Can You Believe Women Couldn’t Do These Things in the 50’s and 60’s?
Sometimes we forget how far we've come, and I am so very thankful for that!
Littlethings.com has reminded me of some of the very ordinary, yet important, things that women were not allowed to do 50 or 60 years ago. Kind of unbelievable to look at this list, but here we go! #girlpower
- Open a bank account - until the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974
- Serve on a Jury - Mississippi became the last state, in 1968, to legalize women to serve on a jury
- Practice law - until 1971, women were still not allowed to defend a client in some states
- Take birth control pills - it was still illegal to practice this kind of birth control in some states in the 1960's
- Go on maternity leave - until the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, most women lost their job if they took leave after giving birth
- Breastfeed in public - although this is still somewhat of a hot button issue, Congress passed a bill in 1999 making it illegal to discriminate against women who do this is public
- Attend an Ivy League University - Harvard did not allow women to attend until 1977, and Yale and Princeton only starting admitting women in 1969
- Attend a military academy - women were forbidden to attend West Point Academy until 1976
- Run the Boston Marathon - women could not run in this venerable event until 1972
- Serve in combat - it wasn't until 2013 that women were legally allowed to serve their country on the front lines
- Become an astronaut - until Sally Ride became an astronaut in 1978, NASA did not allow women to fly or ride in spaceships