Ok, so some things in the golden era were not too cool...

[LizzieMaine]

Even if you got to McDonald's, a big mac meal is going to cost you almost $8.

Doug

On the occasions I go to McDonalds I get one of those McDouble things and a small french fry -- $2.21 with tax. As much meat as a Big Mac and a lot cheaper.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

This is what you get for $4.99 (including tax $5.37) at the eatery near me. For me it's enough for two meals.

 

[Noirblack]

Noirblack - The segment with the man looking to feed his family was extremely short and didn't go into too much detail about what he was going to do food-wise for the rest of the day/week - the emphasis of the show was on people thinking about where their food comes from and what they are putting into their bodies which I think is something everyone should be doing. It refreshed my resolve to care more about eating organically and healthily so the show was of benefit to me anyway.

I don't live in the US (but have had the pleasure of several stays there!) and can only go on what I see on TV or read in the papers/magazines so I can't say that I know exactly what is going on with food prices or food in schools in the US and I'm probably not getting the full picture - however I recall the resistance Jamie Oliver received from parents and schools in the US when he tried to introduce healthier meals at lunchtime (the same happened when he tried the same in the UK - parents sneaking in chips to their kids at lunchtime) - parents were acting like he was giving their kids broken glass laced with Belladonna.....

I'm not an Oprah watcher, so I'll take your word for it that the segment was light on details. It's kind of ironic that Oprah did a segment on this topic considering her own considerable girth

I think Jamie Oliver is great and I saw some of the programs in US schools he did and the resistance he ran into. What we are feeding kids is just tragic. I don't blame children for being overweight. Parents have to do much better for their kids and they should be in the school boards demanding better nutrition. And at home they have to cook properly and learn how to tell their kids "no" when they ask for snacks. When I was a kid we never had chips, chocolate bars, and soda in the house. It just wasn't on the grocery list when my mother shopped. The only treats we had were cookies and ice cream and those were only for dessert (or when you could sneak some).

 

[Atomic Age]

On the occasions I go to McDonalds I get one of those McDouble things and a small french fry -- $2.21 with tax. As much meat as a Big Mac and a lot cheaper.

Yeah you can surely get things that are cheaper, and you can also get things that are better for you.

Doug

 

[nihil]

I'm away form two days and suddenly the tread have changed into a diet debate. I'm all in for a diet debate, and would like to contribute to it as well, but it's way off topic. Perhaps a bartender can split the diet debate into it's own discussion?

 

[Stormy]

If you are white, you can not walk through the south side at night.

I am 100% certain that one need not be white to be in danger walking through Chicago's south side at night.

 

[Stormy]

and women (if they chose to) could stay home and raise a family.

Oh really? Hmm ... Well, I heard that women did not have the "if they chose to" option. Nobody was big on hiring women, thus they generally had no choice except to stay home. Those who did seek careers were treated as though they were creatures from another planet. You must have fallen asleep alot during history classes jack?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Actually, the thirties were something of a boom time for women "in business." They might not make it to the top of the company, -- though there were examples of women who did -- but there were plenty of women working in creative fields such as journalism, advertising, radio, and film -- and not just as secretaries. Some of the highest-paid scriptwriters in network broadcasting, for example, people like Irna Phillips, Anne Ashenhurst Hummert, Jean Holloway, and Gertrude Berg, were female, and there were many women working in similar jobs at smaller, local stations around the country. Manufacturing was full of women even before "Rosie the Riveter" came along, and some women rose to influential positions in labor unions. By 1940 around thirty percent of the American workforce was female.

(I didn't sleep in history class.)

 

[Atomic Age]

Oh really? Hmm ... Well, I heard that women did not have the "if they chose to" option. Nobody was big on hiring women, thus they generally had no choice except to stay home. Those who did seek careers were treated as though they were creatures from another planet. You must have fallen asleep alot during history classes jack?

At the start of world war 2 women in the United States made up 25% of the work force, so clearly SOME women were choosing to work. Granted they were mostly school teachers and secretaries, but they were working outside of the home. That rate rose to 36% by the end of the war. And while it dropped a little in the 50's, it was not as much as some would have you believe. 34% of women from 25 to 34 in the 1950's worked, and 43% of women 16 to 24 worked.

Doug

 

[Atomic Age]

Actually, the thirties were something of a boom time for women "in business." They might not make it to the top of the company, -- though there were examples of women who did -- but there were plenty of women working in creative fields such as journalism, advertising, radio, and film -- and not just as secretaries. Some of the highest-paid scriptwriters in network broadcasting, for example, people like Irna Phillips, Anne Ashenhurst Hummert, Jean Holloway, and Gertrude Berg, were female, and there were many women working in similar jobs at smaller, local stations around the country. Manufacturing was full of women even before "Rosie the Riveter" came along, and some women rose to influential positions in labor unions. By 1940 around thirty percent of the American workforce was female.

(I didn't sleep in history class.)

Gail Patrick Jackson who started out as an actress in the 30's, ended up as one of the most powerful executives in Television, producing the Perry Mason show.

