General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Who remembers life for women before RBG? [View all]llmart
(15,536 posts)Many of the ones already mentioned affected me. When I married my husband was a college student and I was a full time executive secretary. I carried the health insurance for both of us and paid all the bills including his tuition. However, I couldn't get a credit card in my name. The apartment we rented had to be in his name. When I got pregnant I was told that I would have to quit before I started "showing". I needed the money and the health insurance and fortunately for me I had a terrific male boss. When I told him I couldn't lose my job he said, "Well, we won't tell the big shots in the front office and by the time they realize you're pregnant we'll have already broken the rules." So I kept it a secret as long as I could and he was right. I was able to work up until one month before I gave birth. However, I was not allowed to come back. Meantime, my husband got his notice from the military to report to basic training when my child was only 8 weeks old. I had to scramble to find a new job and the hiring agency told me in my interview, "Do not tell anyone that you have a baby or they won't hire you." Now, I'm one of those who has a real problem with lying, but I was desperate so I was willing to not tell that little secret. The guy interviewing me came right out and asked me if I had any children and I fessed up that I had a baby. I also went on to tell him that I never missed work at any of my jobs which was true and fortunately he offered me the job.
I always worked with mostly men in my younger days and the harassment was pretty standard fare, everything from comments on my figure, clothing, weight, you name it. Nothing was off limits. When I got married I worked in a department of thirteen men and me. For awhile after I got married one guy would greet me every day with "Smile if you got some last night."
As I said, I have a gazillion stories, all of which I've told my two children many times so that they know what it was like for women back in the 60's.