| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/12/2008 6:17:44 AM | "Both men and women in the 1950’s had roles to fill; expected roles that were not negotiable in normal society. Roles, by the way, that still exist for men but are quite optional for the women today. Men are still quite expected to fill that very same role as ever, at any cost, and they’re viewed every bit as strange now as they were back then for not filling that role."
So true. | |
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| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/12/2008 10:20:19 AM | Well men were better off for sure, they got more respect, their ladies actually looked after their kidsd. bring back old fashioned values for suer. put women in their place
the zipps | |
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| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/12/2008 10:47:59 AM | Hmm....
All these posts about men disrespecting women, women being exploited, women bein taken advantage of.... etc.
Who do you think allowed these things? THE WOMEN.
My mother God bless her, always taught us that a man will rise to whatever the standard the woman sets......
Sadly from what I can see, this new generation of women has set the standard so low that they can't get passed what has been created and allowed and now all they can do is reap what they sowed.
Sorry jmo, jj
Sighhhhhh | |
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| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/12/2008 10:50:54 AM | "put women in their place"...
Zipp; And that place would be enjoying the same EQUAL rights & respect alongside Men!!
JJ: I agree! You reap what you sow and your Mom was very wise to say it!
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| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/12/2008 10:57:18 AM | "Zipp; And that place would be enjoying the same EQUAL rights & respect alongside Men!!"
Women have more rights than men these days, especially when it comes to the judicial system.
You still get paid less. But that's because on ave, women take more days off of work than men, less reliable on average do to "women issues" as well as the potential of maternity leave...
I'm sure even women CEO's who see the big picture & worry about the bottom line see this...
Women have more rights & choices these days. But I think both men & women have harder lives these days. Especially men. We get attacked from all angles these days, and have a lot more stress to deal with than men of the 50's. Women have more stress too mind you.
My dad was a 20-something in the 50's, he's always telling me he had it way better than me, especially in the women & marriage department, as well as the availability of jobs. A lot less stress back in those days. | |
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| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/12/2008 11:34:23 AM | | I think Family & Moral Values were certainly better because the times were simplier and not so complex & hurried as today. | |
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| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/12/2008 11:37:32 AM | Sorry I don't have time to read through all of the posts, so if I repeat someone else's, so sorry.
I believe in terms of respect, as one poster said, yes, women were better 50 years ago. You will notice vestiges of this as you travel throughout Europe, especially traditional Spain and Eastern Europe, and South America; I cannot speak for Africa or Asia. Women were treated with deference. No, not treated like princesses, but like women deserving respect because she is a woman. Men received similar respect.
Many of the things that people address here seem to be symptomatic of a civilisation that no longer values civility; we reward the brutish, brash, unsophisticated and the vulgare. The badly mannered people, like the sociopaths, write the rules of the game now, yet this will change.
Manana,
Joey | |
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| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/12/2008 11:38:03 AM | | I still believe the family unit was more stable over 50 years ago as it is today for a majority of families across America. There are always those exceptions; however, look at where we are today. Over half of marriages end in divorce today, because 50 years ago it was considered shameful, failure, and embarrassing. Granted that the family 50 years ago was not perfect, but many stuck with it good and bad. It's called sacrifice. And yes, there are things that made women better off 50 years ago, yet, today there are things that have made women much better than their counterparts, such as in many choices. However, I sometimes wonder when you have more freedom and too many choices (for both men and women) that it can set up new problems when it comes to priortizing on what is more important (e.g., family vs. career). Today, everyone wants it all before they hit 40. But does having it all (family, kids, career, money) guarantee a wonderful quality of life? I wonder if that might be the true illusion. | |
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| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/12/2008 11:50:13 AM | | OP. In the past, respect were granted based on gender, social status, and/or social accepted gender roles. Today, respect has to be earned. consider that in contect of your question. | |
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| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/12/2008 11:53:42 AM |
Women have more rights than men these days, especially when it comes to the judicial system.
There is only one unprotected class in todays society namely white males below age 45. | |
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| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/12/2008 11:57:54 AM |
OP. In the past, respect were granted based on gender, social status, and/or social accepted gender roles. Today, respect has to be earned. consider that in contect of your question.
Good Point Happy, perhaps that is the problem. Too many people thinking that they "deserve" some level of respect vs. actually earning anything other than basic human decency....... | |
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| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/12/2008 4:42:16 PM | : I think to a large degree ~ the biggest losers in the last 50 years has been the Children. And it's these very children thats asking this question.
Lets face it ~ the one on one love offered in abundance ~ is not coming through like it use too.
Seriously?
Many of us on this thread were born within the past 50 years. I myself do not feel as though I lost because of the era in which I was reared. Most of the hardships I faced as a child were not specific to the 1970s and 1980s. Born a hundred years earlier, I could have just as easily had an intoxicated mother and an absent father.
