists say it was for women? Would you say it was Afghanistan/Saudi Arabia bad?
When I entered the work force in the mid-70s with a high school job, women still received less pay than men for the same work in a number of jobs and professions in most states.
Arizona, the Fall of 1980: my girlfriend wanted to surprise me by getting us a room at the motel. They refused her on the grounds she was a single woman.
After the last of us children left the house, my mother wanted to get her GED (she had a seventh-grade education). My step-father was very much against it. He finally relented after my mother agreed to continue to cook all the meals and keep the house clean and the yard straight. She was dead tired, but she did get her GED. My step-father never did compliment her on her achievement.
My older sister wanted to go to nursing school once the daughter and son reached their middle teens. Her husband was against it. He finally agreed when my sister promised to continue to cook all the meals and keep the house clean (while he cheated on her). When she graduated and got a well-paying nursing job, he liked spending the money.
Oh, and he continued to cheat on my sister, but that is not important.
When my wife wanted to get her masters degree in education, I told her she had two jobs: her daytime teaching job and her masters program at night. I would take care of the cooking and housework (we shared up to that point). If her family and friends called for favors, she was to tell them no. That was my stipulation. She was dead tired, but she got her Masters Degree. I was so proud of her and took her out to her favourite restaurant. And bought her a brand new vehicle with our money.
Ah, the good old days...
No. No one wants to be content. We all want bigger, better, more, what-everyone-else-has whether we deserve it or not. When you look at all the successful women who busted their butts to get where they are and you tell them it's not possible or they had an unfair advantage.... Just go sit down. No one has time for that.
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