Doug

 

[LizzieMaine]

Bertha Brainard was one of the most powerful executives -- never mind just women -- at NBC from the twenties to the forties. Judith Waller of WMAQ, Chicago was one of the most powerful executives -- again, never mind women -- in local broadcasting. Gertrude Berg was a major force in both media. The "new" industries of the Era were also the ones most receptive to influential roles for women.

 

[Atomic Age]

Yep very true creative fields were a place where women could move to the top. The head of the editorial department of MGM for 30 years was a women who's name I now can not remember. Then of course there is Edith Head who created her own empire in the film industry.

My mom worked at the telephone company in the 1950's, working on the change over from named exchanges to a 7 digit all numeral phone number, and there were far more women working there than men (in the office anyway). The company felt that women were better at keeping track of the technical information than men, and because at the time everything was hand written on file cards, they felt that women had better hand writing.

Doug

 

[LizzieMaine]

My mother was a Bell gal as well, but her job was more traditional -- all Bell System operators were women, because it was felt that they had more pleasant voices, and that they were faster and more efficient in working with the plugs and panels that made up the switchboards. She went to work for New England Telephone after a year of business school, didn't leave this job until the exchange went dial in 1964, and has regretted losing it ever since.

 

[sheeplady]

Many school districts up until the 1940s had written or unwritten policies that prevented women from working if they were married or had children. However, there is substantial evidence that many districts didn't enforce these policies and women effectively skirted around them in many cases. With the baby boom, these policies were dropped almost completely, because the need for teachers and nurses grew so much that even teachers with very young children were needed in the classroom, the same for nurses.

Women from working class backgrounds almost always worked, regardless of decade. Many worked as maids, servants, took in laundry, raised chickens, etc. Women who lived on farms worked outside in the fields or with the animals. These women are typically not included in calculations of the actual work force, depending upon how "official" their job was seen.

There are a lot of people who feel that gender segregation in the home didn't come into really full force in the United States until the 1950s. The returning of the men from the war meant that the government and corporations were quite invested in making sure that women left occupations that before the war were held mainly by men, in order to prevent a massive recession and civil unrest. (Women in traditionally female-held occupations were pretty much not targets because they were not taking away work from the returning men.) Housework, which before the war was split more evenly (although not 50/50), suddenly became the role of women; with the "good middle class wife" being the one that stayed at home and took care of the home life. And the corporations after the war were keen on selling every woman the image of stay-home domestication, which mainly "plugged in" or came in a box; but either way it cost $.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Little known today is Mary Texanna Loomis (1880-1960) who was one of the few women who were radio engineers in the 1920s. She also operated her own radio school, Loomis Radio College, in Washington DC. in the 1920s and '30s. In addition, she wrote and published her own text book, Radio Theory and Operating, This nearly 1,000 page tome went through at least five editions between 1925 and 1930 and was considered at the time to be one of the most comprehensive books on the subject. I have a copy of the 1930 5th edition.

Mary Texanna Loomis teaching a course at the Loomis Radio College. She also built much of the school's equipment herself!

 

[Atomic Age]

My mother was a Bell gal as well, but her job was more traditional -- all Bell System operators were women, because it was felt that they had more pleasant voices, and that they were faster and more efficient in working with the plugs and panels that made up the switchboards. She went to work for New England Telephone after a year of business school, didn't leave this job until the exchange went dial in 1964, and has regretted losing it ever since.

When they set up the Oak Ridge facility of the Manhattan Project, they hired girls who only had a high school education to operate the machinery that monitored the separation of uranium-235. When the scientists balked at the idea of these 19 to 24 year old girls operating the machines (the girls had no idea what the machines were doing, just how to run them) They decided to have a contest. The scientist ran the machines for a week, and then the girls. The girls far out performed the scientists in accuracy and volume of output.

 

[Blackjack]

I am 100% certain that one need not be white to be in danger walking through Chicago's south side at night.

No, your not in danger if your white walking there, your a dead man pal...

 

[LizzieMaine]

Women also assembled the majority of electronic goods manufactured in the Era -- all of the radio manufacturing companies had assembly lines that were overwhelmingly female. Women had a far defter touch than men with the soldering iron, and were better able to manipulate their hands in the cramped spaces on an electronic chassis

Assemblers at the Atwater Kent factory, Philadelphia, 1925.

 

[Blackjack]

Oh really? Hmm ... Well, I heard that women did not have the "if they chose to" option. Nobody was big on hiring women, thus they generally had no choice except to stay home. Those who did seek careers were treated as though they were creatures from another planet. You must have fallen asleep alot during history classes jack?

Well you heard wrong bub, my aunt worked for the Continental Bank in the loop from 1939 into the 70's and she ended up as bank manager for the loan dept. My minor was in history what was yours in "Jack" ***

 

[Atomic Age]

Women also assembled the majority of electronic goods manufactured in the Era -- all of the radio manufacturing companies had assembly lines that were overwhelmingly female. Women had a far defter touch than men with the soldering iron, and were better able to manipulate their hands in the cramped spaces on an electronic chassis

Assemblers at the Atwater Kent factory, Philadelphia, 1925.

Hey Lizzie the picture didn't show up.

Yeah I heard somewhere that it was estimated that something like 70% of our nuclear arsenal was assembled by women.

Doug