A Woman’s World in 1960

Offbeat is a website with slide shows, surrounded by ads. Sometimes they are clever art, sometimes historical facts, sometimes the inevitable cat pictures. In order to grab attention, they often have eye-catching titles, like “30 Terrifying Mythical Monsters that People have actually Believed in” or “19 Historical Coincidences that sound too Bizarre to be True—but are.”

Recently, thanks to Facebook, I encountered a quiz about what women could and could not do in 1960. Here’s a partial list:

·      A woman could not cohabitate with her boyfriend.

·      A woman could not serve on a jury.

·      A woman could not have a credit card in her own name. The account had to be in
her husband’s name.

·      A woman could not become an astronaut.

·      A woman could not attend Princeton or Yale as an undergraduate.

·      A woman could not run in the Boston Marathon.

·      A woman could not charge her husband with rape.

·      In some states, a woman did not have the right to use contraceptives with her husband.

·      A woman could be denied paid maternity leave.

·      A woman could not sue her workplace for sexual harassment.

·      A woman could be fired when she got pregnant.

·      AND, a woman could be denied a job—for being a woman.

For those women who don’t remember 1960, ask your grandmothers about that year. This is how life was for them. It was only 55 years ago. Thank them for helping to bring about the changes that keep women from living under these same conditions today.