Results: The "Good Old Days" -- When Men Were Men And Women Were Not Allowed To Have A Bank Account
Published on 10/12/2020
QUESTIONS
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Comments
1.
1.
The 60s and 70s may have been the "good old days" for some. For most women, it was anything but "good". As hard as it may be to believe, women did not have the right to even vote until 1920. Were you aware of these things that women were not able to do until the 60s or 70s?
Women were not able to open a bank account, without their husband or a male relative's permission until the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974.
20%
481 votes
Even if they had gone through all the years of school and passed every test, women lawyers could still be denied the right to plead a client's case until 1971.
12%
296 votes
If they were working, women most often lost their job when they became pregnant until the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978.
32%
757 votes
Knew all of these
14%
339 votes
None
48%
1152 votes
Women were denied the right to an Ivy League education -- Yale and Princeton didn't accept female students until 1969. Harvard didn't admit women until 1977
16%
384 votes
2.
2.
Women have been fighting to be treated equally for years, and it is quite sad to realize it took so long for women to get the right to do any of these things. Which of these are you shocked to learn it took so long for women to be able to do?
The legendary Boston marathon was an all-male event until 1972.
23%
560 votes
Despite all of the hard work women have put into the military for decades, they weren't allowed on the front lines until very recently in 2013.
34%
815 votes
NASA denied women until Sally Ride broke the mold in 1978.
33%
790 votes
The first time a court recognized office sexual harassment as grounds for any legal action was in 1977
24%
578 votes
None
46%
1099 votes
3.
3.
And, if you can believe this, spousal rape wasn't criminalized in all 50 states until 1993. So, before that year, if a woman did not want to have sex, her spouse could force her (rape) and this was actually not a criminal act. The penalties for spousal rape were not even as serious as the penalties for stranger rape, or date rape, giving the impression that rape within a marriage was not as "serious" as rape outside of marriage. And South Carolina remains the only US state with a law requiring excessive force/violence (the force or violence used or threatened must be of a "high and aggravated nature) in the case of marital rape. Is that hard to believe?
Yes
54%
1301 votes
No
28%
675 votes
Undecided
17%
413 votes
4.
4.
Issues like reproductive freedom and a woman's right to decide when and whether to have children were only just beginning to be openly discussed in the 1960s. In 1957, the FDA approved of the birth control pill but only for "severe menstrual distress." In 1960, the pill was approved for use as a contraceptive. Even so, the pill was illegal in some states and could be prescribed only to married women for purposes of family planning, and not all pharmacies stocked it. Some of those opposed said oral contraceptives were "immoral, promoted prostitution and were tantamount to abortion." It wasn't until several years later that birth control was approved for use by all women, regardless of marital status. In short, birth control meant a woman could complete her education, enter the work force and plan her own life. Is it hard to believe that women have been denied the right to their own reproductive freedom for so long?
Very hard to believe
34%
803 votes
Not hard to believe at all -- who makes the laws?
37%
875 votes
Still feel it was better in the old days
9%
216 votes
Undecided
21%
495 votes
COMMENTS