For International Women's Day

[MisterCairo]

http://sinavil.blogspot.com/2009/09/oh-so-that-explains-difference-in-our.html

I was inspired to look up a poster I've seen using real children, but this vintage-style image is the one that comes up on any searches I do.

 

[Miss Golightly]

Following on from International Womens Day here is an article from the Irish Times about Ten Things an Irish Woman Couldn't Do in 1970:

http://www.irishtimes.com/indepth/sisters/changes-from-1970s.html

 

[MisterCairo]

Amazing! Many of us tend to think that equality has been around (officially at least) for ages, yet as recently as the 1980s and 1990s there were still restrictions like that in an advanced society!

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Equal Pay Act was passed in the United States in 1963, but women still earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. The Equal Rights Amendment was introduced to Congress in 1923, and still hasn't been passed. Too early to be celebrating, if you ask me.

 

[MisterCairo]

The Equal Pay Act was passed in the United States in 1963, but women still earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. The Equal Rights Amendment was introduced to Congress in 1923, and still hasn't been passed. Too early to be celebrating, if you ask me.

Precisely. At 44 years old, I was a teen in the 80s, the first generation in Canada to grow up with at least "the law" on side (our human rights legislation did in fact pass in the 1970s, and our constitution was amended with a written Charter of Rights in 1985), so again, in theory and in law, things are "right".

The reality of course is still trying to catch up. Maternity and parental leave rights didn't come into play until 2002 for example. But not being able to BUY A PINT? Wow.....

 

[LizzieMaine]

Fortunately we never had such a law in the US, except for that brief interval where no one was allowed to buy a pint.

Another interesting fact is that millions of women in the United States are not covered by any family or medical leave regulations. The current law only applies to those working for companies with more than fifty employees. The vast majority of small-town American women are not covered by this law. If you work in Corporate America, goody for you, but if you're a waitress or a saleswoman in a small store, or an employee in a small office, tough luck.