Message: It's kind of hard to miss something that you never had ~ you know , no different ~ as far as the circumstance of being born ~ you could have been born a turtle ~ and the last 1000 years would mean little to you as well ~ Seriously ~dar | |
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vro312
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Joined: 11/22/2007
Msg: 164 | |
| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/12/2008 5:26:17 PM | ^^^^^
I'll agree to disagree with you on this.
All I'm saying is that I am fairly well informed about the social/familial customs of English speaking cultures over the past 400 years at least, and my research indicates that "love offered in abundance" was never an across-the-board deal. Some children had it and some didn't . . . just like today.
But you're right--you do have first-hand experience that I do not have. | |
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| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/12/2008 5:48:32 PM | this is what I mean in their place:
Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready, on time for his return. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospect of a good meal (especially his favorite dish) is part of the warm welcome needed.
2 Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you’ll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.
3 Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.
4 Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives.
5 Gather up schoolbooks, toys, paper, etc. and then run a dustcloth over the tables.
6 Over the cooler months of the year, you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too. After all, catering to his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.
7 Prepare the children. Take a few minutes to wash the children’s hands and faces (if they are small), comb their hair and, if necessary, change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part. Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet.
8 Be happy to see him.
9 Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please him.
10 Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first-remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours.
11 Make the evening ‘his’. Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to dinner, or other places of entertainment without you. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his very real need to be at home and relax.
12 Your goal: Try to make sure your home is a place of peace, order, and tranquility where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit.
13 Don’t greet him with complaints and problems.
14 Don’t complain if he’s late coming home for dinner or even if he stays out all night. Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through that day.
15 Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or have him lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink for him.
16 Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice.
17 Don’t ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or integrity. Remember, he is master of the house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him.
18 A good wife always knows her place.
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| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/13/2008 7:16:15 AM | : ^^^^^
I'll agree to disagree with you on this.
All I'm saying is that I am fairly well informed about the social/familial customs of English speaking cultures over the past 400 years at least, and my research indicates that "love offered in abundance" was never an across-the-board deal. Some children had it and some didn't . . . just like today.
Message: It's good that we can agree to disagree .
What has happen in the last 50 years stands on it's own.
As soliders returned home from a long hard fought war ~ and allow me to elaborate here ~ It was a WAR ! ~ not like what we've seen since ~ Women had done without men for 5 or 6 years. Women had taken the places of men in the fields and factorys across the land. ~ The country had endured shortages at many levels, manpower, rubber, iron, fuel, sugar, just to name a few. ~
That was this back drop in America as she took her place as leaders of the free world and soliders came home war torn and weary, looking to hookup and have a family.
It was the early years ~ of the 50 year period we reflect on. ~ Women no longer had to work outside the home. A welcome change ~ back to normal!
It's never been easy for women ~ but there was a window of time ~ home life was sweet ~ as the older of three sons ~ we were feed, watered and put out to play in the morning ~ and thats what we did ~ played! in the trees, the creek, the dirt, the barn, the corn crib, the fields, ~ the neighbors ` we played out little ases off ~ no fears! we were watched over by all the growup eyes ~ we were ratted out ~ if we were naughty ~ or getting in to something we shouldn't. ~ People took the responsibility as adults without hesitation ~ I've not seen that in a while. ` You'd be delivered to you parents by a a ear hold, ~ Saying, Mrs Winkler, is this boy yours?"
Childern helped with the work load ~ and made to feel an important part of the family ~ Womens life thou hard ~ they had coroperation ~ not found today. There was a bonding, a sharing ~ that happened ~ I see lost forever as women entered the workforce again, as she retired her scrub board for a automatic wash ~ and dryer ~ the chothes line now abandoned ~ as Mom head off to work. ~
Now it's ready mixed cornbread, and Cakes in a box ~ WOW! Tv dinners ~ what a novel idea.
I remember seeing my first ballpoint pen ~ WoW! ~ how do you fill it? ~ how does the ink come out? ~ Neat! ~ Plastic was bad back then ~ they broke like egg shells ~ lol
Often as not, in the early years ~ we lived in extented familys ~ I had 3 sets of Grand parents ~ and one Great, Great, Great grandmother. ~ ~ My grandfather was my true father figure ~ as my father slowly grew into the position. ~
This was a little piece of Amercania ~ not all enjoyed ~ but many did. ~dar | |
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| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/13/2008 8:07:29 AM |
I think Family & Moral Values were certainly better because the times were simplier and not so complex & hurried as today.
that's right. There was more of an understanding that if women didn't do what their husbands told them, they'd be beaten... and because there were fewer jobs for women and everyone was poor, they couldn't just walk out on their families.
They could take out a big insurance policy on themselves and jump off a bridge or walk out into traffic though.
In a state like California, you could get your spouse locked up in a mental hospital if you could persuade some doctor to do a deposition for you.
Yes... "family values"... | |
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| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/13/2008 11:11:54 AM | Hey Zippy.....1957 called and it wants its "rules" back.
Seriously...how are those ideas workin' out for ya? Cuz I have a write to question ya, after all...I'm not the "little woman" and I think you should be heavily thumped....I'll make sure you have your tea glass filled and waitin' for ya....at the CURB ! | |
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| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/13/2008 11:20:43 AM | | honestly, men who just disrespect and disreguard women for no reason, its bad, but i dunno what to really say about that act, however these days alot of women degrade themselves; music videos, kissing girls for attention, shakin there half naked body for money, they do it to themselves. if ur not gonna respect urself, how can u expect to recieve it? | |
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| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/13/2008 11:29:29 AM | If a person would rather have a well defined "roll" rather than the freedom to do what they want, maybe they'd be happier in medieval europe, where your place was on the farm and on your wedding night, you got to have sex with the Lord of your land *if he wanted you* and thereafter with your husband... and if you strayed off the manor you could be hung for "poaching" because you must have been hunting on the land of a Lord that wasn't yours.
About ninety percent of people lived like that.
They knew THEIR PLACE.... believe me!!!
or maybe flipping bread cakes for the pyramid workers in Ancient Egypt?
or a leper like in the movie "Ben Hur"...
I can't believe how dumb people are, religious fanatics notwithstanding....head up the wrong end... don't know enough to come in out of the rain *ugh*
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| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/13/2008 11:36:00 AM | Dancecard you are remembering things through a childs eyes and although most people yearn for the "good old days", the issue is, were the "good old days" really all that good for half the population? I can remember all the happy times I had when I was a kid and tell myself that it was all sunshine and lolypops when I grew up but that doesnt make it true.
Women no longer had to work outside the home. A welcome change ~ back to normal!
Did it ever occur to you that maybe that change wasnt all that welcome for those going back to what little they were allowed?
I really believe that many men will never understand this because as a male there were very few restrictions put on what you were allowed to aspire to based on the fact that you didnt have the right genitalia . Men were rarely told they couldnt do something just because they were men, they are encouraged to be strong and fight for what is their right as men! Yet when women ask for the same thing we are wrong in that. | |
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| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/13/2008 11:54:50 AM | But regardless...roles of women have changed in the last 50 years. Some say for good, some say for bad...but I bet the eyes of a child never were allowed an opinion at all. We only have the memories of what we remember Mamma doin' and what Daddy was doin'. I remember a time when my mother didn't work, but when me and my sisters started school....she went to work and continues to work till this day.
Now I know, it's all in the compromise. If families want it all....then both parents have to work. I think I'd rather do without a little and be able to stay at home and raise my kids, but I never got the option either. It wasn't my choice. My husband never gave me a choice. He wanted me workin' professionally AND DOMESTICALLY. I'm not unlike any of my womenfolk peers. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
It was an era of change. | |
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| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/13/2008 2:24:46 PM | It's Tea cup.
good point, but you really shouldn't be telling me your problemsnny good point, but you really shouldn't be telling me your problemsnny good point, but you really shouldn't be telling me your problems | |
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| Were women better off 50 years ago?
Posted: 3/13/2008 2:47:23 PM | The feminist writings of previous times noted that not only was life more difficult for women, being constrained by social attitudes; it was also a life that put more pressure on men. Imagine the pressure of being the sole breadwinner of your family, there wasn't the level of welfare or healthcare support that we now enjoy. I think men, are better off today than they were before.
No-one has still addressed though, the issue of OP having social carnage happen before his eyes in his cab on a regular basis. In the 1950s, his duty would have been to uphold the welfare of the "weaker sex" . Today any effort to intervene on the part of his female passengers would be seen as "interferring". I feel very much for the change men feel in their challenged roles, what it means to be a "man" is so much less defined than it used to be, but overall it must be a great deal less stressful.
Betty Friedan wrote the "Feminine Mystique" a book along with others that created a wave of awareness across America. She founded the National Organisationg for Women (NOW). I find some of her quotes quite thought provoking:
Source: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/quotes/a/betty_friedan.htm
The problem that has no name — which is simply the fact that American women are kept from growing to their full human capacities — is taking a far greater toll on the physical and mental health of our country than any known disease.
• Each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffered Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night — she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question — "Is this all?"
Men weren't really the enemy -- they were fellow victims suffering from an outmoded masculine mystique that made them feel unnecessarily inadequate when there were no bears to kill.
• Strange new problems are being reported in the growing generations of children whose mothers were always there, driving them around, helping them with their homework - an inability to endure pain or discipline or pursue any self-sustained goal of any sort, a devastating boredom with life. | |
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